Learn Italian: Il negozio non è aperto, è chiuso. - The shop is not open, it is closed.

To make a statement negative in Italian, you simply place non directly before the verb. Here, the verb is è (is), so to say "is not," you write non è.

Why is there no word for "it" before è chiuso?

Italian frequently drops subject pronouns (like "I", "he", "she", or "it") because the verb and the context usually make it clear what is being discussed. Since we are already talking about il negozio, we can just say è chiuso (is closed) instead of "it is closed".

Why do aperto and chiuso both end in the letter -o?

Adjectives describe nouns, and in Italian they must match the noun's gender and number. Because il negozio is a masculine singular noun, both adjectives take the masculine singular -o ending. If we were talking about a feminine noun like la porta (the door), they would be aperta and chiusa.

How is the ch in chiuso pronounced?

In Italian, the letters ch together always make a hard "k" sound, never a soft sound like in the English word "church". Therefore, chiuso starts with a "ky" sound and is pronounced roughly like "KYOO-zoh".