Breakdown of Il fiume, lo inquina quella vecchia fabbrica.
vecchio
old
quello
that
lo
him/it (direct object)
il fiume
the river
la fabbrica
the factory
inquinare
to pollute
Questions & Answers about Il fiume, lo inquina quella vecchia fabbrica.
Why do we need the pronoun lo if we already said Il fiume?
Why is the subject, quella vecchia fabbrica, at the very end of the sentence?
When you pull the object to the front like this, the subject usually moves after the verb. This highlights the subject as the new or important information. It gives the feeling of 'As for the river, the thing polluting it is that old factory.'
Could I just say Quella vecchia fabbrica inquina il fiume?
Yes, that is the standard subject-verb-object word order. You would use that standard order to simply state a fact out of the blue. You use the structure in this sentence when the river is already the topic of conversation and you want to point out what is affecting it.
Why does vecchia come before fabbrica? I thought adjectives usually go after the noun.
While most descriptive adjectives do go after the noun in Italian, certain common adjectives related to age, size, or beauty often come before it. Vecchia (old) is one of these common adjectives that naturally sits right before the noun it describes.
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