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Un doganiere controlla con attenzione le valigie dei turisti.

Un doganiere controlla con attenzione le valigie dei turisti.
A customs officer carefully inspects the tourists’ suitcases.
FromLesson 34inHardcore Italian

Questions & Answers about Un doganiere controlla con attenzione le valigie dei turisti.

Why is the indefinite article un used before doganiere instead of il?
Un is the Italian indefinite article for masculine singular nouns; it means “a” or “one.” Here we don’t refer to a specific customs officer already known to the listener, so we say un doganiere (“a customs officer”). If you had mentioned the officer before or both speaker and listener know which one, you’d use the definite article il (“the customs officer”).
What tense and person is the verb controlla?
Controlla is the third-person singular of the present indicative tense of controllare (“to check” or “to inspect”). It corresponds to “he/she/it checks” or in this context “(the customs officer) checks.”
Why is con attenzione used instead of the adverb attentamente?

Both con attenzione (“with attention”) and attentamente (“attentively,” “carefully”) are correct and interchangeable here.

  • con attenzione is a prepositional phrase built with con
  • attentamente is an adverb formed from the adjective attento
    • -mente.
      It’s mostly a matter of style or emphasis; Italians often use both.
Why is attenzione singular in con attenzione?
In Italian, abstract nouns used in expressions with con usually stay in the singular. You’re not counting “attentions,” but indicating the manner of the action (“in a careful way”), so attenzione remains singular.
Why do we say le valigie with le?
Valigie is the feminine plural form of valigia (“suitcase”). The definite article for feminine plural is le, so le valigie means “the suitcases.”
Why is the phrase dei turisti used instead of simply turisti?
Dei turisti is the combination of the preposition di (“of”) + the masculine plural article i, contracted to dei. It literally means “of the tourists,” marking possession: “the suitcases of the tourists.” Without dei, you’d say valigie turistiche, which would misleadingly mean “touristy suitcases.”
Could we use degli turisti instead of dei turisti?
No. Degli is the contraction of di + gli, used before masculine plural nouns starting with a vowel or with s+consonant or z (e.g. degli studenti, degli zaini). Since turisti starts with a plain consonant t, the correct form is dei turisti.
What nuance changes if I say Il doganiere controlla… instead of Un doganiere controlla…?
Using il (“the”) implies you and your listener know exactly which customs officer you’re talking about (maybe you saw one particular officer earlier). Un, by contrast, presents the officer as a new, unspecified character in the story.
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