Learn Italian: Abbiamo un figlio giovane.

Abbiamo un figlio giovane.

We have a young son.

Breakdown of Abbiamo un figlio giovane.

Questions & Answers about Abbiamo un figlio giovane.

Where is the word for 'we' in this sentence?

In Italian, the verb itself tells you who is doing the action. Abbiamo is the 'we' form of the verb avere (to have). You can say noi abbiamo, but Italians usually drop the pronoun noi unless they want to add special emphasis.

Abbiamo doesn't look much like its dictionary form, avere. Is this normal?

Yes, avere (to have) is a highly irregular verb. This means its forms don't follow the standard pattern. As you learn the present tense of avere, you simply have to memorize its unique forms, such as ho (I have), ha (he/she has), and abbiamo (we have).

Why does giovane come after figlio?

In English, we put adjectives before the noun, like 'young son'. In Italian, descriptive adjectives typically go immediately after the noun they describe. So, the sentence builds word-for-word as 'we have a son young'.

Since figlio is a masculine word ending in -o, shouldn't the adjective be giovano?

Not all adjectives end in -o or -a. Giovane belongs to a common group of adjectives that naturally end in -e. These adjectives use the exact same -e ending for both masculine and feminine singular nouns.