Word
Vado da mia sorella per il suo quindicesimo compleanno.
Meaning
I am going to my sister's for her fifteenth birthday.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Vado da mia sorella per il suo quindicesimo compleanno.
la sorella
the sister
mio
my
suo
his/her/Your
per
for / in order to / because of
Questions & Answers about Vado da mia sorella per il suo quindicesimo compleanno.
How do you form quindicesimo from the number quindici?
To form ordinal numbers from 11 upwards, you drop the final vowel of the regular number and add the suffix -esimo. So, quindici (fifteen) loses its final i and becomes quindicesimo (fifteenth).
Why use the preposition da in da mia sorella?
Why isn't there a definite article before mia sorella?
Italian usually requires a definite article before possessive adjectives (like il suo in this sentence), but there is a major exception: singular family members. Because sorella is a singular close family member, you just say mia sorella, not la mia sorella.
If the sister is female, why is it il suo instead of la sua?
In Italian, possessive adjectives agree in gender and number with the thing being possessed, not with the owner. Since compleanno (birthday) is a masculine singular noun, it must be il suo quindicesimo compleanno, even though the birthday belongs to a woman.