Learn Italian: Lo studente intelligente è qui. - The intelligent student is here.

Lo studente intelligente è qui.

The intelligent student is here.

Breakdown of Lo studente intelligente è qui.

Questions & Answers about Lo studente intelligente è qui.

Why is the article lo used here instead of il?

In Italian, masculine singular words usually take the article il for "the". But because studente starts with an "s" followed by another consonant (the "t"), we have to use lo instead. This makes the words easier to pronounce together!

Both studente and intelligente end in -e. How do we know they are masculine?

Some Italian nouns and adjectives end in -e in the singular, and they can be either masculine or feminine. You just have to learn that studente is masculine. Adjectives like intelligente are very flexible: they end in -e for both masculine and feminine words, so they match perfectly here without needing to change.

Why is it studente intelligente and not intelligente studente?

In English, we put the adjective before the noun ("intelligent student"). In Italian, descriptive adjectives usually come right after the noun they are describing.

What happens if I forget the accent mark on è?

It completely changes the meaning! With the accent, è means "is". Without the accent, e means "and". If you leave off the accent, your sentence would mean "The intelligent student and here", which no longer makes sense.