Learn Italian: Le donne sono più eleganti degli uomini.

Le donne sono più eleganti degli uomini.

Women are more elegant than men.

Breakdown of Le donne sono più eleganti degli uomini.

more / anymore (with 'non')

Questions & Answers about Le donne sono più eleganti degli uomini.

Why do we use degli here instead of just di for 'than'?

In Italian, the word for 'than' is di, but you must combine it with the definite article of the noun that follows it. Since 'men' is gli uomini, you combine di + gli to make degli.

Why does the Italian sentence use articles for Le donne and degli uomini, but the English translation just says 'Women' and 'men'?

In Italian, when you make a general statement about a whole group or category (like women or men), you always need the definite article. English drops the article for general plurals, but Italian requires it.

Since le donne is feminine, why does the adjective eleganti end in -i? Shouldn't it be feminine?

It is! The adjective elegante belongs to a group of adjectives that end in -e in the singular. For these adjectives, the plural always ends in -i, whether the noun they describe is masculine or feminine.

Just to review, why does uomini take the article gli instead of i?

Because uomini begins with a vowel. The masculine plural article for words starting with a vowel is gli. Also, remember that uomini (men) is an irregular plural of uomo (man)!