Learn Italian: L'ospedale è molto grande e pulito. - The hospital is very big and clean.

L'ospedale è molto grande e pulito.

The hospital is very big and clean.

Breakdown of L'ospedale è molto grande e pulito.

Questions & Answers about L'ospedale è molto grande e pulito.

Why do we use l' instead of il or lo for the hospital?

Ospedale is a masculine noun that starts with a vowel. In Italian, to make pronunciation smoother, singular words for "the" drop their final vowel and become l' before any noun starting with a vowel.

How do I know if l'ospedale is masculine or feminine since the article is just l'?

You often have to look at the other words in the sentence! Here, the adjective pulito ends in -o, which is the masculine singular ending. This is a great clue that ospedale is a masculine noun.

Why doesn't the adjective grande end in -o to match the masculine noun ospedale?

Italian has two main groups of adjectives. While many end in -o for masculine and -a for feminine (like pulito), another common group ends in -e for both masculine and feminine singular nouns. Grande belongs to this second group, so it stays grande.

Does the word molto need to match the gender of the hospital too?

Not in this sentence. When molto means "very" and describes an adjective (like big or clean), it acts as an adverb and never changes its -o ending. It only changes its ending to match a noun when it means "many" or "a lot of".