Questions & Answers about L'acqua è una risorsa preziosa.
Why is it l'acqua and not la acqua?
Because Italian usually shortens la to l' before a word that begins with a vowel. This is called elision.
- la + acqua → l'acqua
It works much like how spoken language avoids a pause between two vowel sounds. The apostrophe shows that a vowel has been dropped.
Other examples:
- l'idea = the idea
- l'amica = the female friend
Why is acqua feminine?
In Italian, every noun has a grammatical gender, usually masculine or feminine. Acqua is a feminine noun, so it takes feminine articles and adjectives.
Even though natural water has no biological gender, the noun itself is grammatically feminine.
Why do we use una before risorsa?