Al mercato compro un’albicocca molto dolce.

Because al is the contraction of a + il.

• a = to / at
• il mercato = the market
• a + il = al

So al mercato means at the market or to the market, depending on context.

Italian usually uses a preposition + article together with many places:

• al supermercato
• alla stazione
• al mare

Italian often leaves out subject pronouns when they are not needed.

The verb ending already tells you who is doing the action:

• compro = I buy
• compri = you buy
• compra = he/she buys

So compro already means I buy, and io is optional. You would add io only for emphasis or contrast:

• Io compro un’albicocca, tu una pesca.

Compro is the present indicative of comprare.

Here it can mean:

• I buy
• I am buying
• sometimes even a habitual action like I buy at the market

Italian uses the present tense more broadly than English, so the exact English translation depends on context.

Because the full feminine singular indefinite article is una, but before a vowel it becomes un’.

So:

• una pesca
• un’albicocca
• un’arancia

The apostrophe shows that the final a of una has dropped.

Important:

• un’ with apostrophe = feminine before a vowel
• un without apostrophe is usually masculine

So un’albicocca is feminine.

You can tell from the article: un’ here comes from una, which is feminine.

Also, many Italian nouns ending in -a are feminine:

• la mela
• la pesca
• l’albicocca

But this is only a common pattern, not an absolute rule. The safest way is always to learn nouns together with their article:

• l’albicocca
• il mercato

In Italian, adjectives often come after the noun.

So the normal order is:

• un’albicocca dolce
• una casa grande
• un libro interessante

Here molto modifies dolce, so molto dolce stays together:

• un’albicocca molto dolce = a very sweet apricot

You can sometimes move adjectives before the noun, but that usually changes the tone or emphasis. The version in your sentence is the most neutral and natural one.

Because dolce is one of those adjectives that has the same form for masculine singular and feminine singular.

Its pattern is:

• singular: dolce
• plural: dolci

So:

• un ragazzo dolce
• una ragazza dolce
• ragazzi dolci
• ragazze dolci

Even though albicocca is feminine, dolce stays dolce in the singular.

Not here. In this sentence, molto is an adverb, meaning very, so it does not change.

• un’albicocca molto dolce
• due albicocche molto dolci
• una pesca molto buona

But molto can also be an adjective, and then it does agree:

• molta frutta
• molti libri
• molte albicocche

So in your sentence:

• molto = adverb = invariable
• dolce = adjective describing albicocca

Italian word order is flexible.

Starting with Al mercato puts the setting first:

• At the market, I buy a very sweet apricot.

This is perfectly natural. You could also say:

• Compro un’albicocca molto dolce al mercato.

That version puts the action first. Both are correct, but the original sentence gives a little more prominence to where the action happens.

Because un’ is the indefinite article, meaning an / one.

• un’albicocca = an apricot, any apricot, not previously identified
• l’albicocca = the apricot, a specific apricot

So the sentence is talking about one apricot in a general, nonspecific way.

Yes, depending on the context.

Italian a + place can sometimes cover both ideas that English separates into at and to. In this sentence, because the action is compro, English usually understands it as at the market.

If you wanted to make movement clearer, you might use a verb of going:

• Vado al mercato = I go to the market

So al mercato itself is normal; the verb usually helps clarify the exact meaning.

The apostrophe does not create a pause. You pronounce it smoothly as one connected phrase:

• un’albicocca

A rough guide is:

• oon-al-bee-KOK-ka

And albicocca is stressed on -coc-.

This smooth linking is very common in Italian when an article loses a vowel before another vowel:

• un’arancia
• l’amica
• quest’anno