Word
Il prete apre la chiesa.
Meaning
The priest opens the church.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
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Questions & Answers about Il prete apre la chiesa.
Why is there an article before both nouns: il prete and la chiesa?
In Italian, singular count nouns usually take an article much more often than in English. So il prete and la chiesa are completely normal.
A useful contrast:
- Il prete apre la chiesa. = a specific priest opens a specific church
- Un prete apre una chiesa. = a priest opens a church
One common exception is with professions after essere:
- È prete. = He is a priest.
But in your sentence, prete is the subject of the verb, so il prete is natural.
Why is it il prete and not lo prete?
Because prete starts with pr-, and masculine singular nouns beginning with most consonants take il.
Use lo before certain special beginnings, such as:
- z: lo zio
- s + consonant: lo studente
- gn: lo gnomo
- ps: lo psicologo
- x, y: lo xilofono
Since prete starts with a normal consonant cluster for article purposes, the correct form is il prete.
Why is it la chiesa? Is chiesa feminine?