Learn Italian: I ragazzi non dormono la mattina. - The boys don't sleep in the morning.

I ragazzi non dormono la mattina.

The boys don't sleep in the morning.

Breakdown of I ragazzi non dormono la mattina.

Questions & Answers about I ragazzi non dormono la mattina.

How do we form dormono from the verb dormire?

Dormire (to sleep) is a regular -ire verb. To get the "they" form (third-person plural), we drop the -ire ending to find the root (dorm-) and add -ono. This gives us dormono (they sleep).

Why is it just non dormono? Don't we need a word for "do" to say "don't"?

In Italian, you don't need a helper word like "do" or "does" to make a negative sentence. You simply place non directly in front of the verb. So, "they don't sleep" is translated directly as non dormono.

The English translation says "in the morning". Where is the word for "in"?

Italian doesn't usually use a preposition (like "in") to talk about routine parts of the day. You just use the definite article plus the time of day. So, la mattina (literally "the morning") is the natural way to say "in the morning".

Does i ragazzi only mean "the boys"?

It can mean "the boys", but it is also the standard way to say "the kids", "the children", or "the teens". Because Italian uses the masculine plural for mixed-gender groups, i ragazzi refers to any group of young people that includes at least one male.