Hai un problema con il pulsante? Spiegami la situazione.

Questions & Answers about Hai un problema con il pulsante? Spiegami la situazione.

Why is mi attached to the end of spiegami?
When giving an affirmative command (telling someone to do something), pronoun words like mi (to me) must attach directly to the end of the verb. Here, spiega (explain) + mi (to me) becomes one word: spiegami.
Why does the command use spiega instead of spieghi for the "you" (tu) form?
In the normal present tense, "you explain" is indeed tu spieghi. But for informal commands, verbs ending in -are (like spiegare) use an -a ending for the tu form instead of the usual -i.
Since problema ends in "-a", shouldn't it be a feminine word like una problema?
It is a common exception! Problema is actually a masculine noun. Many Italian words that end in -ma (like il sistema or il programma) are masculine, so they take masculine articles like il or un.
How do I know to use la with situazione?
Almost all Italian nouns ending in -zione are feminine. Recognizing this ending is a great shortcut for knowing when to use feminine articles like la or una.

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