La crisi dura un mese.

In Italian, singular countable nouns are often used with a definite article when you are talking about a specific thing or a situation understood from context. La crisi means the crisis.

You can sometimes omit the article in other contexts, but here la crisi is the normal phrasing.

Yes, crisi is feminine, so it takes la.

This can be confusing because crisi ends in -i, which often looks plural to English speakers learning Italian. But crisi is one of those nouns of Greek origin that have the same form in singular and plural:

• singular: la crisi
• plural: le crisi

So the article helps you identify number and gender.

Dura is the third-person singular present tense of durare, meaning to last.

So:

• durare = to last
• dura = it lasts / lasts

In this sentence, the subject is la crisi, so dura means the crisis lasts.

Because dura is the verb, while durata is usually a noun or past participle/adjective in other contexts.

Here you need the present-tense verb:

• La crisi dura un mese. = The crisis lasts a month.

If you used durata here, it would not work as the main finite verb of the sentence.

Italian often expresses duration directly, without a preposition, just like English in phrases such as It lasts a month.

So:

• dura un mese = lasts a month
• dura due ore = lasts two hours

You do not say dura per un mese in the same neutral sense unless you specifically want a slightly different nuance. The simplest, most natural structure here is just verb + time expression.

Because mese is a masculine singular noun, and the normal indefinite article is un.

Italian uses uno only before certain sounds, such as:

• s + consonant: uno studente
• z: uno zio
• ps, gn, etc.

Since mese begins with a simple consonant sound, you say un mese.

Yes, mese is masculine.

• singular: un mese
• plural: due mesi, tre mesi

So if you wanted to change the sentence, you could say:

• La crisi dura due mesi.

The order is very straightforward:

• La crisi = subject
• dura = verb
• un mese = expression of duration

So it follows a normal subject + verb + complement pattern, much like English.

Yes, but the standard neutral version is La crisi dura un mese.

Italian can move things around for emphasis, but in ordinary usage this is the most natural order. For example, putting un mese earlier would sound marked or literary in many contexts.

Because with verbs like durare, a time phrase after the verb normally gives the length of time.

So:

• dura un mese = it lasts a month

If you wanted in a month as a future point in time, Italian would usually use a different structure, such as tra un mese or fra un mese.

It is pronounced roughly KREE-zee, with the stress on the first syllable:

• cri-si

A native-like IPA version is approximately /ˈkriːzi/ in careful pronunciation.

Yes. Durare is a very common verb used for the length of time of many things:

• Il film dura due ore. = The movie lasts two hours.
• La lezione dura un’ora. = The lesson lasts an hour.
• La batteria dura poco. = The battery doesn’t last long.

So this sentence is a useful model for talking about duration in general.