Learn Italian: Questo è il cavo rosso, collegalo alla televisione. - This is the red cable, connect it to the television.

Questo è il cavo rosso, collegalo alla televisione.

This is the red cable, connect it to the television.

Breakdown of Questo è il cavo rosso, collegalo alla televisione.

Questions & Answers about Questo è il cavo rosso, collegalo alla televisione.

Why is lo attached to the end of collega in collegalo?

In Italian, when you give an affirmative command (telling a friend to do something), object pronouns like lo (it) must attach directly to the end of the verb. Here, the imperative collega (connect) plus lo (it) becomes one single word: collegalo.

Wait, isn't collega the he/she present tense form? Why are we using it for a command to 'you'?

For regular -are verbs like collegare, the informal command form for tu (you) ends in -a, which looks exactly like the he/she present tense form. So, collega means 'connect!' when giving instructions to someone informally.

How do we know to use lo instead of la for 'it' in this sentence?

The pronoun is replacing il cavo (the cable). Since cavo is a masculine singular noun, we must use the masculine singular pronoun lo. If we were replacing a feminine noun like la spina (the plug), we would use la and say collegala.

Why do we use alla instead of just a before televisione?