Breakdown of Signora, Lei va al decimo piano?
la signora
lady, madam, Mrs.
Lei
you (formal)
andare
to go / to be fine / to work out
al
to the / at the
il piano
the floor (of a building)
decimo
tenth
Questions & Answers about Signora, Lei va al decimo piano?
Why does decimo come before piano? I thought Italian adjectives usually go after the noun.
You are right that most descriptive adjectives go after the noun in Italian. However, ordinal numbers like decimo (tenth) are an exception. They almost always come before the noun they describe, just like in English.
Does decimo change its ending depending on the word that follows it?
Yes! Ordinal numbers act like regular adjectives. Because piano (floor) is a masculine singular word, we use decimo. If we were talking about a feminine word, like the tenth time (la decima volta), it would change to end in -a.
Why is Lei capitalized, and why is the verb va instead of vai?
The speaker is addressing the woman politely as Madam (Signora), so they must use the formal 'you'. In Italian, the formal 'you' is Lei, which is often capitalized to tell it apart from lei (she). The formal Lei always uses the he/she form of the verb, which is why we use va (goes) instead of the informal vai (you go).
Why do we use al before decimo piano?
When saying you are going 'to the' tenth floor, you have to combine the preposition a (to) with the definite article il (the). In Italian, a + il merge to form the single word al.
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