Learn Italian: Il significato della libertà è ciò che creiamo. - The meaning of freedom is what we create.

Il significato della libertà è ciò che creiamo.

The meaning of freedom is what we create.

Breakdown of Il significato della libertà è ciò che creiamo.

who, that (relative pronoun)

Questions & Answers about Il significato della libertà è ciò che creiamo.

Why is 'what' translated as ciò che here instead of cosa?

In Italian, cosa (or che cosa) is used for asking questions, like 'What is that?'. When 'what' is used in a statement to mean 'that which' or 'the thing that', you cannot use a question word. Instead, you must use a compound relative pronoun like ciò che.

Could I use quello che instead of ciò che in this sentence?

Yes, absolutely! Ciò che and quello che mean exactly the same thing. Quello che is more common in everyday spoken Italian, while ciò che sounds slightly more formal and elegant, which fits perfectly with a philosophical sentence about freedom.

Why is it della libertà instead of just di libertà?

In English, we usually drop the word 'the' when talking about general or abstract concepts like freedom, love, or time. In Italian, you almost always need to keep the definite article for these broad concepts. So, the preposition di (of) combines with the article la (the) to make the combined word della.

Why does libertà have a written accent mark on the last letter?

The accent mark tells you to put the stress of your voice on that final vowel. Many Italian nouns ending in -tà are related to English words ending in '-ty' (like liberty). As a helpful rule to remember: nouns with an accented final vowel are invariable, meaning they do not change their ending in the plural.