Learn Italian: I nostri colleghi sono in vacanza. - Our colleagues are on vacation.

I nostri colleghi sono in vacanza.

Our colleagues are on vacation.

Breakdown of I nostri colleghi sono in vacanza.

essere

to be

in / made of (material)

Questions & Answers about I nostri colleghi sono in vacanza.

Why is there an "i" before "nostri"? English doesn't say "the our colleagues".

In Italian, possessive adjectives like nostri (our) almost always need a definite article (like il, la, i, or le) right in front of them. Since colleghi is a masculine plural noun, we use the masculine plural article i, making the full phrase i nostri.

How do I know whether to use "nostro", "nostri", or "nostre"?

Possessive adjectives must match the gender and number of the noun they describe, not the people who "own" it. Here, the noun is colleghi (colleagues), which is masculine and plural. Therefore, you use the masculine plural form nostri. If it were an all-female group of colleagues, it would be le nostre colleghe.

The singular of "colleghi" is "collega", which ends in an "-a". Doesn't that make it feminine?

Collega is a special noun! It can be masculine (il collega) or feminine (la collega) depending on who you are talking about. When making the masculine version plural, the "-a" ending changes to an "-i", becoming i colleghi.

Why is there an "h" in "colleghi"?

In Italian, the letter "g" followed by an "e" or "i" makes a soft sound (like in "gelato"). To keep the hard "g" sound from the singular word collega (like in "go"), we have to insert an "h" before the "i" ending.