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La giovane attivista parla spesso.

La giovane attivista parla spesso.
The young activist speaks often.
From Lesson 248:Nouns ending in -ista (-ista, -isti, -iste)·Italian

Questions & Answers about La giovane attivista parla spesso.

How do we know if attivista is male or female in this sentence?
We look at the article! Words ending in -ista (like attivista, turista, or dentista) are exactly the same for both masculine and feminine in the singular. Since the sentence uses the feminine article la, we know this specific activist is a woman.
If we were talking about a male activist, how would the sentence change?
It would be Il giovane attivista parla spesso. The noun attivista and the adjective giovane (which ends in -e and is used for both genders) stay exactly the same. Only the article changes to the masculine il.
What would this sentence look like in the plural for a group of female activists?
It would be Le giovani attiviste parlano spesso. While -ista words are the same in the singular, their plurals change based on gender. A feminine group takes the -e ending (le attiviste), while a masculine or mixed group takes the -i ending (gli attivisti). Notice that the adjective giovane also changes to its plural form, giovani.
Why does spesso come after the verb, instead of before it like in English?
In Italian, adverbs of frequency like spesso (often), sempre (always), and mai (never) usually go immediately after the conjugated verb. Saying parla spesso is the standard word order, whereas putting spesso before the verb would sound unnatural.

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