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Il cane non è vecchio.

Il cane non è vecchio.
The dog is not old.
From Lesson 4:Basic verbal negation (non)·Italian

Breakdown of Il cane non è vecchio.

essere
to be
il cane
the dog
vecchio
old
non
not

Questions & Answers about Il cane non è vecchio.

Where exactly do we put the word non to make a sentence negative?
In Italian, you almost always put non directly in front of the verb you want to negate. Here, the verb is è (is), so we say non è (is not). It is simpler than English because you never need extra helping words like 'do' or 'does'.
Why does vecchio end in an -o here?
Because it is describing il cane (the dog), which is a masculine singular noun. Adjectives in Italian change their endings to match the gender and number of the noun they describe. If we were describing a feminine noun, it would change to vecchia.
Why is there an accent mark on the word è?
The accent mark is very important for meaning! Written with the accent, è means 'is' (from the verb essere). Without the accent, e simply means 'and'.
How do I pronounce the cch part of vecchio?
In Italian, when you see ch or cch before an i or an e, it always makes a hard 'k' sound, like in the English word 'kite'. The double consonant just means you emphasize and hold the 'k' sound a tiny bit longer. So, vecchio is pronounced roughly like 'VEHK-kee-oh'.

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