Learn Italian: Questa casa è un po' vecchia.

Questa casa è un po' vecchia.

This house is a bit old.

Breakdown of Questa casa è un po' vecchia.

Questions & Answers about Questa casa è un po' vecchia.

Why is there an apostrophe at the end of po'?

The word po' is short for poco, which means 'little'. The apostrophe shows that the end of the word (-co) has been dropped. The phrase un po' is the standard way to say 'a bit' or 'a little' in Italian.

Could I just say Questa casa è poco vecchia instead?

That would change the meaning entirely! The phrase un po' means 'a bit' or 'a little'. If you just use the quantity adverb poco by itself, it usually means 'not very' or 'little'. So poco vecchia would actually mean 'not very old', which is the opposite of what we want to say here.

Why does the adjective vecchia end in -a?

Adjectives in Italian always have to match the noun they describe in gender (masculine or feminine) and number (singular or plural). Because the noun casa (house) is feminine and singular, the dictionary form of the adjective, vecchio (old), changes its ending to -a to become vecchia.

Why is it Questa casa and not Questo casa?

Words like 'this' and 'that' act just like adjectives in Italian, meaning they must also match the noun they point out. Since casa is feminine and singular, the default masculine word questo (this) changes to its feminine form, questa.