Log inSign up

Il problema è serio.

Il problema è serio.
The problem is serious.
From Lesson 40:The verb stare (sto, stai, sta)·Italian

Questions & Answers about Il problema è serio.

Since this lesson is about stare, why do we use è (from essere) instead of a form of stare here?
In Italian, both essere and stare can translate to 'to be' in English. However, we use stare mostly to talk about health, passing states (like come stai?), or exact locations. To describe a quality or characteristic of a noun, like a problem being serious, we must use essere (here, è).
Why does problema take the masculine article il if it ends in -a?
It is a tricky exception! Usually, singular nouns ending in -a are feminine. However, problema comes from Greek, and many Greek-origin words ending in -ma are masculine in Italian. That is why it uses the masculine article il instead of la.
Does the ending of serio have to match problema even though they end in different vowels?
Exactly. Adjectives must match the noun's gender and number, not just copy its final letter. Because problema is a masculine singular noun, the adjective must take the standard masculine singular ending -o, making it serio.
Why is there an accent mark on è?
The accent mark tells us this is the verb meaning 'is' (from essere). Without the accent, e just means 'and'. The accent helps distinguish these two common words in writing and changes the pronunciation slightly.

Learn Il problema è serio and more in Italian

All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.

  • ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
  • ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
  • ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free
Start learning Italian →