Learn Italian: La ragazza è qui e il cane è piccolo. - The girl is here and the dog is small.

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?