Il sugo è saporito.

The sauce is tasty.

Breakdown of Il sugo è saporito.

• essere: to be
• saporito: tasty
• il sugo: the sauce

Questions & Answers about Il sugo è saporito.

What does sugo mean in this sentence, and how is it different from salsa?

Sugo literally means “sauce,” but in everyday Italian it usually refers to a cooked sauce for pasta (often tomato-based).
Salsa is a broader term that can mean any kind of sauce or condiment (including raw or cold ones, like a salsa verde). In cooking contexts, sugo implies you’ve simmered ingredients together, whereas salsa doesn’t carry that cooked connotation.

Why is there il before sugo? When do you use the definite article in Italian?

Italian often uses definite articles where English drops them.
• Il is the masculine singular article (“the”). You use it before most nouns when speaking in general about something:
– Il sugo è saporito. (The sauce is tasty.)
• With meals or parts of the body, Italian normally includes the article even in generic statements:
– Mi fa male la testa. (My head hurts.)

Why is è spelled with an accent? How do I tell it apart from e?

– è (with a grave accent) is the third-person singular of essere (“to be”): he/she/it is.
– e (no accent) means “and.”
The accent marks the stressed vowel and distinguishes the verb from the conjunction.

Why is the adjective saporito placed after the noun? Can I move it before?

In Italian, descriptive adjectives typically follow the noun:
– Il sugo è saporito.
Putting most adjectives before the noun changes the emphasis or can sound poetic or very subjective:
– Il saporito sugo (the tasty sauce) stresses saporito as an inherent quality, but it’s less common in everyday speech.

What exactly does saporito mean? Is it the same as delizioso or gustoso?

– Saporito describes something full of flavor or well-seasoned (“flavorful” or “tasty”).
– Delizioso means “delicious,” implying a very high level of pleasure.
– Gustoso also means “tasty,” but can emphasize richness or savoriness more than saporito.
You can often swap them, but the nuance shifts slightly: • saporito = well-seasoned, savory
• gustoso = richly flavored, satisfying
• delizioso = delicious, delightful

How do I pronounce Il sugo è saporito? Where does the stress fall?

– Il [il]
– sú-go [ˈsuː.ɡo] (stress on the first syllable)
– è [ɛ]
– sa-po-rí-to [sa.poˈriː.to] (stress on the third syllable)
Put it all together: [il ˈsuːɡo ɛ sa.poˈriːto].

How would I make this sentence plural or negative?

Plural:
– Change il to i, sugo to sughi, and saporito to saporiti:
• I sughi sono saporiti. (The sauces are tasty.)

Negative:
– Simply add non before the verb:
• Il sugo non è saporito. (The sauce isn’t tasty.)

How can I intensify saporito to say “very tasty”?

You can add an adverb like molto before the adjective:
– Il sugo è molto saporito. (The sauce is very tasty.)
Other options include:
• davvero saporito (really)
• estremamente saporito (extremely)
• stra- prefix: Il sugo è strapaporito. (colloquial, “super tasty”)