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Il cane graffia il divano.

Il cane graffia il divano.
The dog scratches the sofa.
FromLesson 34inHardcore Italian

Breakdown of Il cane graffia il divano.

il cane
the dog
il divano
the sofa
graffiare
to scratch

Questions & Answers about Il cane graffia il divano.

Why is the definite article il used before cane and divano?
In Italian, you normally include a definite article before singular, countable nouns. Il is the masculine singular definite article (equivalent to English the). Unlike English—where you sometimes drop the—Italian almost always keeps the article, even in generic or habitual statements.
How do I know that cane and divano are masculine?

Italian nouns have grammatical gender. Common patterns:

  • Nouns ending in -o (like divano) are usually masculine.
  • Nouns ending in -e can be masculine (like cane) or feminine (like notte).
    You’ll often learn each noun with its article (il cane, la notte), or check a dictionary.
Why isn’t there a subject pronoun like lui or egli before graffia?

Italian verb endings show who’s doing the action, so you drop the pronoun:

  • graffia is third-person singular (he/she/it scratches).
    Adding lui or egli would be redundant and is used only for emphasis or contrast.
What tense and person is graffia?
It’s the present indicative, third-person singular of graffiare (to scratch). It corresponds to he scratches, she scratches, it scratches, or even is scratching in English.
In English we say scratch at the couch. Why isn’t there a preposition in graffia il divano?
Graffiare is a transitive verb in Italian, so it takes a direct object without any preposition. Using a or su here would sound unnatural or change the meaning.
How can I replace il divano with a pronoun?

Use the masculine singular direct-object pronoun lo, placed before the verb: Il cane lo graffia.
This means The dog scratches it.

How would I put this sentence into the passive voice?

Two common options:

  1. Using essere: Il divano è graffiato dal cane.
  2. Using venire: Il divano viene graffiato dal cane.
If I want to emphasize that the action is ongoing (is scratching), how do I say that?

Use the present progressive construction: Il cane sta graffiando il divano.
Note, however, that the simple present (graffia) often covers both English simple and continuous aspects.

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