Breakdown of Dov'è l'ufficio del direttore?
essere
to be
l'ufficio
the office
dove
where
di
of, from
il direttore
manager / director
del
of the; than the (di + il)
Questions & Answers about Dov'è l'ufficio del direttore?
Why does the Italian sentence say "the office of the manager" instead of using an apostrophe 's'?
In Italian, there is no equivalent to the English apostrophe 's' for possession. Instead, you always have to use the preposition di (of) and flip the word order. So, "the manager's office" becomes l'ufficio del direttore (the office of the manager).
Where exactly does the word del come from?
del is an articulated preposition, which is a combination of a preposition and a word for "the" (a definite article). In this sentence, it combines di (of) and il (the) to mean "of the". We use il because direttore is a masculine singular noun starting with a normal consonant.
Why is it written as Dov'è instead of Dove è?
When dove (where) is followed directly by è (is), the final 'e' of dove is dropped and replaced with an apostrophe. This is done to make pronunciation smoother and faster, turning it into one fluid sound.
Learn Dov'è l'ufficio del direttore and more in Italian
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free