Questions & Answers about Il retro del foglio è bianco.
Why does the sentence start with Il?
Il is the masculine singular definite article, meaning the.
It is used here because retro is a masculine singular noun: il retro = the back / the reverse side.
So:
- il retro = the back side
- il foglio = the sheet of paper
English often uses the the same way, but in Italian you always need the article with nouns like this.
What exactly does retro mean here?
In this sentence, retro means the back, the reverse side, or the back side of something.
So il retro del foglio means the back of the sheet.
A useful distinction:
- retro = the reverse side of an object
- dietro = behind, at the back of something, as an adverb or preposition
For example:
- il retro della pagina = the back of the page
- dietro la porta = behind the door
So here retro is the correct word because we are talking about one side of the paper.
Why is it del foglio and not just di foglio?