L’alba porta luce nel villaggio.

the light

Breakdown of L’alba porta luce nel villaggio.

• il villaggio: the village
• portare: to bring
• nel: in

Questions & Answers about L’alba porta luce nel villaggio.

Why is there an apostrophe in L’alba, and what does it stand for?

In Italian, when the feminine definite article la comes before a word starting with a vowel, you drop the vowel a and replace it with an apostrophe. So la alba becomes l’alba to avoid the two consecutive a sounds.

Can I drop the article entirely and say Alba porta luce nel villaggio?

No. Unlike English, Italian generally requires a definite article before most nouns, even abstract ones like alba. You can’t just say Alba on its own here—you need the elided form l’.

How do I know the genders of alba and villaggio?

A good rule of thumb is: most Italian nouns ending in -a are feminine (e.g. alba, casa), and most ending in -o are masculine (e.g. villaggio, ragazzo). There are exceptions, but this works in most cases.

Why is luce singular and without an article?

Here luce (“light”) is an uncountable, abstract noun used in a general sense, so Italian omits the article. If you said porta la luce, you’d be referring to a specific or known light. If you used le luci, you’d be talking about multiple, countable lights.