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Questions & Answers about Il vino macchia la tovaglia.
Why is il used before vino when in English we just say “wine”?
In Italian, to talk about something in general you normally use the definite article. So il vino means “wine” in the generic sense. You omit the article only in a few fixed expressions (e.g., after some prepositions like a tavola).
How do you conjugate macchiare in the present tense, and why is it macchia here?
“Macchiare” is a regular –are verb. Present tense endings are:
io macchio
tu macchi
lui/lei macchia
noi macchiamo
voi macchiate
loro macchiano
We use macchia because the subject il vino is third person singular.
Why is tovaglia preceded by la? How do I determine its gender and number?
“Tovaglia” ends in –a, which almost always marks a feminine singular noun in Italian. Therefore it takes the feminine singular article la. The plural form would be le tovaglie.
How can I replace “la tovaglia” with a direct object pronoun?
The direct object pronoun for a feminine singular noun is la. In Italian pronouns normally precede the verb, so you’d say:
Il vino la macchia.
This means “Wine stains it.”
Can I drop the subject “il vino” and just say “macchia la tovaglia”?
You can omit subject pronouns when context is clear, but you seldom drop a noun subject. Without il vino, Macchia la tovaglia reads like an imperative—“Stain the tablecloth”—rather than a statement about wine.
What’s the difference between macchiare and macchiarsi?
Macchiare is transitive: “to stain something.”
Macchiarsi is reflexive: “to get stained” or “to stain oneself.”
E.g.:
“Ho macchiato la tovaglia” = “I stained the tablecloth.”
“Mi sono macchiato” = “I got stained” / “I stained myself.”