Breakdown of Il cartone che è dietro al tavolo è più pesante dell'argilla.
essere
to be
il tavolo
table
pesante
heavy
al
to the / at the
più
more / anymore (with 'non')
dietro
behind
del
of the; than the (di + il)
che
who, that (relative pronoun)
il cartone
cardboard
l'argilla
clay
Questions & Answers about Il cartone che è dietro al tavolo è più pesante dell'argilla.
Wait, doesn't cartone mean "carton"?
It's a false friend! In Italian, cartone usually means "cardboard" (the material) or a cardboard box. If you want to say "a carton of milk", you would say un cartone di latte (literally, a cardboard of milk), but here it refers to the material itself.
Why is it dietro al tavolo instead of just dietro il tavolo?
The preposition dietro (behind) is typically followed by the preposition a before a noun. That a then combines with the definite article il to make al. While you might occasionally hear dietro il in casual speech, dietro al is the standard, grammatically correct form.
Why is "than" translated as dell' instead of che?
When comparing two nouns (like cartone and argilla) using an adjective (pesante), Italian translates "than" using the preposition di. Since the word for clay is l'argilla, di merges with the article l' to become dell'. You generally only use che for "than" when comparing two adjectives, verbs, or quantities.
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