Breakdown of Domani visitiamo un castello medievale sulla collina.
su
on
domani
tomorrow
noi
we
visitare
to visit
la collina
the hill
medievale
medieval
il castello
the castle
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Questions & Answers about Domani visitiamo un castello medievale sulla collina.
Why is visitiamo in the present tense when we’re talking about something happening tomorrow?
In Italian, the present indicative can express a scheduled or near future action when paired with a time adverb like domani. It functions like the English We’re visiting instead of We will visit.
How would you say it using the future tense?
Replace visitiamo with its future form visiteremo:
Domani visiteremo un castello medievale sulla collina.
Why is un used before castello instead of uno?
Un is the masculine singular indefinite article used before nouns beginning with most consonants or vowels. Uno is only for masculine nouns starting with s+consonant, z, gn, ps, and similar clusters. Since castello starts with a simple c, you use un.
Why does medievale not change for gender, and why isn’t it plural?
Adjectives ending in -e have a single form for both masculine and feminine in the singular (medievale). In the plural, they take -i (for example, castelli medievali). Here the adjective matches the singular noun castello.
Why is the adjective medievale placed after the noun rather than before?
Most descriptive adjectives in Italian follow the noun as the neutral word order. Placing them before the noun is possible for emphasis or poetic effect but is not the default.
What does sulla mean, and how is it formed?
Sulla is the contraction of the preposition su (on) with the feminine definite article la (the). Together they form sulla, meaning on the.
Could you use in collina or another preposition instead of su?
You can say in collina in broader or figurative contexts, for example, living in the hills. To express being physically on top of a specific hill, Italians use su + article (sulla). Using a collina or alla collina would mean to the hill, not on it.
Why is domani placed at the beginning of the sentence? Can it go elsewhere?
Domani (tomorrow) is often placed at the start to highlight the time. However, Italian word order is flexible:
Visitiamo domani un castello medievale sulla collina
or
Domani visitiamo un castello medievale sulla collina
both work, with only slight changes in emphasis.