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Il mio coinquilino pulisce la sua stanza, ma la nostra è più ordinata.

Il mio coinquilino pulisce la sua stanza, ma la nostra è più ordinata.
My roommate cleans his room, but ours is tidier.
From Lesson 146:Possessive pronouns (il mio, la tua)·Italian

Questions & Answers about Il mio coinquilino pulisce la sua stanza, ma la nostra è più ordinata.

Why does 'ours' translate to 'la nostra' with the word 'la' in front of it?
In Italian, independent possessive pronouns (words like 'ours', 'yours', or 'mine' that stand alone without a noun) usually need a definite article. Here, la nostra stands in for la nostra stanza (our room). Since stanza is feminine singular, the pronoun takes the feminine singular article la.
The roommate is male (coinquilino), so why is it 'la sua stanza' instead of 'il suo stanza'?
In Italian, possessives always agree with the gender and number of the thing being owned, not the owner! Because stanza (room) is feminine singular, you must use la sua, even though the person who owns it is male.
Why is 'he cleans' translated as 'pulisce' instead of 'pule'?
The verb pulire (to clean) is an '-isc-' verb. For many verbs ending in -ire, you have to add -isc- to the stem in the singular and 'they' forms of the present tense. So instead of 'pule', it becomes pulisce.
Why does 'ordinata' end in -a here?
ordinata (tidy) is describing the pronoun la nostra. Because la nostra refers back to a feminine singular noun (la stanza), the adjective describing it must also be feminine singular, ending in -a.

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