Word
L'archivista non lascia mai la pergamena sullo scaffale.
Meaning
The archivist never leaves the parchment on the shelf.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of L'archivista non lascia mai la pergamena sullo scaffale.
non
not
su
on, about
lasciare
to leave (an object)
mai
ever / never
Questions & Answers about L'archivista non lascia mai la pergamena sullo scaffale.
Why do we use both non and mai if the English translation is just "never"?
In Italian, when a negative word like mai (never) comes after the verb (lascia), you must put non before the verb to complete the negative meaning. It is like saying "The archivist does not ever leave...". If you put mai before the verb, you drop the non and say L'archivista mai lascia, but putting it after the verb with non is the standard way people speak.
Why is it sullo scaffale instead of su il scaffale?
Sullo is a combined word (an articulated preposition) made by merging su (on) with the definite article lo (the). We must use lo instead of il because scaffale is a masculine noun starting with an "s" followed by a consonant (s + c). Whenever a preposition meets a definite article, they merge into one word.
Is archivista a masculine or feminine noun?
Does lasciare mean "to leave" or "to let"?