La famiglia contrae un mutuo.

Contrae comes from the verb contrarre, which means to take out, to contract, or to enter into in formal contexts like loans or obligations.

It is an irregular verb. In the present tense:

• io contraggo
• tu contrai
• lui/lei contrae
• noi contraiamo
• voi contraete
• loro contraggono

So in La famiglia contrae un mutuo, contrae means takes out or contracts a mortgage/loan.

This is a fairly formal or financial verb. In everyday speech, learners may also hear simpler ways to express similar ideas, but contrarre un mutuo is very standard in banking and legal Italian.

In Italian, famiglia is grammatically singular, just like family in English when you think of it as one unit.

So:

• La famiglia contrae... = The family takes out...

The verb must agree with the grammatical subject, so it is singular:

• la famiglia contrae not
• la famiglia contraggono

Even though the family is made up of multiple people, Italian is treating it as one collective entity.

The sentence uses un mutuo, which means a mortgage or a loan.

So:

• La famiglia = the family
• contrae = takes out / contracts
• un mutuo = a mortgage

The article un is the masculine singular indefinite article, equivalent to a or an in English.

Mutuo usually refers to a loan, and very often specifically a mortgage in everyday modern Italian.

So depending on context, un mutuo may be translated as:

• a loan
• a mortgage
• a home loan

In many learning contexts, contrarre un mutuo is best understood as to take out a mortgage.

Italian uses:

• un before most masculine singular nouns
• uno before masculine singular nouns beginning with certain sounds, such as s + consonant, z, gn, ps, pn, x, and a few others

Since mutuo begins with m, it takes un:

• un mutuo

Compare:

• un libro
• un problema
• uno studente
• uno zaino

A few things may stand out to English speakers:

• contrae is pronounced roughly con-TRA-eh
• the ending -ae is not a diphthong like in English; it is pronounced as two vowel sounds together
• the stress falls on tra

So the word is approximately:

• con-TRA-e

The c in contrae is a hard k sound because it comes before o.

A native speaker is much more likely to say:

• La famiglia contrae un mutuo
• La famiglia accende un mutuo
• La famiglia stipula un mutuo

depending on register and context.

Fare un mutuo may be understood in casual speech, but it is less precise and less standard than the expressions above.

So for learners, contrarre un mutuo is a very useful collocation to remember.

Yes, it is a very good idea to learn contrarre un mutuo as a fixed financial expression, or collocation.

In many languages, certain nouns naturally go with certain verbs. Italian often says:

• contrarre un debito = to incur a debt
• contrarre un matrimonio = to enter into marriage (formal/literary)
• contrarre un mutuo = to take out a mortgage

So instead of translating word by word, it helps to memorize the whole chunk.

Italian normally does not use subject pronouns unless they are needed for emphasis, contrast, or clarity.

Because the subject La famiglia is already stated, there is no need to add a pronoun.

Italian is a pro-drop language, so subject pronouns are often omitted:

• La famiglia contrae un mutuo not
• La famiglia essa contrae un mutuo

Using a pronoun here would sound unnatural.

Yes, contrae is present tense.

It can mean:

• The family takes out a mortgage — a present event
• The family is taking out a mortgage — depending on context
• a general statement in a description, summary, or formal explanation

Italian present tense is often broader than English simple present. Context tells you whether it is a current action, a habitual action, or a general statement.

Yes, but La famiglia contrae un mutuo is the most neutral word order: subject + verb + object.

Italian can change word order for emphasis, for example:

• Un mutuo la famiglia contrae — unusual and strongly marked
• Contrae un mutuo la famiglia — possible in special contexts, but not the default

For learners, the original sentence is the safest and most natural pattern to follow.

Yes, famiglia is a feminine singular noun, and its article shows that:

• la famiglia

Many Italian nouns ending in -a are feminine, though there are exceptions.

Because it is feminine singular, it takes:

• la in the singular
• le in the plural: le famiglie

But the verb does not change for gender here; it changes for person and number. So the important agreement for the verb is that famiglia is singular, not that it is feminine.