Breakdown of Le guance del bambino sono rosse come le ciliegie.
essere
to be
rosso
red
il bambino
the child
di
of, from
come
as (in comparisons)
la guancia
the cheek
la ciliegia
the cherry
Questions & Answers about Le guance del bambino sono rosse come le ciliegie.
Why does guance drop the letter i from its singular form (guancia), but ciliegie keeps the i from ciliegia?
This sentence perfectly shows the spelling rule for feminine nouns ending in an unstressed -cia and -gia. You have to look at the letter right before the ending. If it is a consonant (like the n in guancia), the plural drops the i to become guance. If it is a vowel (like the e in ciliegia), the plural keeps the i to become ciliegie.
Does keeping or dropping the i in guance and ciliegie change how those endings are pronounced?
Not at all! In both the singular forms (guancia, ciliegia) and the plural forms (guance, ciliegie), the c and g are soft sounds (like ch and j in English). Because the letter e already makes c and g soft in Italian, the i in ciliegie isn't actually pronounced; it is strictly a spelling rule. Both endings sound exactly like they end in a simple e.
Why is the adjective rosse used instead of rossi?
Rosse is the feminine plural form of rosso (red). It agrees with le guance (the cheeks), which is feminine and plural. Even though the noun right before it is del bambino (the baby boy), the adjective describes his cheeks, not the baby himself! Always match the adjective to the specific noun it describes.
How does come translate to "as red as"? Don't we need a word for the first "as"?
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