Breakdown of Domani visiterò il laboratorio dell’università per continuare la ricerca sui materiali.
io
I
su
on
di
of
domani
tomorrow
visitare
to visit
il materiale
the material
per
to
continuare
to continue
il laboratorio
the laboratory
l’università
the university
la ricerca
the research
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Questions & Answers about Domani visiterò il laboratorio dell’università per continuare la ricerca sui materiali.
Why is visiterò used here? When do we use the Italian simple future tense?
Italian uses the simple future to talk about actions that will happen, much like English “I will visit.” Even when English might say “I’m going to visit,” Italian often prefers visiterò for a planned future event.
How do you form the future simple for -are verbs like visitare?
- Drop the -are ending to get the stem: visit-
- Change the a in -are to e, giving visiter-
- Add the future endings -ò, ‑ai, ‑à, ‑emo, ‑ete, ‑anno
So: visit- + erò = visiterò.
Why doesn’t visitare need a preposition before “il laboratorio”? In English we say “visit the lab.”
In Italian visitare is a transitive verb, so it takes a direct object with no preposition: visitare qualcosa. Hence visiterò il laboratorio is correct, not visiterò a il laboratorio.
Why is the phrase dell’università written with an apostrophe? What happened to di + l’università?
Università is a feminine singular noun beginning with a vowel. When di meets l’ (the contraction of la), they merge into dell’:
di + l’università = dell’università.
Why does università have an accent on the final -à?
All Italian nouns ending in -tà (like università, età, città) are feminine and carry a written accent on the last syllable to indicate stress: universitÀ.
What is the role of per in per continuare la ricerca sui materiali?
Here per means “in order to.” It introduces purpose:
per continuare = “in order to continue.”
In Italian, per + infinitive frequently expresses purpose.
Why is there a definite article before ricerca (la ricerca)? Could we omit it?
Using la ricerca points to a specific research project (presumably already known). Omitting the article (continuare ricerca) sounds too general, and continuare una ricerca would imply “continue any research,” not this particular one.
Why is it sui materiali and not just su materiali or dei materiali?
The phrase ricerca su requires su (“on/about”). Since materiali is masculine plural, su + i contracts to sui. This construction means “research on/about these materials.” Saying ricerca dei materiali would mean “research of the materials themselves,” which shifts the nuance.