Learn Italian: A luglio e agosto i negozi sono chiusi. - In July and August the shops are closed.

A luglio e agosto i negozi sono chiusi.

In July and August the shops are closed.

Breakdown of A luglio e agosto i negozi sono chiusi.

Questions & Answers about A luglio e agosto i negozi sono chiusi.

Why does the sentence use a for 'in July and August'?

In Italian, when you want to say something happens in a specific month, you can use either the preposition a or in. Both a luglio and in luglio are perfectly correct and mean exactly the same thing!

Why aren't luglio and agosto capitalized?

Unlike in English, months of the year and days of the week are not capitalized in Italian, unless they happen to be the very first word of a sentence.

Why does the sentence say chiusi instead of chiuso?

The word chiusi (closed) is an adjective describing i negozi (the shops). Because negozi is a masculine plural noun, the adjective must match it, changing its singular -o ending to the plural -i.

Do I have to include the article i before negozi? In English we could just say 'Shops are closed'.

Yes! Italian uses definite articles (like i for masculine plural nouns) much more often than English. You need the article here because Italian requires it when talking about a general category, like shops in general.