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Quella scatola non è pesante.

Quella scatola non è pesante.
That box is not heavy.
From Lesson 14:Demonstrative adjectives (quello, quella)·Italian

Breakdown of Quella scatola non è pesante.

essere
to be
non
not
la scatola
the box
pesante
heavy
quello
that

Questions & Answers about Quella scatola non è pesante.

Why is it quella and not quello here?
Quella means "that" and changes its ending to match the noun it describes. Because scatola (box) is a feminine singular noun, quello changes to its feminine singular form, quella. It follows the exact same pattern as the definite article for "the" (la scatola becomes quella scatola).
Would quella ever drop its last letter to become quell'?
Yes! If the following feminine noun started with a vowel (like isola for island), it would become quell'isola. But since scatola starts with a consonant, quella keeps its full -a ending.
Why doesn't the adjective pesante end in "-a" to match the feminine noun scatola?
While many Italian adjectives change to -o or -a to match gender, adjectives that end in -e in their dictionary form (like pesante) are unisex. They use the same -e ending for both masculine and feminine singular nouns.
How does the word order work for non è?
In Italian, making a sentence negative is very straightforward: you always place non directly before the verb. So the English "is not" is translated in the reverse order as non è.

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