È tardi; tuttavia, aspettiamo.

It is late; however, we wait.

Breakdown of È tardi; tuttavia, aspettiamo.

• essere: to be
• aspettare: to wait
• tardi: late
• tuttavia: however; nevertheless

Questions & Answers about È tardi; tuttavia, aspettiamo.

Why is È written with an accent?

Because è is the verb essere in the he/she/it is form, and in Italian it is written with a grave accent: è.

This matters because e without an accent means and.

So:

• è = is
• e = and

That is a very common distinction in written Italian.

Why is it tardi and not tardo or tarda?

In È tardi, tardi means late, and this is a fixed, very common Italian expression meaning It’s late.

Here, tardi is being used adverbially, not as a regular adjective agreeing with a noun. That is why it does not change to match gender or number.

Compare:

• È tardi = It’s late
• Arrivo tardi = I arrive late / I’m arriving late

So even though English uses late in a similar way, Italian often uses tardi unchanged in these time expressions.

What does tuttavia mean exactly?