La casa è grande.

to be

Breakdown of La casa è grande.

• grande: big
• la casa: the house

Questions & Answers about La casa è grande.

Why is la used before casa?

In Italian, casa is a feminine noun, so it takes the definite article la. Most nouns ending in -a are feminine, which is why we use la casa.

Does the word casa always mean "house," and why is it feminine?

While casa generally means "house," it can also mean "home" in certain contexts. It’s feminine because that is the grammatical gender traditionally assigned to this word in Italian.

Why is è used instead of other forms of "to be"?

È is the third-person singular form of the verb essere ("to be") in the present tense, used when talking about he, she, or it. Since la casa is singular, we must use è.

Can I rearrange the words and say "È grande la casa"?

Yes, you might still be understood, but the standard and most natural word order in Italian is subject–verb–complement (La casa è grande). Switching the order can sound more emphatic or poetic, but it’s less common in everyday speech.

How would you make the sentence more emphatic, like "The house is really big"?

You could add an adverb such as molto to say "La casa è molto grande" (“The house is very big”). You can also use expressions like veramente (La casa è veramente grande).