Questions & Answers about È un'isola grande.
Why is there an apostrophe in un'isola?
If the word were masculine and started with a vowel, would it also use an apostrophe?
No, and this is a very common trap! If a masculine word starts with a vowel (like orologio, watch), you just use un without an apostrophe: un orologio. The apostrophe in Italian is only used for feminine words, acting as a footprint left behind by the missing "a" from una.
Where is the word for "it" in this sentence?
In Italian, subject pronouns like "it", "he", or "she" are usually dropped because the verb itself shows who or what is doing the action. The verb è means "is", but it acts as "it is" all by itself here.
Since isola is feminine, why doesn't grande end in an "a"?
While many adjectives end in "o" for masculine and "a" for feminine, grande belongs to a different group of adjectives that naturally end in -e. These adjectives use the exact same form for both masculine and feminine words in the singular. So, it is un'isola grande (feminine) and un libro grande (masculine).
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