L'ingresso del parco è pulito.

The entrance to the park is clean.

Breakdown of L'ingresso del parco è pulito.

• essere: to be
• di: of
• pulito: clean
• il parco: the park

Questions & Answers about L'ingresso del parco è pulito.

Why is there an apostrophe in L’ingresso? Could I say Il ingresso instead?

In Italian, when the masculine singular article il comes before a word starting with a vowel, you must elide the vowel of the article and replace it with an apostrophe. So il ingresso becomes l’ingresso. Writing Il ingresso without the apostrophe is incorrect in standard Italian.

What does del stand for in del parco?

Del is a contraction of the preposition di + the masculine singular article il. Thus del parco literally means of the park (i.e. “the park’s”).

Why is pulito placed after è, and not just attached to the noun as in ingresso pulito?

Here pulito is a predicative adjective linked by the copular verb essere (“to be”), so it must follow the verb: L’ingresso… è pulito (“The entrance … is clean”). If you use it attributively (directly modifying the noun), you still place it after: un ingresso pulito (“a clean entrance”).

Does pulito change form to agree with ingresso?