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Il mio coinquilino ha pagato l'affitto, ma io non ho pagato il mio.

Il mio coinquilino ha pagato l'affitto, ma io non ho pagato il mio.
My roommate paid the rent, but I haven't paid mine.
From Lesson 144:Possessive pronouns (il mio, la tua)·Italian

Breakdown of Il mio coinquilino ha pagato l'affitto, ma io non ho pagato il mio.

io
I
ma
but
non
not
avere
to have
mio
my
pagare
to pay
il coinquilino
roommate
l'affitto
rent

Questions & Answers about Il mio coinquilino ha pagato l'affitto, ma io non ho pagato il mio.

Why does it say il mio at the end instead of just mio for 'mine'?
In Italian, independent possessive pronouns (words like 'mine', 'yours', or 'hers' that stand alone instead of attaching to a noun) almost always need a definite article like il, la, i, or le before them. Since it replaces the masculine singular noun l'affitto (the rent), we use il mio.
The sentence has il mio twice. Are they acting exactly the same way?
Not quite! The first il mio is a possessive adjective attached to a noun (il mio coinquilino). The second il mio is a possessive pronoun standing entirely on its own to replace the noun phrase 'my rent'. Both take the exact same form in Italian, making them easy to remember!
Is the word io necessary in ma io non ho pagato?
Grammatically, you could drop it and just say ma non ho pagato, because the verb ho already tells us 'I' am the one acting. However, Italian often includes subject pronouns like io to create a strong contrast. Here, it emphasizes the difference between what your roommate did and what you did.
Why does pagato end in 'o' both times? Doesn't the ending sometimes change?
Because the helper verb here is avere (to have), the past participle pagato (paid) stays fixed with its default -o ending. Past participles usually only change their endings to match the subject's gender and number when the helper verb is essere (to be).
What is the literal meaning of coinquilino?
It is made of the prefix co- (together or joint) and the noun inquilino (tenant or renter). So a coinquilino is literally a co-tenant, which we call a roommate or flatmate in English.

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