Learn Italian: Questo mese è difficile, ma l'anno è bello. - This month is difficult, but the year is beautiful.

Questo mese è difficile, ma l'anno è bello.

This month is difficult, but the year is beautiful.

Breakdown of Questo mese è difficile, ma l'anno è bello.

Questions & Answers about Questo mese è difficile, ma l'anno è bello.

Why is it l'anno instead of il anno?

Because anno starts with a vowel, we use l' instead of the regular masculine article il. This makes it much easier to say, blending into a single sound rather than having two vowels bump into each other.

Why does difficile end in -e instead of -o to match the masculine word mese?

Not all Italian adjectives have -o or -a endings. A whole group of adjectives naturally ends in -e in the singular form, like difficile or intelligente. These adjectives use the exact same -e ending for both masculine and feminine words.

Since mese ends in -e, how do we know if it is masculine or feminine?

Words ending in -e can be either masculine or feminine, so you have to memorize their gender. However, the sentence gives us a big clue: it uses questo (the masculine form of "this"). If mese were feminine, the sentence would say questa mese.

Could I write quest'mese instead of questo mese?