Un ingegnere controlla la struttura del ponte in giardino.

An engineer checks the structure of the bridge in the garden.

Breakdown of Un ingegnere controlla la struttura del ponte in giardino.

• di: of
• in: in
• il giardino: the garden
• controllare: to check

Questions & Answers about Un ingegnere controlla la struttura del ponte in giardino.

Why is it un ingegnere and not uno ingegnere?

In Italian the masculine singular indefinite article is un before vowels and most consonants, and uno only before certain consonant clusters (s + consonant, z, gn, ps, pn, x, y). Since ingegnere begins with a vowel (i), you use un.
Examples:
• un libro, un amico, un ingegnere
• uno studente, uno zaino, uno psicologo

Why do we need an article before ingegnere? In English we often say “engineer” without one.

Standard Italian grammar requires an article before common nouns (including professions). You cannot say Ingegnere controlla…; you must say un ingegnere, l’ingegnere, questo ingegnere, etc.
Exceptions (no article) happen in headlines, telegram style or some fixed expressions, but in normal speech and writing the article stays.

What does controlla mean here, and how is it conjugated?

Here controlla is the 3rd person singular present indicative of controllare, meaning “to check” or “to inspect.” It does not mean “to control” (as in “dominate”) in this context.
Present tense of controllare:
• io controllo
• tu controlli
• lui/lei controlla
• noi controlliamo
• voi controllate
• loro controllano