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Loro guardano il fossile e lo scheletro dell'uccello estinto.

Loro guardano il fossile e lo scheletro dell'uccello estinto.
They look at the fossil and the skeleton of the extinct bird.
From Lesson 154:Elapsed time (fa)·Italian

Questions & Answers about Loro guardano il fossile e lo scheletro dell'uccello estinto.

Why is there no Italian word for "at" after guardano?
In English we say "look at", but the Italian verb guardare directly takes an object without an extra preposition. It translates to both "to look at" and "to watch", so the "at" is already built in. You just say guardano il fossile.
Why is the article lo used for scheletro instead of il?
For masculine singular words, Italian uses lo instead of il when the noun starts with an "s" followed by another consonant. Since scheletro starts with "sch", it needs lo to make the pronunciation smoother.
How is the word dell' formed in dell'uccello?
It is an articulated preposition, meaning it combines a preposition and an article. It merges di (of) with l' (the definite article for a noun starting with a vowel). When di joins with l', the spelling changes to dell'.
How would I add a time expression like due anni fa (two years ago) from this lesson to the sentence?
You can add due anni fa at the beginning or the very end of the sentence. However, because fa means "ago", you would also need to change the present tense verb guardano (they look) to a past tense, making it hanno guardato (they looked).

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