La fede dà forza.

to give

Breakdown of La fede dà forza.

• la forza: the strength
• la fede: the faith; belief

Questions & Answers about La fede dà forza.

Why is there a la at the beginning?

La is the feminine singular definite article, meaning the.

In Italian, abstract nouns are often used with the definite article more often than in English. So la fede means faith in a general sense, literally the faith.

That is why Italian says La fede dà forza, while English more naturally says just Faith gives strength.

Is fede feminine? It ends in -e, not -a.

Yes, fede is feminine: la fede.

In Italian, nouns ending in -e can be either masculine or feminine, so you usually have to learn their gender along with the article. Here, the article la tells you clearly that fede is feminine.

Other examples:

• la fede
• la notte
• il pane
• il fiore

So the ending alone does not always tell you the gender.

What form is dà?

Dà is the third-person singular present tense of dare, which means to give.

So:

• io do = I give
• tu dai = you give
• lui/lei dà = he/she gives

In La fede dà forza, the subject is la fede, which is singular, so the verb is dà.

Why does have an accent?