Learn Italian: Le borse nere sono nuove.

Le borse nere sono nuove.

The black bags are new.

Breakdown of Le borse nere sono nuove.

Questions & Answers about Le borse nere sono nuove.

Why does the sentence use le borse instead of la borsa?

Borse is the plural of the feminine noun borsa (bag). As you are learning in this lesson, regular feminine nouns ending in -a change to -e in the plural. Because the noun is plural and feminine, its matching "the" also changes from the singular la to the plural le.

Why do the words for "black" and "new" end in -e (nere, nuove)?

In Italian, adjectives have to match the noun they describe. The dictionary forms for these adjectives are nero and nuovo. Because they are describing le borse (a feminine plural noun), they drop their default -o ending and take the feminine plural -e ending to match.

Why is it borse nere instead of nere borse?

Unlike English, which puts descriptive adjectives before the noun ("black bags"), Italian generally puts them right after the noun. So, "the black bags" is phrased as le borse nere (literally: "the bags black").

Wait, doesn't sono mean "I am"?