Allo scaffale mancava un ripiano, ma l’ho aggiunto manualmente.

The shelf was missing a shelf board, but I added it manually.

Breakdown of Allo scaffale mancava un ripiano, ma l’ho aggiunto manualmente.

• io: I
• ma: but
• lo scaffale: the shelf
• mancare: to lack
• il ripiano: the shelf board
• aggiungere: to add
• manualmente: manually

Questions & Answers about Allo scaffale mancava un ripiano, ma l’ho aggiunto manualmente.

Why is allo used instead of al in the sentence?

Because scaffale is a masculine noun that starts with “s + consonant” (“sc”), so its definite article is lo instead of il. When combined with the preposition a, it becomes allo instead of al.

Why is the verb mancava in the imperfect tense rather than a past tense like è mancato?

Mancava describes an ongoing or continuous state in the past: the shelf was missing a level for some duration before it was fixed. The imperfect tense highlights that it was a repeated or incomplete condition over time.

What does the apostrophe in l’ho stand for?

It stands for the contraction of the direct object pronoun lo plus the auxiliary verb ho. In full, it would be lo ho (meaning “I have it”), but this is shortened to l’ho in everyday written and spoken Italian.

Why do we say aggiunto and not aggiunta when referring to the shelf?

In constructions with avere, the past participle doesn’t need to agree in gender and number with the direct object (unless it’s a clitic pronoun that precedes the verb, and even then modern usage can vary). Here, aggiunto remains masculine singular by default, matching the standard form of the past participle.