Breakdown of Il regista decide di cambiare il copione.
cambiare
to change
il regista
director (film, theater)
decidere
to decide
di
to (linking a verb to a following infinitive)
il copione
script
Questions & Answers about Il regista decide di cambiare il copione.
Why do we need di before cambiare?
In Italian, many verbs need a specific preposition before an infinitive (a verb in its basic dictionary form, like cambiare). The verb decidere (to decide) always requires the preposition di when it is followed by another action. You can memorize this pattern as decidere di + [infinitive].
Since regista ends in an -a, why does it use the masculine article il?
Words ending in -ista (which are often professions like regista, dentista, or barista) are a special group. In the singular, they always end in -a whether they refer to a man or a woman. Because the article here is il, we know this specific director is a man. If it were a female director, the sentence would start with La regista.
If I change the second verb to something else, do I still need di?
Yes! The preposition di is demanded by the first verb (decide), not the second one. No matter what action the director decides to do, you will use di. For example, if he decides to eat, it would be Il regista decide di mangiare.
Does the word copione come from the word for copy?
Exactly! It comes from copia (copy) plus the suffix -one, which usually means big. Originally, it referred to the large master copy of a theatrical text. Today, copione is simply the standard everyday word for a movie or theatre script.
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