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Questions & Answers about Il dentista sorride e, con la matita, segna la mia bugia sulla scheda.
Why is “con la matita” surrounded by commas, and what does it tell us?
“Con la matita” is a parenthetical adverbial phrase indicating the instrument used to perform the action. The commas set it off as non-essential information—meaning you could remove it and still have a grammatically complete sentence. It simply adds the detail that the dentist uses a pencil.
Could I move “con la matita” to a different position in the sentence?
Yes. In Italian, adverbial phrases are quite flexible. For example:
- “Il dentista sorride e segna la mia bugia sulla scheda con la matita.”
- “Il dentista sorride e, con la matita, segna la mia bugia sulla scheda.”
- “Con la matita, il dentista sorride e segna la mia bugia sulla scheda.”
You’d adjust punctuation accordingly, but the core meaning remains the same.
What’s the difference between “segnare” and “scrivere”?
“Segnare” means “to mark,” “to tick,” “to note,” or “to record” something, often briefly or with a symbol. “Scrivere” means “to write” in the fuller, more general sense (e.g. writing a letter, an essay, a story).
What does bugia mean here? I thought it could refer to something dental.
Here, bugia means “lie” (a false statement). It has nothing to do with dentistry—dentist jokes aside. If you thought of a dental term, that’s carie (cavity), not bugia.
Why is it “la mia bugia” instead of “una bugia”?
Using the definite article la specifies a particular lie—the one you (the speaker) told or that’s already in context. “Una bugia” would introduce a new, unspecified lie, but here the dentist is marking that specific lie of yours.
What does scheda mean, and is it masculine or feminine?
Scheda is feminine (la scheda) and means “card,” “chart,” “form,” or “sheet.” In this sentence, it refers to whatever form or chart the dentist is filling out.
In “Il dentista sorride,” why isn’t there a “mi” or “a me”? Doesn’t “to smile” take an object?
Sorridere is normally intransitive in Italian—you just say someone “smiles.” If you want to express “smiles at me,” you’d say “mi sorride” or “sorride a me.” Here, no indirect object is intended: the dentist simply smiles.
How do you pronounce scheda? Why is there an “h”?
“scheda” is pronounced [ˈskeː.da]. In Italian, sc before e or i usually makes the /ʃ/ sound (like English “sh”). Inserting an h (giving sch) forces the hard /sk/ sound before e.
Is the word order flexible? Could I say “segna sulla scheda la mia bugia”?
Yes—the word order in Italian is fairly flexible. You could say:
“Il dentista sorride e segna sulla scheda la mia bugia.”
However, the more neutral order is verb + direct object + prepositional phrase. Deviating from that can shift emphasis.
Why is there a comma right after “e”? It looks odd in English.
In Italian, when you insert a parenthetical phrase (like “con la matita”) immediately after a conjunction, you often close it with a comma before continuing. So the comma after “e” signals the start of that non-essential note, and another comma closes it. In English you’d likely rephrase to avoid that comma cluster.