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I miei occhi sono stanchi.

I miei occhi sono stanchi.
My eyes are tired.
From Lesson 61:Reflexive verbs (mi lavo, ti lavi)·Italian

Breakdown of I miei occhi sono stanchi.

essere
to be
stanco
tired
mio
my
l'occhio
the eye (m)

Questions & Answers about I miei occhi sono stanchi.

Why do we say i miei occhi here? I thought Italians didn't use possessive words like "my" with body parts.
You are thinking of actions! When you do something to your own body, Italian uses a reflexive pronoun and a definite article instead of a possessive (like mi lavo le mani for "I wash my hands"). But in this sentence, nobody is performing an action on the eyes. The eyes are the subject, so you need the possessive i miei to specify whose eyes are tired.
Why is there an 'h' in stanchi?
The singular form is stanco (tired). In Italian, if a masculine word ends in -co or -go, we usually add an h in the plural to keep the hard "k" or "g" sound. Without the h, stanci would be pronounced with a soft "ch" sound, like the English word "cheese".
Is occhi the plural of occhio? Why doesn't it have a double 'i' at the end?
Yes, occhi is the plural of occhio (eye). When a masculine singular word ends in an unstressed -io, the plural form just drops the final -o rather than adding a second -i. So occhio becomes occhi, not "occhii".
Why is there an i before miei?
In Italian, possessive words like miei (my/mine) almost always need a definite article (like il, la, i, or le) in front of them. Since occhi is a masculine plural noun, we use the masculine plural article i to make i miei occhi (literally: the my eyes). Close family members in the singular are the main exception to this rule.

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