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Questions & Answers about La tua giacca è rossa.
What does each word in the sentence “La tua giacca è rossa” mean?
• La means “the” (feminine singular).
• tua means “your” (feminine singular, matching the noun it describes).
• giacca means “jacket.”
• è is the third-person singular of the verb essere, meaning “is.”
• rossa means “red” (feminine singular, agreeing with giacca).
Why does the adjective “rossa” end in -a instead of -o?
In Italian, adjectives must agree in gender and number with the noun they modify. Since giacca is a feminine singular noun, the adjective takes the feminine singular form rossa rather than the masculine rosso.
Why do we have both the definite article la and the possessive adjective tua before giacca?
In Italian, possessive adjectives are typically used together with a definite article. Here, la tua combines the feminine singular article la with the feminine singular possessive tua to match giacca. This is the standard form for indicating possession in Italian unless referring to family members, where the article is sometimes omitted.
What role does the verb è play in this sentence?
The verb è is the present tense, third-person singular form of essere (“to be”). It links the subject (La tua giacca) to the predicate adjective (rossa), functioning as the copula or linking verb in the sentence.
How would the sentence change if we were talking about multiple jackets, as in “Your jackets are red”?
For the plural, all elements must agree in gender and number:
• La tua giacca becomes Le tue giacche (using the plural definite article le and the plural possessive tue).
• è rossa changes to sono rosse (where sono is the plural form of “is,” and rosse is the feminine plural form of the adjective).
Thus, “Your jackets are red” is translated as Le tue giacche sono rosse.