ELONIO
Log inSign up

L'esercito si avvicina lentamente.

L'esercito si avvicina lentamente.
The army approaches slowly.
From Lesson 242:Singular agreement for collective nouns (la gente, il gruppo)·Italian

Breakdown of L'esercito si avvicina lentamente.

lentamente
slowly
avvicinarsi
to approach
l'esercito
the army

Questions & Answers about L'esercito si avvicina lentamente.

Why does the verb use the singular form si avvicina when an army is made up of many people?
Because l'esercito (the army) is a collective noun. Just like la famiglia (the family), la gente (people), or il gruppo (the group), Italian treats it as a single unit grammatically. Therefore, it strictly takes the third-person singular verb form, rather than the plural "they" form.
Why is there a si before the verb? Is "to approach" reflexive in Italian?
Yes, it is. The infinitive verb used here is avvicinarsi, which literally means "to bring oneself closer." Because it acts as a reflexive verb in Italian, you must include the reflexive pronoun si to match the third-person subject (l'esercito).
How does the word lentamente connect to the adjective for "slow"?
The suffix -mente in Italian works exactly like "-ly" in English. To form these adverbs, you always start with the feminine singular version of the adjective. The masculine adjective for "slow" is lento, so you take the feminine lenta and add -mente to create lentamente (slowly).
If I wanted to say what the army is approaching, do I need a preposition after the verb?
Yes, you would use the preposition a. The verb is avvicinarsi a (to approach [something]). If the sentence included a destination, you would combine a with the definite article, like this: L'esercito si avvicina alla città (The army approaches the city). Since our sentence doesn't state a destination, we don't need a preposition here.

Learn L'esercito si avvicina lentamente and more in Italian

All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.

  • ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
  • ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
  • ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free
Start learning Italian →