Oggi l’ufficio è pulito.

to be

Breakdown of Oggi l’ufficio è pulito.

• oggi: today
• pulito: clean
• l’ufficio: the office

Questions & Answers about Oggi l’ufficio è pulito.

Why is there an apostrophe in l’ufficio?

Italian contracts the definite article before a vowel to avoid two vowel sounds clashing. Here l’ is the elided form of il (the masculine singular “the”) before ufficio, which starts with a vowel. The apostrophe marks that elision.

Why is the adjective pulito placed after ufficio when in English we say “clean office”?

In Italian, most descriptive adjectives follow the noun they modify. So you say ufficio pulito rather than pulito ufficio. Placing pulito after ufficio is simply the normal word order for a descriptive adjective.

Why is the verb essere used here? Couldn’t we say l’ufficio ha pulito?

Essere + adjective expresses a state or condition (“is clean”). Avere pulito would mean “to have cleaned” (the action of cleaning). Since we’re describing the office’s current state, we use è pulito, not ha pulito.

What’s the difference between l’ufficio è pulito and l’ufficio è stato pulito?

• L’ufficio è pulito states the present condition: “the office is clean.”
• L’ufficio è stato pulito uses the passive perfect (“has been cleaned”) to indicate that someone cleaned it at some point. The first focuses on how it is now; the second on the completed action.