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La notte è bella.

La notte è bella.
The night is beautiful.
From Lesson 10:Nouns ending in -e·Italian

Breakdown of La notte è bella.

essere
to be
bello
beautiful
la notte
the night

Questions & Answers about La notte è bella.

Why does notte end in -e instead of -a if it's a feminine word?
While most feminine words end in -a, Italian has a whole group of nouns that end in -e in the singular. These -e words can be either masculine or feminine. Notte happens to be feminine, which is why it uses the feminine article la. You just have to memorize the gender of -e nouns as you learn them!
If they go together, why doesn't bella match the ending of notte?
Adjectives have to match the noun's gender (feminine) and number (singular), but they don't have to rhyme! Because notte is feminine singular, the adjective takes its normal feminine singular ending, which is -a for the word bella.
How would I change this sentence to say "The nights are beautiful"?
Singular nouns that end in -e change to -i in the plural, regardless of their gender. So la notte becomes le notti. The adjective bella follows the normal feminine plural rule and becomes belle. Finally, è (is) becomes sono (are). The full plural sentence is Le notti sono belle.
Why does è have an accent mark?
The accent mark distinguishes è (is) from e (and). They sound slightly different in Italian, and the written accent reminds you of both the meaning and the pronunciation.

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