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Il medico è stanco, ma è felice.

Il medico è stanco, ma è felice.
The doctor is tired, but he is happy.
From Lesson 6:Coordinating conjunctions (e, ma, o)·Italian

Breakdown of Il medico è stanco, ma è felice.

essere
to be
ma
but
felice
happy
il medico
the doctor
stanco
tired

Questions & Answers about Il medico è stanco, ma è felice.

Why is there a comma before ma?
ma is a coordinating conjunction meaning "but". Just like in English, when you use ma to connect two complete thoughts that each have their own verb (here, è stanco and è felice), you usually put a comma before it.
Why is the word "he" missing in the second half of the sentence?
In Italian, subject pronouns like lui (he) are usually left out. Since we already know we are talking about il medico, and the verb è (is) matches "he", saying lui è felice isn't necessary and would sound repetitive.
stanco ends in "-o" because the doctor is male, but why does felice end in "-e"?
Adjectives in Italian fall into two main groups. stanco belongs to the group that changes its ending to match the noun (-o for masculine and -a for feminine). felice belongs to a different group of adjectives that naturally end in -e. These -e adjectives don't change for gender, so felice is used for both masculine and feminine singular nouns.
I thought the word for doctor was dottore. Can I use that instead of medico?
Yes, you can! However, there is a slight difference. medico strictly means a medical physician. dottore is also used for medical doctors (especially as a title before a name), but it actually refers to anyone who has graduated with a university degree in Italy.

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