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Abbiamo un problema, non ci sono treni oggi!

Abbiamo un problema, non ci sono treni oggi!
We have a problem, there are no trains today!
From Lesson 18:There is / there are (c'è, ci sono)·Italian

Questions & Answers about Abbiamo un problema, non ci sono treni oggi!

Why do we use ci sono instead of c'è here?
Ci sono means "there are" and is used for plural nouns. Since treni (trains) is plural, we use ci sono. If we were talking about one train, we would use c'è ("there is").
How do you make ci sono negative?
You just put non right before it! While English often says "there are no trains", Italian simply uses the regular negative structure: non ci sono treni (literally, "not there are trains").
Why is it un problema? Doesn't the -a at the end make it feminine?
Problema is a famous rule-breaker in Italian! Even though it ends in -a, it is actually a masculine noun. That is why it uses the masculine article un instead of the feminine una.
Why isn't there a word for "any" before treni?
In English, we naturally say "there aren't any trains". In Italian, you do not need an extra word for "any" in this kind of negative sentence. Just saying non ci sono treni is completely natural.

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