La contadina porta il mangime, e il maiale arriva per primo.

Italian usually uses an article where English often does too, and sometimes even where English would leave it out.

Here, la contadina means the female farmer / the peasant woman.

• la = feminine singular the
• contadina = feminine singular noun

So the article is there because we are talking about a specific person in the sentence.

Contadina is a feminine noun. It is the feminine form of contadino.

• il contadino = the male farmer
• la contadina = the female farmer

The ending -a often marks a feminine singular noun or adjective in Italian, and the article la confirms it.

Porta is the third-person singular present tense of portare.

So it can mean:

• he carries / brings
• she carries / brings
• it carries / brings

In this sentence, it matches la contadina, so it means she brings/carries.

It can mean different things depending on context.

Portare is a flexible verb that can mean:

• to carry
• to bring
• sometimes to take

In this sentence, brings or carries is the most natural choice because the farmer is moving the feed somewhere.

Mangime is a masculine singular noun, so it takes il.

• il = masculine singular the
• mangime = feed, especially animal feed

So il mangime means the feed.

This word is often used as a mass noun, like feed in English, rather than something countable.

Maiale is a masculine singular noun, so it takes il.

• il maiale = the pig

Even though maiale ends in -e, it is still masculine. Not all masculine nouns end in -o.

Arriva is the third-person singular present tense of arrivare.

It means:

• arrives
• sometimes comes in context

So il maiale arriva means the pig arrives.

Per primo is an idiomatic expression meaning first or as the first one.

Literally, it is something like as first.

In this sentence, it refers to il maiale, which is masculine singular, so we use:

• primo for masculine singular

If it referred to a feminine singular noun, it would be:

• per prima

For example:

• La contadina arriva per prima. = The female farmer arrives first.

Because it agrees with il maiale, which is masculine singular.

Italian adjectives often agree in gender and number with the noun they describe.

Here:

• il maiale = masculine singular
• therefore primo = masculine singular

If the subject were feminine, you would use prima.

Each verb matches its own subject:

• la contadina porta
  Subject: la contadina = singular

• il maiale arriva
  Subject: il maiale = singular

Italian verbs change form depending on the subject, so singular subjects take singular verb forms.

No, this is a very normal, neutral Italian word order:

Subject + verb + object, then another clause:

• La contadina
  • porta
    • il mangime
• il maiale
  • arriva
    • per primo

This is one of the most straightforward ways to build a sentence in Italian.

The comma separates two full clauses:

• La contadina porta il mangime
• il maiale arriva per primo

In Italian, a comma before e is sometimes used when the two parts are clearly separate clauses, especially for rhythm or clarity.

You may also see it without the comma:

• La contadina porta il mangime e il maiale arriva per primo.

Both can be acceptable, depending on style.

Yes, Italian often drops subject pronouns, but not usually full noun subjects when they provide important information.

For example, you could say:

• Porta il mangime, e arriva per primo.

But then it would be much less clear who is doing what.

Because the sentence introduces two different subjects, la contadina and il maiale, keeping them is the natural choice.

Yes. Both verbs are in the simple present:

• porta = brings/carries
• arriva = arrives

In Italian, the present tense can describe:

• what is happening now
• habitual actions
• a vivid narration of events

Here it reads like a simple present-time statement.