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Le ragazze sono alte e intelligenti.

Le ragazze sono alte e intelligenti.
The girls are tall and intelligent.
From Lesson 15:Adjective endings (-o, -a, -i, -e)·Italian

Breakdown of Le ragazze sono alte e intelligenti.

essere
to be
la ragazza
the girl
e
and
intelligente
intelligent
alto
tall / high

Questions & Answers about Le ragazze sono alte e intelligenti.

Why does alte end in -e but intelligenti ends in -i if they both describe le ragazze?
Adjectives in Italian usually fall into two main groups. Alto (tall) belongs to the first group, which has four endings: -o (masculine singular), -a (feminine singular), -i (masculine plural), and -e (feminine plural). Since ragazze is feminine plural, we use alte. However, intelligente belongs to a second group that only has two endings: -e for singular and -i for plural, regardless of gender. Since the girls are plural, it becomes intelligenti.
How do I know ragazze is plural?
The singular word for "girl" is ragazza, ending in -a which is the standard feminine singular ending. To make most feminine nouns plural in Italian, you change the final -a to an -e, giving us ragazze.
Why is the article Le instead of I or Gli?
Le is the only word for "the" used with feminine plural nouns. Since ragazze (girls) is feminine plural, we must use Le. The articles i and gli are only used for masculine plural nouns.
Wait, doesn't sono mean "I am"?
Yes, but it also means "they are"! The verb essere (to be) uses sono for both the "I" form (io sono) and the "they" form (loro sono). Here, because the subject is Le ragazze (they), sono translates to "are".

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