Learn Hardcore Italian: Ogni richiesta al medico è importante. - Every request to the doctor is important.

ogni means every or each. It’s a singular-only determiner that always replaces the definite article and directly precedes the noun. You never say la ogni richiesta, but simply ogni richiesta.

Why is richiesta in the singular rather than plural?

Because when you use ogni, the noun it modifies remains singular—hence ogni richiesta (each request), not ogni richieste.

Why is richiesta a feminine noun?

In Italian, nouns ending in -a are typically feminine. richiesta ends in -a, so it’s grammatically feminine and any agreeing words (adjectives, articles) must match that gender.

What does al in al medico stand for?

al is the contraction of the preposition a (to) + the definite article il (the). So al medico literally means to the doctor.

Why is the preposition a used in al medico and not per or da?

When you make a request to someone in Italian, you use richiesta a qualcuno.

per would mean “for someone”
da would mean “from” or “by” someone

Why is the adjective importante singular and not plural?

Adjectives agree in number with their subject. Here the subject is ogni richiesta (singular), so the adjective stays singular (importante). If the subject were plural, the adjective would become importanti.

Why is the verb è in the third-person singular instead of plural?

The verb must agree with its subject. Since ogni richiesta is third-person singular, the copula essere appears as è, not sono.

How would you express the same idea in the plural?

You can say Tutte le richieste al medico sono importanti, using:

tutte le
- plural noun (richieste)
verb sono (third-person plural)
adjective importanti (plural form)

How do you pronounce the gn in ogni?

The gn represents the palatal nasal sound /ɲ/, like the Spanish ñ in señor. So ogni is pronounced roughly OH-ɲi (similar to “OH-nyee”).