Learn Italian: È un libro.

È un libro.

It is a book.

Breakdown of È un libro.

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Questions & Answers about È un libro.

Why does È have an accent mark?

The accent mark is very important because it changes the meaning of the word! È (with the accent) means "is", while e (without the accent) means "and".

Where is the word for "it" in this sentence?

In Italian, you don't usually need to use subject pronouns like "it", "he", or "she" before a verb. The verb è (is) already includes the idea of "it", so you can just start the sentence right with the verb.

We are learning about il and la (the). Why use un here?

un means "a" or "an". We use it here because the sentence is "It is a book." If you wanted to say "It is the book", you would use the masculine definite article you are currently learning and say È il libro.

How do I know whether to use un or una for "a" with libro?

The word libro ends in -o, which is a strong clue that it is a masculine noun. Because it is masculine, it takes the masculine article un. If it were a feminine noun (which typically end in -a), you would use una.