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La valigia è molto pesante, posso spostarla?

La valigia è molto pesante, posso spostarla?
The suitcase is very heavy, can I move it?
From Lesson 96:Pronoun placement with modal verbs·Italian

Questions & Answers about La valigia è molto pesante, posso spostarla?

How is spostarla formed?
It is made of the infinitive verb spostare (to move) and the direct object pronoun la (it). When you attach a pronoun to the end of an infinitive, you drop the final -e of the verb. So, spostare + la becomes spostarla.
Could I put the la before the verb instead, since we learned pronouns usually go before verbs?
Yes, you can! Because posso is a modal verb (verbs like can, must, or want that pair with an infinitive), you have two choices. You can attach the pronoun to the end of the infinitive (posso spostarla) or put it before the conjugated modal verb (la posso spostare). Both are perfectly correct and mean the exact same thing.
Why do we use la to mean 'it' in this sentence?
In English, 'it' is gender-neutral, but in Italian, pronouns must match the gender of the noun they replace. Since 'it' refers to la valigia (the suitcase), which is a feminine noun, we use the feminine pronoun la.
Since la valigia is feminine, why doesn't pesante end in -a?
Pesante (heavy) belongs to a specific group of adjectives that end in -e in their singular form. These adjectives use the exact same -e ending for both masculine and feminine nouns. If it were plural, it would change to an -i (le valigie sono pesanti).

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