In quella frase manca il trattino tra le due parole.

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Breakdown of In quella frase manca il trattino tra le due parole.

• quella: that
• due: two
• la parola: the word

Questions & Answers about In quella frase manca il trattino tra le due parole.

What does manca mean here, exactly?

Here manca means is missing or is absent.

The verb is mancare, which often works differently from English. Italian focuses on the thing that is missing:

• Manca il trattino = The hyphen is missing
• literally: The hyphen lacks / is lacking

So in this sentence, Italian is not saying someone forgot the hyphen. It is simply stating that the hyphen is not there.

Why is it manca and not mancano?

Because the subject is il trattino, which is singular.

A very common point of confusion is that English speakers may look at le due parole and think the verb should be plural. But between the two words is just extra information. The thing doing the grammar work is il trattino.

Structure:

• In quella frase = in that sentence
• manca = is missing
• il trattino = the hyphen
• tra le due parole = between the two words

So the core is:

• Il trattino manca = The hyphen is missing

Since il trattino is singular, the verb is singular: manca.

Why does the sentence start with In quella frase?