Breakdown of L'eco delle mie parole nel corridoio è forte.
essere
to be
di
of
in
in
il corridoio
the hallway
la parola
the word
forte
loud
l'eco
the echo
mie
my
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Questions & Answers about L'eco delle mie parole nel corridoio è forte.
Why is there an apostrophe in L’eco?
In Italian, when the definite article la (feminine singular “the”) precedes a word beginning with a vowel, you drop the a and replace it with an apostrophe. So la eco becomes l’eco to make pronunciation smoother.
Why is eco a feminine noun?
Even though eco ends in -o, it’s one of the few Greek-origin nouns in Italian that are feminine (like mano, radio when it means “radio broadcasting,” etc.). So it takes the feminine article l’ and feminine agreement when necessary.
What does delle mie parole literally mean, and why is it formed that way?
delle is the partitive article (from di + le) meaning “of the.” Combined with the possessive adjective mie (“my,” feminine plural), delle mie parole literally means “of my words.” In English we’d say “the echo of my words.”
Why isn’t it di mie parole without delle?
In Italian you can’t say di directly before a plural definite noun without the article. You need di + le which contracts to delle. Saying di mie parole sounds ungrammatical to a native speaker.
Why is it mie instead of miei?
The possessive adjective agrees in gender and number with the noun it modifies. Parole is feminine plural, so you use mie (fem. pl.), not miei (masc. pl.).
Why is there no separate definite article before mie parole?
Here delle already contains the article (it’s di + le). If you were simply saying “my words,” you’d say le mie parole, where le is the definite article that normally appears with a possessive adjective.
Why is it nel corridoio and not in il corridoio?
Italian prepositions often contract with the definite article: in + il becomes nel. So nel corridoio means “in the corridor.”
Is corridoio always masculine?
Yes. Most Italian nouns ending in -o are masculine. Corridoio follows this pattern, so it takes il in the singular and i in the plural (e.g. i corridoi).
Why doesn’t the adjective forte change to forta to agree with eco?
Adjectives ending in -e have a single form for both masculine and feminine in the singular. Their plural is -i (e.g. forti). So forte works for both genders here.
Can I move nel corridoio to a different place in the sentence?
Yes. Italian word order is relatively flexible. You could say Nel corridoio l’eco delle mie parole è forte (placing the adverbial phrase at the beginning) without changing the meaning.