Il cane graffia il divano.

The dog scratches the sofa.

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?