Il traffico aumenta la sera.

Traffic increases in the evening.

Breakdown of Il traffico aumenta la sera.

• la sera: the evening
• il traffico: the traffic
• aumentare: to increase

Questions & Answers about Il traffico aumenta la sera.

Why is traffico preceded by il?

In Italian, most common nouns need a definite article even when you speak of them in a general sense. Il traffico means “traffic” in general. In English you often drop the article (“Traffic increases…”), but in Italian the article is mandatory with singular count and mass nouns used generically.

What form is aumenta and how does it relate to aumentare?

Aumenta is the third-person singular present indicative of the verb aumentare (“to increase”). The full present-tense conjugation is:
io aumento
tu aumenti
lui/lei aumenta
noi aumentiamo
voi aumentate
loro aumentano
Here traffico is the subject, so we use aumenta (“it increases”).

Why is the sentence in the present tense instead of past or future?

The present tense in Italian often expresses habitual actions, general truths, or recurring situations. Saying Il traffico aumenta la sera conveys that traffic regularly or typically increases in the evening. If you used past (è aumentato) or future (aumenterà), you’d change the meaning to one specific event or a prediction.

Why does sera take the article la here? Could you say sera without it?