Il disegno rappresenta il giardino con un albero alto.

Breakdown of Il disegno rappresenta il giardino con un albero alto.

l'albero
the tree
alto
tall
il giardino
the garden
con
with
il disegno
the drawing
rappresentare
to depict
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Questions & Answers about Il disegno rappresenta il giardino con un albero alto.

Why is rappresenta in the third person singular present tense?
Rappresenta is the present indicative form of the verb rappresentare for lui/lei/esso (he/she/it). Here, the subject is il disegno (the drawing), which is third person singular, so the verb agrees and becomes rappresenta (“it depicts”).
Why is there no preposition between rappresenta and il giardino?
Rappresentare is a transitive verb in Italian, which means it takes a direct object without any additional preposition. You simply say rappresenta il giardino (“it depicts the garden”), just like vede la casa (“he sees the house”) or colora il cielo (“she colors the sky”).
Why is il used before disegno and giardino, but un before albero?
  • Il is the definite article for masculine singular nouns (the), used when talking about a specific, known drawing (il disegno) and a specific garden (il giardino).
  • Un is the indefinite article for masculine singular nouns (a/an), used for a non-specified tree (un albero)—it just means “a tall tree,” not “the tall tree.”
When do you use un versus uno before masculine nouns?
  • Use un before most masculine nouns, including those starting with a vowel (e.g., un albero, un uomo) or a common consonant (e.g., un libro).
  • Use uno before masculine nouns that begin with:
    s + consonant (uno studente)
    z (uno zaino)
    gn (uno gnomo)
    ps, pn, x, y (uno psicologo, uno pneumatico, uno xilofono, uno yogurt).
Why is the adjective alto placed after albero instead of before it?
In standard Italian, descriptive adjectives usually follow the noun: albero alto (“tree tall” → “tall tree”). Placing it before (alto albero) is grammatically possible but gives a poetic or stylistic emphasis and is less common in everyday speech.
Why is the preposition con used in con un albero alto?
Con literally means “with.” Here it links il giardino to the feature it has: the garden is depicted with a tall tree. It’s the straightforward way to say “the garden that has a tall tree.”
How do you pronounce disegno, rappresenta, and giardino?

disegno: di-SE-ɲo (the gn is like the Spanish ñ in caño; stress on SE)
rappresenta: rap-pre-SEN-ta (stress on SEN)
giardino: jar-DEE-no (the g before i sounds like English j; stress on DEE)

Could you use a different verb like mostra, or even ha, instead of rappresenta?
  • You can say Il disegno mostra il giardino con un albero alto (mostra = “shows”), but rappresenta is more specific—it depicts/portrays.
  • Ha (“has”) wouldn’t work with disegno, because a drawing doesn’t “have” a garden. You could say Il giardino ha un albero alto (“the garden has a tall tree”), but not Il disegno ha il giardino….