Learn Italian: I temi del libro sono molto interessanti. - The themes of the book are very interesting.

I temi del libro sono molto interessanti.

The themes of the book are very interesting.

Breakdown of I temi del libro sono molto interessanti.

Questions & Answers about I temi del libro sono molto interessanti.

Since "tema" ends in "-a", shouldn't the plural be "le teme"?

No, because tema is a masculine noun of Greek origin. Words in this special group end in -ma but are masculine, so the singular is il tema. Because it is masculine, it follows the standard rule for masculine plurals and ends in -i, giving us i temi.

Why does the adjective interessanti end in -i here?

The singular form of this adjective is interessante. In Italian, adjectives that end in -e in the singular change to -i in the plural, regardless of whether the noun is masculine or feminine. Since i temi is plural, it becomes interessanti.

Why doesn't molto change to molti to match the plural noun i temi?

In this sentence, molto is an adverb meaning "very," and it is describing how interesting the themes are. Adverbs are invariable, meaning their endings never change. Molto only changes its ending to agree with a noun when it acts as an adjective meaning "a lot of" or "many," such as in molti temi (many themes).

Why do we use del libro instead of just di libro for "of the book"?