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I suoi animali sono piccoli.

I suoi animali sono piccoli.
His animals are small.
From Lesson 25:Plural possessive adjectives (i miei, le mie)·Italian

Breakdown of I suoi animali sono piccoli.

essere
to be
piccolo
small
suo
his/her/Your
l'animale
the animal (m)

Questions & Answers about I suoi animali sono piccoli.

Why is there an 'I' before 'suoi'?
In Italian, you almost always need a definite article (the words for 'the', like il, la, i, le) before a possessive word. Because animali is a masculine plural noun, we use the masculine plural article i.
If the sentence meant 'Her animals' instead of 'His', would 'suoi' change to a feminine form?
No, it would still be i suoi animali! In Italian, possessive adjectives match the thing being owned, not the owner. Since the noun animali is masculine and plural, you use the masculine plural i suoi regardless of whether the animals belong to a man or a woman.
If 'animali' is masculine, why does the singular form (animale) end in -e instead of -o?
Not all masculine words end in -o. Many Italian nouns end in -e in the singular, and these can be either masculine or feminine. Whenever a noun ends in -e in the singular, it changes to -i in the plural, which is why we get animali.
Why is the word for small spelled 'piccoli' here instead of 'piccolo'?
Adjectives must match the noun they describe in both gender (masculine/feminine) and number (singular/plural). Since animali is masculine and plural, the base adjective piccolo changes its ending to the masculine plural form piccoli.

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