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Il mio cellulare è vecchio.

Il mio cellulare è vecchio.
My mobile phone is old.
From Lesson 58:The verb can (potere)·Italian

Questions & Answers about Il mio cellulare è vecchio.

Why does the sentence say 'Il mio' instead of just 'mio'?
In Italian, you almost always need a definite article (like il) before a possessive word. You literally say 'the my mobile phone' (il mio cellulare). A major exception is singular family members, but for everyday objects like a phone, always include the article!
The word cellulare ends in -e. How can we tell if it is masculine or feminine here?
Nouns ending in -e can be either masculine or feminine, which can be tricky to remember! However, you can easily tell cellulare is masculine in this sentence because it is surrounded by masculine words: the article il, the possessive mio, and the adjective vecchio.
Why does vecchio end in -o?
Adjectives must match the noun they describe. Because cellulare is a masculine singular noun, the adjective meaning 'old' takes the masculine singular ending -o to become vecchio. If we were talking about a feminine noun like macchina (car), it would change to vecchia.
How do I pronounce the c in cellulare compared to the ch in vecchio?
In Italian, a c followed by e or i makes a soft 'ch' sound like in 'cheese', so cellulare sounds like it starts with 'chel'. However, putting an h after the c changes it to a hard 'k' sound. That means the cch in vecchio is pronounced like a 'k'.

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