Breakdown of La valigia è pesante. La porti alla reception.
essere
to be
pesante
heavy
alla
to the / at the (feminine singular)
portare
to bring, to carry
la
her/it (direct object)
la valigia
the suitcase
la reception
the reception
Questions & Answers about La valigia è pesante. La porti alla reception.
Why does the pronoun la come before the verb in La porti?
Because this is a formal command. When you use the formal imperative (giving an order to someone you address as Lei), object pronouns like la (it) must go before the verb. This is different from the informal imperative (giving a command to a friend), where the pronoun attaches to the end of the verb (like portala).
Wait, isn't porti the informal "you" (tu) form? Why is it translated as a command?
It looks identical to the tu form, but porti is actually the formal command form for portare. For verbs ending in -are, the formal imperative takes an -i ending. If you were giving this same command to a friend, you would use the informal imperative porta.
Both sentences start with the word la. Are they doing the same job?
No, they have two completely different roles here! The first la in La valigia is a definite article meaning "the". The second la in La porti is a direct object pronoun meaning "it", which replaces la valigia so we don't have to repeat it.
Why do we use alla before the English word reception?
Even though reception is an English loanword, Italian treats it as a feminine noun (this is common for foreign words ending in -tion, often because their Italian equivalents are feminine). Because it is a feminine noun, we use the combined preposition alla (which is a + la) to mean "to the".
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