L’autista guida l’autobus con attenzione.

The driver drives the bus carefully.

Breakdown of L’autista guida l’autobus con attenzione.

• l’autobus: the bus
• guidare: to drive
• l’autista: the driver
• con attenzione: carefully

Questions & Answers about L’autista guida l’autobus con attenzione.

Why is there an apostrophe in l’autista and l’autobus?

In Italian, the definite articles il (masculine before consonants) and lo/la (before vowels or special consonants) elide their vowel when the following word starts with a vowel. You drop the vowel of the article and replace it with an apostrophe ’.
Examples:

• il cane → stays il cane
• lo studente → stays lo studente
• la porta → stays la porta
• il autista → l’autista
• la amica → l’amica
• lo autobus → l’autobus

How do we know that autista and autobus are masculine?

• Autista ends in -a but can be either masculine or feminine. You tell gender by context or by adding an adjective: • l’autista alto (male driver)
  • l’autista alta (female driver)
• Autobus is a loanword ending in -us, and like most such words in Italian it is masculine and invariant in the plural: • Sing.: l’autobus
  • Plur.: gli autobus

How do you pronounce guidare?

• g before u plus a vowel is a hard /ɡ/ sound followed by a /w/-glide.
• gui = /ɡwi/
• The full pronunciation of guidare is /ɡwiˈdaːre/, with stress on the second syllable: gwi-DA-re.

Where is the stress in autobus, and why isn’t there an accent mark?

• Autobus is stressed on the third-to-last syllable: AU-to-bus.
• Italian words with stress on the antepenultimate (third-to-last) syllable are called proparossitones and never carry a written accent.

Why does the sentence use the definite article before autista and autobus? In English we often leave out articles.

Italian generally requires definite articles before common nouns in contexts where English might omit them:

• L’autista guida l’autobus. = “The bus driver drives the bus.”
  In a truly generic sense you could use indefinite articles or no articles only in special constructions (e.g. “Un autista professionista…”; or after essere with professions). But as a straightforward statement about a specific driver and bus, Italian uses the article.

Can we drop l’autista and just say Guida l’autobus con attenzione?

• Italian is a pro-drop language: you can omit subject pronouns because the verb ending indicates person/number.
• Dropping a full noun subject (like l’autista) is less common and can sound ambiguous.
• If you say Guida l’autobus con attenzione without context, it could be read as:
  • 2nd-person imperative: “Drive the bus carefully.”
  • 3rd-person statement: “(He/She) drives the bus carefully.”
  So you usually keep l’autista unless context is crystal clear or you intend the imperative.

What’s the difference between con attenzione and attentamente?

• con attenzione = “with attention,” a prepositional phrase.
• attentamente = “attentively/carefully,” a single adverb.
  They’re largely interchangeable in meaning, but attentamente sounds a bit more formal or literary.

Can we put con attenzione somewhere else in the sentence?

Yes. Italian word order for adverbial phrases is fairly flexible. For example:
• Con attenzione, l’autista guida l’autobus. (emphasizes the manner first)
• L’autista guida con attenzione l’autobus. (object moved after the adverb phrase)
• L’autista con attenzione guida l’autobus. (less common, but possible)
• L’autista guida l’autobus con attenzione. (neutral, most common)

What’s the difference between the verbs guidare, condurre and pilotare?

• guidare: the standard verb for “to drive” (cars, buses, motorcycles, bikes) or “to steer” in general.
• condurre: more formal/literary “to lead” or “to drive,” sometimes used for vehicles but less common in everyday speech.
• pilotare: “to pilot,” used specifically for planes, helicopters, spacecraft (and figuratively for boats or race cars).

Could we replace l’autista with il conducente? Is there any nuance?

• Il conducente is a more technical or bureaucratic term for “the driver” of any vehicle.
• L’autista implies a professional driver (bus, taxi, truck).
  You can say Il conducente guida l’autobus con attenzione, but l’autista is what you’ll hear most in everyday speech.