Breakdown of L'aereo è veloce, l'auto è lenta.
essere
to be
lento
slow
veloce
fast
l'auto
the car (= la macchina) (f)
Questions & Answers about L'aereo è veloce, l'auto è lenta.
Why do we use l' for both aereo and auto?
In Italian, when a singular noun begins with a vowel, the definite articles il, lo, and la drop their last letter and become l'. This makes the words flow together smoothly.
The word auto ends in an o, so why does it use the feminine adjective lenta instead of lento?
Since aereo is masculine, why does veloce end in an e rather than an o?
Italian has two main groups of adjectives. The first group changes its ending to match the gender of the noun, like lento for masculine and lenta for feminine. The second group ends in -e in the singular and is used for both masculine and feminine nouns. Veloce belongs to this second group.
Why is there an accent mark on the word è?
The accent mark tells you this is the verb è, which translates to is. If you write it without the accent, the word becomes e, which translates to and. The accent is a helpful clue to tell these two common words apart!