Question 1

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

Accepted Answer

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!

Question 2

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

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 3

Why does the sentence use alla instead of just a?

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 4

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

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 5

The translation says "is coming", but isn't viene just the simple present tense "comes"?

Accepted Answer

Yes, viene means "comes", but Italian uses the simple present tense much more broadly than English does. It is frequently used to describe an action happening right now ("is coming") or even a planned action in the near future.

L'insegnante viene alla riunione.

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