Il bambino corre verso la porta.

The child runs toward the door.

Breakdown of Il bambino corre verso la porta.

• correre: to run
• la porta: the door
• il bambino: the child
• verso: toward

Questions & Answers about Il bambino corre verso la porta.

Why is the definite article il used before bambino?

In Italian, most nouns require an article. Il is the masculine singular definite article used before nouns beginning with a simple consonant. Il bambino literally means the child in a specific sense.

Could we use lo or l’ instead of il?

The article lo appears before masculine singular nouns that start with s+consonant (e.g., lo studente), z (e.g., lo zaino), ps, gn, etc.; l’ is the elided form before a vowel (e.g., l’amico). Since bambino starts with the consonant b, we use il.

Why is bambino masculine, and how do I say it for a girl?

Italian nouns have grammatical gender. Bambino is the masculine form for child; the feminine form is bambina. For a girl, you say la bambina corre verso la porta.

How is the verb correre conjugated in this sentence?