Learn Italian: L'esercito si avvicina lentamente.

L'esercito si avvicina lentamente.

The army approaches slowly.

Breakdown of L'esercito si avvicina lentamente.

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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?