Quella montagna è grande.

Breakdown of Quella montagna è grande.

essere
to be
grande
big
quello
that
la montagna
the mountain

Questions & Answers about Quella montagna è grande.

Why is the word for "that" quella here instead of quello?
In Italian, the word for "that" changes its ending to match the noun it describes, similar to how words for "the" work. Because montagna is a feminine singular noun starting with a consonant (which would take the article la), the word for "that" becomes quella.
Since montagna is feminine, why doesn't the adjective grande end in -a?
While many Italian adjectives change to end in -a for feminine words, grande belongs to a different group. Adjectives that end in -e in the dictionary are used for both masculine and feminine singular nouns. It stays grande whether you are talking about a feminine mountain or a masculine book.
If montagna started with a vowel, would we still use quella?
No. If you wanted to say "that" with a feminine noun starting with a vowel, like isola (island), you would drop the final -a and add an apostrophe, making it quell'isola. Since montagna starts with the consonant m, quella keeps its full form.
Why does the word è have an accent mark?
The accent mark is very important because it tells us this is the verb "is". Without the accent mark, the word e just means "and".

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