Lo zio suona il violino ogni sera dopo cena.

My uncle plays the violin every evening after dinner.

Breakdown of Lo zio suona il violino ogni sera dopo cena.

• ogni: every
• la sera: the evening
• dopo: after
• suonare: to play

Questions & Answers about Lo zio suona il violino ogni sera dopo cena.

Why is lo used before zio, instead of il or l’?

Italian has a few “special” definite articles for masculine singular nouns that begin with certain consonant clusters (z, s + consonant, gn, pn, ps, x, y). Before zio (which starts with “z”) you must use lo.

• il is used before most other consonants (il ragazzo).
• l’ is only used before vowels (l’amico).

Why is there a definite article before violino? Could we say suona violino?

Whenever you talk about playing or studying an instrument in Italian, you normally use the definite article. In English you say “play the violin,” but you wouldn’t drop “the” in Italian either—so it’s suona il violino, not suona violino.

Why don’t we use a preposition like “a” before violino, as we do in English with “play on the violin”?

In Italian suonare (to play an instrument) takes a direct object. You simply attach the article + instrument: suonare il pianoforte, suonare la chitarra, etc. There’s no preposition needed.

What does ogni sera mean, and where can adverbial time phrases like this go in an Italian sentence?