Learn Italian: Un buono scolaro ascolta sempre l'insegnante. - A good pupil always listens to the teacher.

Un buono scolaro ascolta sempre l'insegnante.

A good pupil always listens to the teacher.

Breakdown of Un buono scolaro ascolta sempre l'insegnante.

Questions & Answers about Un buono scolaro ascolta sempre l'insegnante.

Why is it buono scolaro and not buon scolaro?

The adjective buono changes its ending based on the sound of the word that follows it. Because scolaro starts with an "s" followed by another consonant (often called an "impure s"), buono keeps its full form. For most other masculine nouns, it would shorten to buon.

The phrase for "a pupil" is uno scolaro. Why does this sentence start with Un instead of Uno?

Articles always agree with the sound of the word immediately following them. Even though you would say uno scolaro on its own, adding the adjective changes things. Since buono starts with a standard consonant, it takes the standard masculine article un.

Why is there no word for "to" after ascolta?

In English, we use the preposition "to" after "listen." However, the Italian verb ascoltare directly means "to listen to." It takes a direct object, so you just say ascolta l'insegnante without adding any extra prepositions.

Why does sempre come after the verb, when in English we say "always listens"?