La legge protegge questo diritto.

In Italian, it is very common to use the definite article where English might not.

• la legge = the law
• In this sentence, la legge is the subject.

Leaving out the article would usually sound incomplete here. So La legge protegge questo diritto is the natural way to say The law protects this right.

Legge is a feminine noun in Italian.

That means it takes:

• the feminine singular article la
• feminine agreement in anything that refers back to it

So:

• la legge = the law

You often have to learn the gender of nouns as part of the word itself. The ending -e does not always tell you the gender, so legge simply has to be learned as feminine.

Protegge is the third-person singular present tense of proteggere (to protect).

So it means:

• he protects
• she protects
• it protects
• the law protects

Here the subject is la legge, which is singular, so the verb must also be singular:

• La legge protegge = The law protects

This comes from the way the verb is conjugated.

The infinitive is proteggere. In the present tense:

• io proteggo
• tu proteggi
• lui/lei protegge
• noi proteggiamo
• voi proteggete
• loro proteggono

The spelling with gg is part of the verb stem in these forms. Italian keeps this spelling to preserve the correct sound.

So protegge is just the normal conjugated form of proteggere.

Questo means this.

It is a demonstrative adjective, because it comes before a noun and points to something specific:

• questo diritto = this right

Like English this, it helps identify which thing is meant.

Because diritto is a masculine singular noun.

The demonstrative must agree with the noun:

• questo = masculine singular
• questa = feminine singular
• questi = masculine plural
• queste = feminine plural

So:

• questo diritto = this right

If the noun were feminine, you would use questa instead.

Yes. In this sentence:

• La legge = the subject
• protegge = the verb
• questo diritto = the direct object

The direct object is the thing affected by the action. The law is doing the protecting, and this right is what gets protected.

Yes, Italian word order is often more flexible than English, but La legge protegge questo diritto is the most neutral and natural order.

This follows the basic pattern:

• Subject + Verb + Object

You might see a different order for emphasis, but in ordinary usage this sentence is straightforward and standard.

A helpful rough guide:

• legge sounds roughly like LEJ-jeh
• protegge sounds roughly like pro-TEJ-jeh
• diritto sounds roughly like dee-RIT-toh

A few useful notes:

• gg before e sounds like the j in judge, but shorter and cleaner
• tt in diritto is a doubled consonant, so it is pronounced more strongly than a single t
• Italian pronunciation is usually very consistent once you learn the sound rules

Italian usually does not need an extra helper verb like English do/does in normal present-tense statements.

English:

• The law protects this right

Italian:

• La legge protegge questo diritto

The verb form protegge already contains the information about person and number, so no extra word is needed.

Usually, no—not without changing the meaning or making the sentence sound unnatural.

• La legge is needed because you are talking about the law
• questo is needed because you are specifying this right

Compare:

• La legge protegge questo diritto = The law protects this right
• La legge protegge il diritto = The law protects the right
• La legge protegge diritti = The law protects rights (more general, and less natural without context)

So both la and questo are doing important jobs in the sentence.