Learn Italian: Compriamo un sapone nuovo e un asciugamano pulito.

Compriamo un sapone nuovo e un asciugamano pulito.

We buy a new soap and a clean towel.

Breakdown of Compriamo un sapone nuovo e un asciugamano pulito.

Questions & Answers about Compriamo un sapone nuovo e un asciugamano pulito.

Why is there no Italian word for "we" at the beginning of the sentence?

In Italian, the verb ending usually tells you who is doing the action. Compriamo ends in -iamo, which always matches "we" (from the verb comprare, to buy). You can say Noi compriamo, but dropping the pronoun is completely normal and more common.

The word sapone ends in -e. How can we tell if it is masculine or feminine?

Nouns ending in -e can be either masculine or feminine, so their gender has to be memorized over time. However, in this sentence you can easily tell sapone is masculine because it uses the masculine article un (a) and the masculine adjective nuovo (new).

Since asciugamano starts with a vowel, why doesn't it use an apostrophe (un'asciugamano)?

In Italian, the apostrophe with "a" or "an" is only used for feminine words, representing when the "a" in una is dropped before a vowel. Because asciugamano is masculine, it simply uses the standard masculine article un, which never takes an apostrophe.

Why do nuovo and pulito come after the things they describe?