Breakdown of L’ufficio postale ha un impiegato molto gentile.
avere
to have
molto
very
gentile
kind
l'ufficio postale
the post office
l'impiegato
the employee
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Questions & Answers about L’ufficio postale ha un impiegato molto gentile.
What does the apostrophe in L’ufficio indicate?
It shows the elision of the vowel in the definite article il before a word starting with a vowel: il ufficio → l’ufficio. The meaning stays the same, but Italian drops the “i” to avoid two vowels meeting.
Why is postale after ufficio instead of before, like “post office”?
In Italian, descriptive adjectives typically follow the noun they modify. So ufficio postale literally is “office postal,” whereas in English we say “post office.”
Why is un used before impiegato rather than uno?
The masculine indefinite article uno appears only before words beginning with z, s + consonant, gn, ps, x, y. Since impiegato begins with a vowel, you use un.
What role does ha play in this sentence?
Ha is the 3rd person singular of the verb avere, used here to express possession: “the post office has a very kind clerk.” You could also say C’è un impiegato molto gentile (“There is a very kind clerk”) to convey a similar idea.
Why does molto gentile follow impiegato, and does molto change form?
- molto here is an adverb meaning “very,” so it modifies the adjective gentile and is invariable.
- Descriptive adjectives like gentile normally come after the noun in Italian. If molto meant “many” and modified a noun, it would agree in gender and number (molto, molta, molti, molte).
How would you say the sentence if the clerk were female?
You’d use the feminine noun impiegata and change un to un’ (eliding the “a” in una before a vowel):
L’ufficio postale ha un’impiegata molto gentile.