Learn Italian: La sorpresa è un segreto tra noi. - The surprise is a secret between us.

La sorpresa è un segreto tra noi.

The surprise is a secret between us.

Breakdown of La sorpresa è un segreto tra noi.

Questions & Answers about La sorpresa è un segreto tra noi.

Why does this sentence use noi for "us" instead of ci?

When a pronoun comes immediately after a preposition like tra (between), you must use a "tonic" or stand-alone pronoun. For "us", that word is noi. You would use ci if "us" were the object of a verb, but after prepositions, you always need to use noi.

Can tra also mean "among"?

Yes! The preposition tra translates to both "between" and "among". Italian doesn't use two different words based on the size of the group. So tra noi works perfectly whether the secret is just between two people or shared among a larger group of friends.

Why is the article un instead of uno before segreto?

You only use the article uno when a masculine word starts with "s" followed by another consonant, like uno studente (s+t). Because segreto starts with "s" followed by a vowel (the letter "e"), it just uses the standard masculine article un.

How do you pronounce the two "s" letters in sorpresa?

The first "s" is at the start of the word and makes a sharp, hissing "s" sound. However, the second "s" is sandwiched between two vowels ("e" and "a"), so it is pronounced with a buzzing "z" sound. This makes it sound very similar to how you pronounce the "s" letters in the English word "surprise"!