L'uomo ricco compra la casa.

Because uomo begins with a vowel sound, and Italian usually shortens lo or il before a vowel.

So:

• il
  • consonant: il libro
• lo
  • certain consonants: lo studente
• before a vowel: l'

That gives:

• l'uomo = the man

The apostrophe shows that the article has been shortened.

Ricco means rich or wealthy.

In Italian, adjectives often come after the noun, so:

• uomo ricco = rich man
• literally: man rich

This is very normal Italian word order. English usually puts adjectives before the noun, but Italian often puts them after.

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

Here:

• uomo is masculine singular
• so the adjective is ricco = masculine singular

Compare:

• l'uomo ricco = the rich man
• la donna ricca = the rich woman
• gli uomini ricchi = the rich men
• le donne ricche = the rich women

La is the feminine singular definite article, meaning the.

Since casa is a feminine singular noun, it takes la:

• la casa = the house

So in the sentence:

• compra la casa = buys the house

In this sentence, you can tell because it uses the article la, which is feminine singular.

Also, casa is simply a noun that is grammatically feminine in Italian. Grammatical gender does not necessarily mean anything about real-world gender; it is just part of how the noun behaves in the language.

Compra is the third person singular present tense of the verb comprare, which means to buy.

So:

• io compro = I buy
• tu compri = you buy
• lui/lei compra = he/she buys

In this sentence:

• L'uomo ricco compra la casa.
• The rich man buys the house.

Italian often leaves out subject pronouns when they are not needed, because the verb ending already gives useful information.

Here, compra tells you the verb is third person singular, and the noun phrase l'uomo ricco already states who is doing the action.

So Italian naturally says:

• L'uomo ricco compra la casa.

Adding lui would usually be unnecessary unless you want emphasis or contrast.

The normal, neutral order is:

• L'uomo ricco compra la casa.

That is subject + verb + object, just like English.

Italian can change word order for emphasis, but this standard order is the most natural for a basic statement. For a learner, this is the safest pattern to use.

Not normally in everyday neutral Italian.

The usual and most natural form is:

• l'uomo ricco

Putting ricco before the noun is much less common and can sound literary, emphatic, or stylistically marked.

So if you simply mean the rich man, use:

• l'uomo ricco

Because Italian uses articles very frequently, often more regularly than English learners expect.

Here both nouns are definite:

• l'uomo = the man
• la casa = the house

So the sentence refers to a specific man and a specific house, not just a man or a house.

If it were indefinite, you would have something like:

• Un uomo ricco compra una casa.
• A rich man buys a house.

It would become:

• Gli uomini ricchi comprano le case.

Breakdown:

• l'uomo → gli uomini = the men
• ricco → ricchi = rich
• compra → comprano = buy
• la casa → le case = the houses

This shows how articles, nouns, adjectives, and verbs all change to match number.

It is pronounced roughly like LWOH-mo.

A few helpful points:

• the l' links directly to uomo
• uomo begins with a w-like glide sound: wo
• the stress is on the first syllable: UO

So it does not sound like oo-oh-mo; it is closer to womo.

A very literal breakdown is:

• L' uomo = the man
• ricco = rich
• compra = buys
• la casa = the house

So the structure is:

• the man rich buys the house

That sounds unnatural in English, but it helps show how Italian is built. The natural English translation is:

• The rich man buys the house.