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La mia famiglia è grande e felice.

La mia famiglia è grande e felice.
My family is big and happy.
From Lesson 20:Singular possessives (il mio, la mia)·Italian

Breakdown of La mia famiglia è grande e felice.

essere
to be
e
and
grande
big
felice
happy
mio
my
la famiglia
family

Questions & Answers about La mia famiglia è grande e felice.

Why is there a 'la' before 'mia'? Doesn't that mean 'the my family'?
Yes, literally it translates to 'the my family'! In Italian, possessive words like mia (my) almost always need a definite article (like il or la) in front of them. You cannot just say mia famiglia.
Why do we use mia instead of mio here?
In Italian, possessive words must match the gender of the thing being owned, not the owner. Since famiglia is a feminine noun, you must use the feminine possessive mia, along with the feminine article la.
If famiglia is a feminine noun ending in -a, why don't grande and felice end in -a too?
Not all adjectives have separate masculine and feminine forms. Grande (big) and felice (happy) belong to a group of adjectives that end in -e in the singular. They stay exactly the same whether they are describing a masculine or a feminine noun.
A family has multiple people in it. Why do we use the singular verb è (is) instead of sono (are)?
Just like in English, famiglia is a singular noun that refers to a single group. Because it is grammatically singular, it takes the singular verb è (is) rather than the plural.

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