Breakdown of Questa ciliegia è molto dolce.
Questions & Answers about Questa ciliegia è molto dolce.
Why is it questa and not questo?
How do I know that ciliegia is feminine?
Why is there no article before ciliegia?
Because questa already works as a demonstrative determiner, like this in English.
In English, you say:
- this cherry
not:
- the this cherry
Italian works the same way here:
- questa ciliegia
not standard Italian:
- la questa ciliegia
So the article is not needed.
Why is è written with an accent?
What part of speech is molto here, and why doesn’t it change?
Here molto is an adverb meaning very, so it does not change for gender or number.
It modifies the adjective dolce:
- molto dolce = very sweet
Compare that with molto used as an adjective meaning much/many, where it does change:
- molta acqua = a lot of water
- molti libri = many books
But in è molto dolce, it stays molto because it means very.
Why is it dolce and not something different for feminine?
Is the word order fixed in Questa ciliegia è molto dolce?
Can I leave out questa ciliegia and just say È molto dolce?
How is ciliegia pronounced?
It is pronounced roughly like chee-LYE-jah in English approximation, though the real Italian sound is more precise.
A few useful points:
- ci before i/e sounds like ch in church
- gli in ciliegia is part of the spelling, but here the word is pronounced approximately ci-lie-gia
- the stress falls on lie
A common approximate pronunciation is:
- chee-LYE-jah
What happens to ciliegia in the plural?
Could I say Questa ciliegia è dolcissima instead?
Yes. Dolcissima means very sweet or extremely sweet and uses the Italian superlative ending -issimo/-issima.
So both are correct, but they feel slightly different:
- molto dolce = very sweet
- dolcissima = extremely / really sweet
Because ciliegia is feminine singular, the form is dolcissima.
Is this sentence talking about a general fact or one specific cherry?
It normally refers to one specific cherry, because of questa (this).
So it means you are pointing out or identifying a particular cherry.
If you wanted to talk about cherries in general, you would use a different structure, for example:
So questa makes it specific, not general.
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