Learn Italian: Lo studente è giovane, ma è molto intelligente. - The student is young, but he is very intelligent.

Lo studente è giovane, ma è molto intelligente.

The student is young, but he is very intelligent.

Breakdown of Lo studente è giovane, ma è molto intelligente.

Questions & Answers about Lo studente è giovane, ma è molto intelligente.

Why do we use ma in this sentence?

The word ma means "but". It is a coordinating conjunction used to connect two contrasting ideas. In this sentence, it connects the idea of the student being young with the contrasting idea of him being very intelligent.

Why is the article lo used instead of il for studente?

For masculine words, Italian uses the article lo instead of il when the word starts with an "s" followed by another consonant. Since studente starts with "st", it has to be lo studente.

The English translation says "but he is", so why isn't the word lui (he) used after ma?

Italian frequently drops subject pronouns because the verb usually makes it clear who is being talked about. After ma, the verb è (is) is enough to show we are still talking about the student, so adding lui isn't necessary.

Since studente is masculine, shouldn't the adjectives end in -o, like giovano?

Not all Italian adjectives end in -o or -a. Words like giovane (young) and intelligente (intelligent) belong to a group of adjectives that end in -e in their singular form. They use this exact same form for both masculine and feminine nouns.