Il bambino calcia la porta.

The child kicks the door.

Breakdown of Il bambino calcia la porta.

• la porta: the door
• il bambino: the child (male)
• calciare: to kick

Questions & Answers about Il bambino calcia la porta.

Why are there two different words for the: il and la?

Italian definite articles change to match the gender and number of the noun.

• il is used with many singular masculine nouns
• la is used with many singular feminine nouns

So here:

• il bambino = the boy / the child
• la porta = the door

Unlike English, Italian articles usually have to agree with the noun they go with.

Why is bambino masculine and porta feminine? Are objects considered male or female?

This is a question of grammatical gender, not biological sex.

• bambino is grammatically masculine
• porta is grammatically feminine

For people, grammatical gender often matches real gender, but for things like porta, the gender is just part of the noun and must be learned.

A noun’s gender affects:

• the article: il / la
• adjectives
• sometimes pronouns

So la porta is feminine simply because porta is a feminine noun.

What form is calcia?