Learn Italian: Anna ha una penna di metallo.

Anna ha una penna di metallo.

Anna has a metal pen.

Breakdown of Anna ha una penna di metallo.

Questions & Answers about Anna ha una penna di metallo.

Why does the Italian sentence use di metallo instead of putting a descriptive word before pen, like "metal pen"?

In Italian, to say what something is made of, you use the preposition di (of) plus the noun for the material. You cannot just stack nouns together like in English. So instead of "metal pen", you literally say "a pen of metal" (una penna di metallo).

Why is it una penna and not un penna?

Penna is a feminine noun, which you can usually guess because it ends in -a. Because it is feminine, it needs the feminine word for "a", which is una.

How should I pronounce the double letters in penna and metallo?

When you see double consonants in Italian, you need to hold that sound a little longer than a single consonant. For penna, hold the 'n' sound slightly before moving to the 'a'. For metallo, linger on the 'l' sound.

Why is the 'h' in ha silent?

In Italian, the letter 'h' is always silent! It is written in ha (has) just to tell it apart in writing from the word a (to), but they are pronounced exactly the same.