Breakdown of I nostri giocattoli erano molto semplici.
essere
to be
molto
very
nostro
our
semplice
simple
il giocattolo
the toy
Questions & Answers about I nostri giocattoli erano molto semplici.
Why do we use erano here instead of the passato prossimo?
Erano is the imperfetto (imperfect) tense of essere (to be) for 'they'. We use the imperfetto here because we are describing how things used to be in the past. It sets a scene or describes a general state, rather than a specific completed action.
Why is there an I before nostri? We don't say 'the our toys' in English.
In Italian, possessive adjectives almost always need a definite article in front of them. Since giocattoli is masculine and plural, it gets the masculine plural article i, making it i nostri giocattoli. The main exception is singular family members, but toys always need the article!
Why does semplici end in -i? Is it masculine?
Yes, but its ending is determined by its singular form. The singular word for 'simple' is semplice. Adjectives that end in -e in the singular change to -i in the plural for both masculine and feminine nouns. Since giocattoli is plural, the adjective becomes semplici.
If everything else is plural, why isn't molto pluralized to molti?
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