Learn Italian: Il cane dorme su questo divano. - The dog sleeps on this sofa.

Il cane dorme su questo divano.

The dog sleeps on this sofa.

Breakdown of Il cane dorme su questo divano.

Questions & Answers about Il cane dorme su questo divano.

Why do we use just su here instead of a combined word like sul?

Prepositions like su only combine with definite articles (the words for "the", like il or la). Because the next word is questo (this) and not a word for "the", su doesn't have anything to combine with and stays as a simple preposition.

Why does questo end in -o?

Questo means "this", and it has to match the gender and number of the noun it points to. Since divano (sofa) is a masculine singular noun, questo takes the masculine singular ending -o.

Where does the word dorme come from?

It is the "he/she/it" form of the verb dormire (to sleep). Because dormire is a regular -ire verb, you drop the -ire and add the ending -e for a singular third-person subject like il cane (the dog).

Does the preposition su always mean "on"?

In this sentence it means "on" to show physical location. However, su can also mean "about" when talking about a topic, for example, a conversation or a book about dogs.