Learn Italian: Il treno è lento.

In Italian, adjectives (describing words) must match the gender and number of the noun they describe. Because treno (train) is a masculine singular noun, the adjective lento (slow) takes the masculine singular ending -o.

How do we know that treno is masculine?

Most Italian nouns that end in -o are masculine, just like treno. Because of this, it needs masculine articles and adjectives.

Why use Il instead of Lo for 'The'?

Il is the singular masculine word for 'the' used before most consonants. We only use Lo for masculine words starting with 'z', or 's' followed by another consonant. Since treno starts with a simple 't', we use Il.

Does the accent mark on è matter?

Yes, it is very important! è with the accent mark means 'is'. Without the accent, e means 'and'.