Learn Italian: L'erba è verde. - The grass is green.

In Italian, you need to use a definite article (like il, la, or l') when making a general statement about a whole category or concept. While English drops the article to say "Grass is green," Italian requires it, literally saying "The grass is green."

Why is it l'erba instead of la erba?

Erba is a feminine noun that starts with a vowel. To make pronunciation smoother, Italian drops the a from the feminine article la and adds an apostrophe, creating l'erba. This happens with both masculine and feminine singular articles when the following word starts with a vowel.

Erba is a feminine noun, so why doesn't the adjective verde end in -a?

Verde belongs to a specific group of Italian adjectives that end in -e in the singular. These adjectives are identical for both masculine and feminine nouns. If you were making it plural, the ending would change to -i (verdi) regardless of the noun's gender.