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Breakdown of L’energia del vento muove le foglie.
di
of
la foglia
the leaf
muovere
to move
il vento
the wind
l’energia
the energy
Questions & Answers about L’energia del vento muove le foglie.
Why is there an apostrophe in L’energia?
In Italian, the feminine singular definite article la is elided to l’ before a vowel to avoid two vowels in a row. So la energia becomes l’energia.
Why is energia feminine when it ends in -ia?
Most Italian nouns ending in -ia are feminine (e.g. la farmacia, la grisùa). There are a few exceptions (like il papà, il sofà), but energia is one of the regular feminine nouns: l’energia, le energie.
What does del vento mean and how is it formed?
Del is the contraction of the preposition di (of) + the masculine singular article il (the). So del vento literally means of the wind, giving us l’energia del vento = “the energy of the wind.”
Why is the verb muove in the third-person singular and not plural?
Italian verbs agree with their grammatical subject, not the object. Here the subject is l’energia (singular), so we use muove (he/she/it moves), even though the object le foglie is plural.
Could I mistakenly use muovono here because le foglie is plural?
No. Muovono is third-person plural (“they move”), which would require a plural subject (e.g. le foglie muovono). Since l’energia is singular, the correct form is muove.
Why is there a definite article in le foglie? In English we often say “wind moves leaves” without the.
Italian generally uses the definite article with plural nouns when speaking of things in general. So while English drops the article, Italian says le foglie (“the leaves”) even in a generic sense.
How do you pronounce muove and foglie?
• muove is pronounced /ˈmwɔ.ve/ (“MWO-veh”), with a combined /mw/ sound.
• foglie is /ˈfɔʎʎe/ (“FOHL-lyeh”), where gl before i makes the palatal lateral /ʎ/, similar to the “lli” in English “million.”
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