Learn Italian: Questo è un cane molto vecchio.

Questo è un cane molto vecchio.

This is a very old dog.

Breakdown of Questo è un cane molto vecchio.

Questions & Answers about Questo è un cane molto vecchio.

Why do we use questo here instead of questa?

Questo (this) is a demonstrative pronoun pointing out the dog. Since cane (dog) is a masculine noun in Italian, we use the masculine singular form questo. If you were pointing out a feminine noun, like a house (una casa), you would use questa.

Why does vecchio (old) come after cane (dog) instead of before it?

In Italian, descriptive adjectives usually come right after the noun they describe. So instead of 'an old dog', the structure is literally 'a dog old' (un cane vecchio). Since we are adding molto (very), the whole descriptive phrase molto vecchio goes after the noun.

If we were talking about a feminine animal, would molto change to molta?

No, it would stay exactly the same! When molto is used right before an adjective to mean 'very', it acts as an adverb. Adverbs never change their endings to match the noun.

Why does è have an accent mark?

The accent mark tells us that è means 'is' (from the verb essere, to be). Without the accent mark, e simply means 'and'.