Breakdown of Questa discarica, la chiudono l'anno prossimo.
questa
this (feminine)
l'anno
the year (m)
chiudere
to close
prossimo
next
Questions & Answers about Questa discarica, la chiudono l'anno prossimo.
Why is there a la in this sentence when we already said Questa discarica?
This is a classic example of left dislocation. To emphasize the topic, Italian often moves the object (Questa discarica) to the very beginning of the sentence. When you do this, you must use a pronoun later in the sentence to point back to it. Here, la points back to the feminine singular noun discarica, making the literal structure "This landfill, they close it next year."
Why use the present tense chiudono instead of the future tense, since it says l'anno prossimo?
Just like in English ("they are closing it next year"), Italian frequently uses the present tense to talk about a planned or certain event in the future. You could use the future tense (la chiuderanno), but the present tense is very common in everyday speech because the phrase l'anno prossimo already makes the future timeframe perfectly clear.
Who exactly is the subject of chiudono?
It is an unspecified "they." In Italian, using the third-person plural (chiudono) without a specific subject is a common way to express an action done by authorities or society at large. It works just like the general "they" in English and is often used in situations where we might naturally use a passive voice in translation, such as "This landfill will be closed."
What is the root of the word discarica?