Learn Italian: Il direttore pubblica una notizia affidabile di cui parliamo spesso. - The director publishes a reliable piece of news we often talk about.

Il direttore pubblica una notizia affidabile di cui parliamo spesso.

The director publishes a reliable piece of news we often talk about.

Breakdown of Il direttore pubblica una notizia affidabile di cui parliamo spesso.

Questions & Answers about Il direttore pubblica una notizia affidabile di cui parliamo spesso.

Why do we use di cui here instead of just che?

Cui is a relative pronoun (meaning "which" or "whom") used when there is a preposition involved. The verb here is parlare di (to talk about). Since Italian doesn't allow prepositions to sit alone at the end of a sentence, the di moves in front of cui to literally mean "about which".

The English translation ends with "about". Where is "about" in the Italian sentence?

It is the word di inside di cui. Unlike English, which often leaves prepositions hanging at the end of a clause ("talk about"), Italian requires the preposition to go right before the relative pronoun. So, the Italian phrasing is strictly "about which we talk" (di cui parliamo).

The translation says "a piece of news", but the Italian is just una notizia. Is that right?

Yes! In English, "news" is an uncountable noun, so you have to say "a piece of news" to single out one item. In Italian, notizia is a normal, countable noun. Una notizia is a single news item, and le notizie means the news in general.

Why does affidabile end in -e if it is describing the feminine word notizia?