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Il gatto è qui.

Il gatto è qui.
The cat is here.
From Lesson 1:Definite articles and gender (il, la, l')·Italian

Breakdown of Il gatto è qui.

essere
to be
il gatto
the cat
qui
here

Questions & Answers about Il gatto è qui.

Why do we use il instead of la for the cat?
Gatto ends in -o, which is the typical ending for masculine singular nouns in Italian. Because it is a masculine word starting with a regular consonant, it uses the masculine word for "the", which is il.
Why does the word è have an accent mark?
The accent mark changes the meaning of the word! With the accent, è is a verb that means "is". Without the accent, e means "and". The accent also tells you to put stress on that vowel when speaking.
If the cat is male, should I say Lui il gatto è qui?
No, you do not need to add the pronoun lui (he). Since il gatto is already the subject of the sentence, adding lui would be like saying "He the cat is here" in English. Il gatto è qui is perfectly complete.
How do you pronounce the word qui?
It is pronounced very similarly to the English word "kwee". In Italian, the letters qu make a "kw" sound, and the letter i makes an "ee" sound.

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