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I piatti sono puliti.

I piatti sono puliti.
The plates are clean.
From Lesson 7:Regular plurals and definite articles (-i, -e, i, le)·Italian

Breakdown of I piatti sono puliti.

essere
to be
il piatto
the plate
pulito
clean

Questions & Answers about I piatti sono puliti.

Why is the article i used here instead of il or le?
i is the plural word for "the" used before masculine nouns that start with most consonants. Since the singular word for plate is il piatto, it becomes i piatti in the plural. The word le is the plural "the" for feminine nouns.
How does the noun piatti form its plural?
In Italian, regular masculine nouns that end in -o in the singular change their ending to -i to become plural. So, the singular piatto (plate) drops the -o and adds an -i to become piatti (plates).
Why does the describing word puliti also end in -i?
Adjectives (describing words) must match the noun they describe in both gender and number. Because i piatti is a masculine plural noun, the adjective pulito (clean) changes its regular singular -o ending to -i to match, becoming puliti.
Wait, doesn't sono mean "I am"?
It can! The verb essere (to be) actually uses the exact same word, sono, for both "I am" and "they are". You can tell which one it is from the context of the sentence. Here, we are talking about the plates (they), so sono translates to "are".

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