Breakdown of Il veterinario cura il cane malato.
il cane
the dog
malato
sick
il veterinario
the veterinarian
curare
to treat
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Questions & Answers about Il veterinario cura il cane malato.
What does cura mean, and what is its infinitive form?
Cura is the third-person singular present indicative of the verb curare, whose infinitive means “to treat,” “to take care of,” or “to heal.”
What are the subject and direct object in Il veterinario cura il cane malato?
The subject is Il veterinario (“the veterinarian”) and the direct object is il cane malato (“the sick dog”).
Why isn’t there an object pronoun like lo (as in Lo cura)?
Here we use the full noun phrase il cane to specify which dog is being treated. If you’d already mentioned the dog and wanted to avoid repetition, you could say Lo cura ogni giorno (“He treats it every day”).
Why is the adjective malato placed after cane instead of before it?
In Italian, most descriptive adjectives follow the noun they modify. So il cane malato is the natural word order for “the sick dog.”
Why is it malato and not malata?
Adjectives must agree in gender and number with the noun. Cane is masculine singular, so the adjective is malato (masculine singular).
Could you say il malato cane instead of il cane malato?
No. Descriptive adjectives like malato normally follow the noun in Italian. Placing them before can sound poetic or change the nuance.
How do you express “is treating” (present continuous) in Italian?
Use the gerund with stare:
Il veterinario sta curando il cane malato.
This literally means “The veterinarian is treating the sick dog.”
How would you say “The veterinarian treated the sick dog” in the past tense?
Use the passato prossimo of curare:
Il veterinario ha curato il cane malato.
What’s the difference between curare and guarire?
Curare is transitive: “to treat” or “care for” someone/something.
Guarire is intransitive: “to recover” or “heal” (i.e., the patient or illness heals).
How do you pronounce veterinario and cura, and where is the stress?
Veterinario is pronounced ve-te-ri-NA-rio, with stress on the “NA.”
Cura is pronounced CU-ra, stressed on the first syllable.