Il cane porta la medaglietta al collo.

The dog wears the tag on its neck.

Breakdown of Il cane porta la medaglietta al collo.

• il cane: the dog
• al: on
• il collo: the neck
• la medaglietta: the tag
• portare: to wear

Questions & Answers about Il cane porta la medaglietta al collo.

Why is il used before cane and not lo or un?

• Il is the masculine singular definite article in Italian, used before most consonant-starting nouns (except those beginning with s+consonant, z, ps, gn, x, y, which take lo).
• Un is the indefinite article (“a dog”), while il cane means “the dog,” referring to a specific dog.

What does porta mean here? Is it “takes” or “wears”?

• Portare literally means “to carry,” but in combination with clothing or accessories it often translates as “to wear.”
• In Il cane porta la medaglietta al collo, porta means “wears” or “has on.”

What is medaglietta? It looks like a diminutive—what does it refer to?

• Medaglietta is the diminutive of medaglia (“medal”), literally “little medal.”
• In everyday speech it means a dog tag or pet ID tag: a small metal disc bearing the animal’s name and owner’s address.

Why is it la medaglietta instead of una medaglietta?

• La medaglietta uses the definite article to refer to a specific tag (the one the dog actually has).
• Una medaglietta would introduce a tag in general (“a tag”), without implying it’s already known or unique.

Why do we say al collo and not sul collo or intorno al collo?

• Portare qualcosa al collo is a fixed collocation meaning “to wear something around one’s neck.”
• Al is the contraction of a + il (“to the/at the”).
• Sul collo (“on the neck”) is grammatically correct but less common with portare; intorno al collo (“around the neck”) is more descriptive and can be used for emphasis.

What exactly is al? Why isn’t there an apostrophe?

• Al = a + il, a standard contraction of the preposition a (“to/at”) and the definite article il (“the”).
• In Italian, some contractions (like al, dal, del) do not use an apostrophe.

Can I replace porta with indossa here?

• Yes. Indossare specifically means “to wear” clothes or accessories:
– Il cane indossa la medaglietta al collo.
• Indossa is slightly more formal or specific, while porta is perfectly natural and common.