Breakdown of Il cuoco frigge le patate in una padella piena d’olio.
di
of
in
in
pieno
full
la patata
the potato
la padella
the pan
l'olio
the oil
il cuoco
the cook
friggere
to fry
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Questions & Answers about Il cuoco frigge le patate in una padella piena d’olio.
Why is there a definite article before cuoco, whereas in English we would say just “Cook fries…” without “the”?
In Italian, it’s standard to use the definite article before roles, professions and titles when speaking in general or describing habitual actions. So il cuoco literally means “the cook” in a generic sense. English often omits the article in such cases (e.g. “Cooks fry potatoes”), but Italian requires it.
How is frigge formed and why does it have a double g?
Frigge is the third-person singular present tense of the verb friggere (“to fry”). The stem has a doubled g—you’ll see it in all persons: io friggo, tu friggi, lui/lei frigge, noi friggiamo, etc. The double g signals a geminated (long) consonant in pronunciation and preserves the hard /g/ sound before the vowel e.
Why is le patate feminine plural? What is the singular form?
The noun patata (“potato”) ends in -a, making it a feminine noun. The plural of feminine -a nouns changes -a → -e, so patata → patate. The plural definite article for feminine nouns is le, hence le patate (“the potatoes”).
Could I say delle patate instead of le patate? What difference would that make?
Yes. delle patate means “some potatoes” (an indefinite quantity), whereas le patate means “the potatoes” (definite or general). Use le for specific or generic potatoes, and delle when you want to say “some potatoes” without specifying which ones.
Why is the preposition in used before una padella? Could I use su or con instead?
in una padella means “in a pan,” indicating where the action takes place (inside the pan).
- su (“on”) would suggest “on top of” something rather than inside.
- con (“with”) would focus on the instrument (“with a pan”), not the location.
So in is correct for “inside a pan.”
Why is the adjective piena placed after padella, and why is it piena rather than pieno?
In Italian, most descriptive adjectives follow the noun. Piena is the feminine singular form of pieno (“full”) and must agree with padella (a feminine singular noun). Hence una padella piena = “a pan that is full.”
What does d’olio mean, and why is there an apostrophe instead of writing di olio?
d’olio is simply the elided form of di olio (“of oil” or “with oil”). The apostrophe replaces the i in di because the next word (olio) begins with a vowel. You can also write piena di olio, but piena d’olio is more colloquial.
Why don’t we use the definite article with olio, as in dell’olio?
Here you want to express that the pan is “full of oil” in general (some oil), so you use the partitive sense di olio. Using dell’olio (= di + l’olio) would mean “of the oil,” referring to a specific, previously mentioned oil.
Could I say nella padella piena d’olio instead of in una padella piena d’olio?
Yes. nella = in + la (“in the”), so you’d be referring to a specific, known pan. in una padella means “in a (any) pan,” whereas nella padella means “in the pan” (that we’ve already mentioned or you can see).
How would the sentence change if the cook were female or if there were multiple cooks?
- Feminine singular:
La cuoca frigge le patate in una padella piena d’olio. - Masculine plural:
I cuochi friggono le patate in una padella piena d’olio. - Feminine plural (rare for cuoca but grammatically correct):
Le cuoche friggono le patate in una padella piena d’olio.
How can I turn this into a passive‐voice sentence?
Use essere + past participle and add the agent with da:
Le patate sono fritte dal cuoco in una padella piena d’olio.