Learn Italian: C'è tanto traffico. Lo odiamo. - There is a lot of traffic. We hate it.

C'è tanto traffico. Lo odiamo.

There is a lot of traffic. We hate it.

Breakdown of C'è tanto traffico. Lo odiamo.

tanto

so much, a lot / as (in comparisons)

him/it (direct object)

Questions & Answers about C'è tanto traffico. Lo odiamo.

Why is lo placed before the verb in Lo odiamo?

In Italian, direct object pronouns like lo (which means "him" or "it") almost always go directly before the conjugated verb. So, instead of saying "we hate it", the literal Italian structure is "it we hate".

How do we know to use lo here instead of la?

The pronoun has to match the gender and number of the noun it replaces. Here, "it" replaces traffico (traffic). Because traffico is a masculine singular noun, we use the masculine singular pronoun lo. If we hated a feminine thing, like la pioggia (the rain), we would use la odiamo.

Is tanto an adjective here? Does it change its ending?

Yes! When tanto is used to mean "a lot of" or "much" before a noun, it acts as an adjective and must match that noun. Since traffico is masculine singular, it stays tanto. If it were a feminine noun like gente (people), it would become tanta gente.

What exactly does the apostrophe in c'è stand for?

C'è is a combination of the word ci (there) and è (is). Because è starts with a vowel, the i in ci is dropped and replaced with an apostrophe to make it flow better when speaking.