La luce del pianerottolo si spegne alle undici.

The landing light turns off at eleven.

Breakdown of La luce del pianerottolo si spegne alle undici.

• la luce: the light
• di: of
• alle: at
• spegnersi: to turn off

Questions & Answers about La luce del pianerottolo si spegne alle undici.

Why is del used in luce del pianerottolo instead of just di?

Del is the contraction of di + il. In Italian, when di is followed by the definite article il, you combine them into del. Here il pianerottolo needs the article, so di il pianerottolo becomes del pianerottolo.

What does pianerottolo mean?

Pianerottolo is the small landing or hallway area at the top or bottom of a staircase in an apartment building or house. In English we’d call it the landing.

Why is si spegne used instead of just spegne?

In Italian, some verbs are pronominal when they describe actions happening on their own or reflexively. Spegnersi (to turn off by itself) uses the reflexive pronoun si. So la luce si spegne literally means “the light turns itself off,” indicating an automatic action.

Could we use a passive construction like viene spenta here?

Yes, you could say La luce del pianerottolo viene spenta alle undici, which means “the landing light is turned off at eleven.” This puts more emphasis on the action being done (by someone or something). But si spegne is more natural when you want to indicate an automatic or scheduled event.