Learn Italian: C'è un parco grande in città. - There is a big park in the city.

C'è un parco grande in città.

There is a big park in the city.

Breakdown of C'è un parco grande in città.

Questions & Answers about C'è un parco grande in città.

Why is there an apostrophe in c'è?

C'è means "there is". It is made by combining ci (there) and è (is). Because ci ends in a vowel and è begins with one, the i is dropped and replaced by an apostrophe to make it easier to say quickly.

Why is it parco grande instead of grande parco?

In Italian, descriptive adjectives like grande (big) usually come after the noun they describe. So instead of saying "a big park" like in English, you say "a park big" (un parco grande).

Why doesn't in città have a word for "the"?

For certain common locations, like città (city), banca (bank), or classe (class), Italian uses the preposition in all by itself, without adding a definite article (the word for "the"). So in città naturally translates to "in the city" or "in town".

What does the accent mark on the word città mean?

The accent mark tells you to put the stress (the strongest beat of your voice) on that final vowel. Instead of saying "CIT-ta", you pronounce it "cit-TA". As a bonus, words that end with an accented vowel do not change their ending when they become plural!