La bambina piange perché ha fame.

The girl cries because she is hungry.

Breakdown of La bambina piange perché ha fame.

• perché: because
• piangere: to cry
• la bambina: the girl
• avere fame: to be hungry

Questions & Answers about La bambina piange perché ha fame.

Why is there a definite article la before bambina?

Italian almost always uses a definite article before singular, countable nouns when you’re talking about a specific person or thing.
• la is the feminine singular definite article (“the”).
• Without it, bambina piange would sound like a headline or very informal speech.
• If you wanted to say “a girl,” you’d use una bambina instead.

How do I know that bambina is feminine and not masculine?

Italian nouns have grammatical gender.
• Words ending in -a are typically feminine (e.g. casa, ragazza, bambina).
• Words ending in -o are typically masculine (e.g. ragazzo, bambino, libro).
• Always match your articles and adjectives to that gender (e.g. il bambino vs. la bambina).

Why is there no article before fame in ha fame?

Here fame (“hunger”) is the direct object of avere (“to have”) in a fixed expression.
• In avere fame, avere sete, avere caldo etc., you treat the feeling as an object and drop the article.
• Saying ha la fame would be unidiomatic (it literally sounds like “she has the hunger off and on,” which Italians don’t say).

Why do Italians say ha fame literally “has hunger” instead of “is hungry”?

English uses the adjective hungry, but Italian uses the verb avere + noun for many physical states:
• avere fame = to be hungry
• avere sete = to be thirsty
• avere caldo/freddo = to be hot/cold
You could say la bambina è affamata (she is hungry), but ha fame is far more common in everyday speech.

What does the accent in perché do, and why does it sometimes mean “why” and other times “because”?

perché carries an acute accent on the final e to mark stress and distinguish it from perche (which doesn’t exist in Italian).
• As an interrogative adverb it means why (“Perché piange?” = “Why is she crying?”).
• As a conjunction it means because (“Piange perché ha fame.” = “She’s crying because she’s hungry.”).
The spelling and accent never change; you infer the meaning from context.

Why is the verb piange in the simple present rather than a progressive form?

Italian commonly uses the simple present (presente indicativo) even for ongoing actions:
• piange = “she cries” / “she is crying”
If you want to stress that the crying is happening right now, you can use the periphrastic present progressive:
• sta piangendo = “she is crying (right now).”
But piange is perfectly normal for both habits and immediate actions.

Do I need a comma before perché in this sentence?

In Italian you generally do not place a comma before perché when it introduces a subordinate clause meaning “because.”
• English often uses a comma before “because,” but Italian punctuation is tighter: La bambina piange perché ha fame.
• You might see a comma in informal writing to signal a pause, but it’s not standard.

How do I pronounce the gn in piange and bambina?

The digraph gn in Italian represents the palatal nasal [ɲ], like the Spanish ñ in niño.
• piange is pronounced [ˈpjaɲdʒe] (approx. “PYA-njey”).
• bambina is pronounced [bamˈbiːna] (the “gn” doesn’t appear here, but the “ni” before the vowel is a simple [ni]; only “gn” produces [ɲ]).