Log inSign up

È un cane.

È un cane.
It is a dog.
From Lesson 2:Indefinite articles (un, una)·Italian

Questions & Answers about È un cane.

Why is there an accent mark on È?
The accent mark is very important! È with the accent means "is" (from the verb essere, to be). Without the accent, e just means "and".
Where is the word for "It" in this sentence?
In Italian, you don't usually need to use subject pronouns like "it". The verb È already includes the meaning "he is", "she is", or "it is". You can just start the sentence right with the verb.
The word cane ends in -e. How do we know if it's masculine or feminine?
Italian nouns ending in -e can be either masculine or feminine, so you just have to learn their gender as you go. cane is masculine. Because of this, it uses the masculine article un ("a"). If we wanted to say "the dog" using the new definite articles from this lesson, it would be il cane.

Learn È un cane and more in Italian

All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.

  • ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
  • ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
  • ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free
Start learning Italian →