Learn Italian: L'insegnante ha una domanda. - The teacher has a question.

L'insegnante ha una domanda.

The teacher has a question.

Breakdown of L'insegnante ha una domanda.

Questions & Answers about L'insegnante ha una domanda.

Why is the verb ha, and do I pronounce the "h"?

ha is the "he/she/it" form of the verb avere (to have), which matches L'insegnante (the teacher). In Italian, the letter "h" is always completely silent, so ha is pronounced exactly like the vowel a.

Why is the article L' instead of il or la?

Because insegnante starts with a vowel. For singular nouns starting with a vowel, both the masculine article lo and the feminine article la drop their last letter and become l' to make it easier to say.

Since insegnante ends in -e, is it a masculine or feminine noun?

Nouns ending in -e can be either, but insegnante is actually both! It is the word for "teacher" for both men and women. In this sentence, because l' is used for both genders, we don't know if the teacher is male or female.

Does una match the teacher or the question?

una (a/an) matches domanda (question). In Italian, articles always match the noun they are directly attached to. Since domanda is a feminine singular noun, it takes the feminine singular article una, regardless of the teacher's gender.