Il monolocale vicino al parco costa meno del bilocale.

In Italian, articles are used more often than in English. Here, monolocale and bilocale are specific noun types, and the sentence is talking about them as identifiable apartments:

• il monolocale = the studio apartment
• il bilocale = the one-bedroom/two-room apartment

In the second part, del bilocale includes the article too because it means than the bilocale. Italian usually keeps the article with the noun in this kind of comparison.

These are common Italian real-estate words:

• monolocale = a studio apartment / one-room apartment
• bilocale = an apartment with two main rooms, usually a living room and one bedroom

They are very common in ads and housing descriptions in Italy. English does not match them perfectly word-for-word, so the best translation depends on context.

Because a + il contracts into al.

This is a very common Italian contraction:

• a + il = al
• di + il = del
• in + il = nel
• su + il = sul

So:

• vicino al parco = near the park

You should think of al as the normal form here, not as something optional.

Because del is di + il, and the noun bilocale has the article il.

In comparisons with più or meno, Italian often uses di before the thing being compared:

• costa meno del bilocale = it costs less than the bilocale

So the structure is:

• meno di + noun
• if the noun has il, then di + il = del

Compare:

• meno di Paolo = less than Paolo
• meno del bilocale = less than the bilocale

Vicino al parco means near the park and describes monolocale.

So the structure is:

• Il monolocale = the studio apartment
• vicino al parco = near the park

Together:

• Il monolocale vicino al parco = the studio apartment near the park

In Italian, descriptive phrases like this often come after the noun, just as in English with the apartment near the park.

In this sentence, it behaves like part of a location expression meaning near.

You will often see:

• vicino a
  • noun = near
• vicino al parco = near the park

So even if learners first meet vicino as an adjective meaning near/close, in sentences like this it is best understood as the expression vicino a.

Because the subject is singular:

• Il monolocale vicino al parco = one apartment

So the verb must also be singular:

• costa = it costs

This is the third-person singular form of costare in the present tense:

• io costo
• tu costi
• lui/lei costa
• noi costiamo
• voi costate
• loro costano

Here, costa means costs.

Both are possible.

• costa meno del bilocale = it costs less than the bilocale
• è meno caro del bilocale = it is less expensive than the bilocale

Using costare is very natural when talking about price. It focuses directly on how much something costs.

So costa meno is often the most straightforward and idiomatic choice.

This is the standard comparative pattern:

• meno = less
• di = than
• il bilocale = the bilocale
• di + il = del

So:

• meno del bilocale = less than the bilocale

A similar pattern works with più:

• costa più del bilocale = it costs more than the bilocale

And with adjectives:

• è più grande del bilocale = it is bigger than the bilocale

In this sentence, it most naturally describes monolocale, because it comes right after it:

• Il monolocale vicino al parco = the studio apartment near the park

Then the sentence compares that apartment to the bilocale.

If you wanted vicino al parco to describe bilocale, you would normally place it after bilocale instead:

• Il monolocale costa meno del bilocale vicino al parco.

That would mean:

• the studio costs less than the one-bedroom apartment near the park

So word order helps show what the descriptive phrase belongs to.

It actually does, but not with a separate fixed word exactly like English than. Italian usually uses di in comparisons:

• meno del bilocale = less than the bilocale

So the job of than is being done by di, which here becomes del because of the article.

This is very common in Italian comparisons, so it is worth getting used to:

• più di... = more than...
• meno di... = less than...

Only partly. A rough word-for-word breakdown is:

• Il = the
• monolocale = studio apartment
• vicino al parco = near the park
• costa = costs
• meno = less
• del bilocale = than the bilocale

That helps you see the structure, but natural English may need slight adjustment depending on context. The important thing is understanding how the Italian pieces fit together, especially:

• noun + descriptive phrase
• costare
• comparative meno di

Yes. Costa is present tense, so the sentence literally says costs.

In Italian, the present tense can describe:

• a fact right now
• a general truth
• something currently true in context

So this sentence can mean either:

• right now, that studio costs less
• in general, that studio is cheaper than the bilocale

The exact nuance depends on context.