Learn Italian: Mio nonno ha le ginocchia deboli. - My grandfather has weak knees.

Mio nonno ha le ginocchia deboli.

My grandfather has weak knees.

Breakdown of Mio nonno ha le ginocchia deboli.

grandfather / grandparents (plural)

debole

weak

Questions & Answers about Mio nonno ha le ginocchia deboli.

Why does the plural le ginocchia end in -a? Isn't -a usually for singular words?

This is a special irregular plural! The singular word for knee is masculine: il ginocchio. But in the plural, it changes its gender to feminine and takes an -a ending to become le ginocchia. You will see this happen with several other body parts too, like il braccio (the arm) becoming le braccia.

If le ginocchia is feminine plural, why is the adjective deboli ending in -i? Shouldn't it end in -e to match?

The base dictionary form of the adjective for weak is debole. In Italian, adjectives that end in -e in the singular always change their ending to -i in the plural, for both masculine and feminine nouns alike. Because ginocchia is plural, debole becomes deboli.

Why is it just Mio nonno and not Il mio nonno?

You might remember that Italian usually puts the definite article before possessives (like il mio cane for my dog). However, we drop the article for singular close family members. Since nonno (grandfather) is a singular relative, we just say mio nonno.