Question 1

If I wanted to say "the insects" instead of "these insects", which article would I use?

Accepted Answer

You would use gli insetti. Because insetto (insect) is a masculine noun starting with a vowel, it uses the special plural article gli. In this sentence, we use the demonstrative word questi (these) instead, so we don't need the article.

Question 2

Why do almost all the words in this sentence end in -i?

Accepted Answer

This is a great example of Italian gender and number agreement! Insetti is a masculine plural noun, so all the words describing it must also be masculine plural. That means questi (these), pericolosi (dangerous), and strani (strange) all take the regular masculine plural -i ending.

Question 3

What are the singular forms of pericolosi and strani?

Accepted Answer

If we were talking about just one insect, they would be pericoloso (dangerous) and strano (strange). They are regular masculine adjectives that change their ending from -o to -i in the plural.

Question 4

Where does the negative word non go in an Italian sentence?

Accepted Answer

It almost always goes directly before the verb. In this sentence, non is placed right before the verb sono (are) to mean "are not". You can't put it after the verb like we sometimes do in English.

Questi insetti non sono pericolosi, ma strani.

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