Learn Italian: L'insegnante viene alla riunione. - The teacher is coming to the meeting.

L'insegnante viene alla riunione.

The teacher is coming to the meeting.

Breakdown of L'insegnante viene alla riunione.

l'insegnante

the teacher

alla

to the / at the (feminine singular)

Questions & Answers about L'insegnante viene alla riunione.

Why is the verb viene spelled with an "i" if the dictionary verb is venire?

Venire (to come) is a highly irregular verb. For the "he/she/it" form, the stem changes and adds an "i", making it viene. You just have to memorize this special form!

How do we know if l'insegnante is a male or a female teacher?

We actually can't tell from this sentence alone! Nouns ending in -e can be masculine or feminine. Insegnante is the exact same word for both men and women, and since it starts with a vowel, the word for "the" becomes l' either way.

Why does the sentence use alla instead of just a?

Alla is a combined word (an articulated preposition). It merges a (to/at) and the feminine "the", la. In Italian, you must combine these words when they are next to each other, so "to the" becomes alla.

Since riunione ends in -e, how do we know it's feminine and needs alla instead of the masculine al?

While nouns ending in -e can be tricky because they can be masculine or feminine, there is a very handy rule: almost all Italian nouns ending in -ione (like riunione, lezione, stazione) are feminine.