La nonna innaffia l’orto la sera.

Grandma waters the vegetable garden in the evening.

Breakdown of La nonna innaffia l’orto la sera.

• la sera: the evening
• innaffiare: to water
• l’orto: the vegetable garden
• la nonna: grandma

Questions & Answers about La nonna innaffia l’orto la sera.

Why is the verb spelled innaffia with a double n?

Because the infinitive is innaffiare, which inherently has two “n”s in its root. In Italian, single vs. double consonants can change meaning or simply be part of a word’s correct spelling.

Who is performing the action in this sentence?

The subject is la nonna (“grandma”). She’s the one doing the watering.

Why do we say l’orto instead of il orto?

Italian uses the apostrophized article l’ before masculine singular nouns that begin with a vowel. So il orto becomes l’orto by dropping the i and adding an apostrophe.

Why is there no preposition before la sera?

Time expressions that name parts of the day (morning, afternoon, evening) typically don’t require a preposition. You can directly place la sera as a temporal adverbial.

Why is the definite article used with sera?

It’s standard in Italian to pair parts of the day with the definite article: la mattina, il pomeriggio, la sera, etc. It’s not optional—it’s the normal pattern.