L'insegnante consiglia il libro interessante.

The teacher recommends the interesting book.

Breakdown of L'insegnante consiglia il libro interessante.

• il libro: the book
• interessante: interesting
• l'insegnante: the teacher
• consigliare: to recommend

Questions & Answers about L'insegnante consiglia il libro interessante.

Why is l’insegnante written with the apostrophe (l’) instead of using il or la?

In Italian, the apostrophe in l’insegnante occurs because insegnante starts with a vowel sound. You’ll see l’ when the word following it begins with a vowel (for both masculine and feminine singular nouns). Here, insegnante can be masculine or feminine, but either way, the article becomes l’ when the noun starts with a vowel.

What does the form consiglia tell us about who is doing the recommending?

The verb consiglia is the third person singular present tense of consigliare (to recommend). This form implies that he/she/they (singular) is recommending something. Because the sentence mentions l’insegnante, we know the person recommending the book is the teacher.

Why does the adjective interessante come after il libro instead of before?

In Italian, most adjectives follow the noun. While some adjectives can come before or after the noun depending on nuances in meaning, the usual pattern is noun + adjective. So it’s natural to say il libro interessante instead of interessante libro. Placing the adjective after the noun is standard in many cases.

Why is it interessante and not interessanti here?

In Italian, adjectives need to agree in number and sometimes gender with the noun they modify. Libro is singular and masculine, so the adjective here uses the singular form: interessante (which is invariable for both masculine and feminine in the singular). The plural form would be interessanti.

What if the sentence had more than one teacher—would the verb form be different?

Yes, if you had multiple teachers, you’d change l’insegnante to gli insegnanti (masculine) or le insegnanti (feminine), and the verb would change to the third person plural: consigliano. So it would become Gli/le insegnanti consigliano il libro interessante.