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La ragazza è qui e il cane è piccolo.

La ragazza è qui e il cane è piccolo.
The girl is here and the dog is small.
From Lesson 2:Indefinite articles (un, una)·Italian

Breakdown of La ragazza è qui e il cane è piccolo.

essere
to be
la ragazza
the girl
e
and
piccolo
small
qui
here
il cane
the dog

Questions & Answers about La ragazza è qui e il cane è piccolo.

Why do we use la for the girl and il for the dog?
In Italian, all nouns have a gender (masculine or feminine). Ragazza is a feminine noun, so it takes the feminine singular word for "the", which is la. Cane is a masculine noun, so it takes the masculine singular word for "the", which is il.
Since cane ends in -e, how do I know it uses the masculine article il?
While many masculine words end in -o and feminine words in -a, words ending in -e can be either masculine or feminine. Cane happens to be masculine. You just have to memorize the gender of words ending in -e as you learn them, which is why learning the article (il cane) together with the noun is a great habit!
Why does è have an accent mark but e doesn't?
The accent mark completely changes the meaning! È (with the accent) is a verb meaning "is" (as in la ragazza è qui). E (without the accent) is a conjunction meaning "and".
Why is the word for small piccolo and not piccola?
Adjectives must match the gender of the noun they describe. Because "small" describes il cane, which is masculine, we use the masculine ending -o to make piccolo. If the sentence were saying the girl is small, it would be la ragazza è piccola.

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