Breakdown of La strega cattiva diceva brutte parole al lupo.
cattivo
bad
la parola
the word
al
to the / at the
dire
to say, to tell
brutto
ugly / bad (appearance, situation)
il lupo
wolf
la strega
witch
Questions & Answers about La strega cattiva diceva brutte parole al lupo.
Why is the imperfect form of "dire" "diceva" instead of "direva"?
Could I use "ha detto" instead of "diceva" in this sentence?
It depends on the context! Using the imperfect tense (diceva) means this was an ongoing or repeated action in the past—she used to say bad words to the wolf, or she was saying them over a period of time. If she said a bad word just once and the action was completely finished, you would use the passato prossimo: ha detto.
Why does cattiva go after the noun, but brutte goes before it?
Most descriptive adjectives in Italian go after the noun, which is why we say la strega cattiva (the bad witch). However, a small group of very common adjectives relating to beauty, age, goodness, and size (like bello, brutto, buono, vecchio) usually go before the noun. That is why it is brutte parole.
How is al lupo formed?
Al is what we call an articulated preposition. To say "to the wolf", you need the preposition a (to) and the definite article il (the) for the masculine singular noun lupo. In Italian, a + il always combines to become al.
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