Breakdown of Le collezioniste hanno comprato i quadri dei due artisti.
il quadro
the painting
avere
to have
di
of, from
due
two
comprare
to buy
l'artista
the artist (m/f)
il collezionista
the collector (m/f)
Questions & Answers about Le collezioniste hanno comprato i quadri dei due artisti.
Why does collezioniste end in -e while artisti ends in -i if they are both -ista nouns?
Nouns ending in -ista (like collezionista and artista) are identical for both genders in the singular (il/la collezionista). But in the plural, they follow regular gender rules: -isti for masculine or mixed groups, and -iste for strictly feminine groups. Here, the collectors are all female (le collezioniste) and the artists are either all male or a mixed group (artisti).
Why is the article i used in i due artisti? Doesn't artisti require gli because it starts with a vowel?
How does dei translate to the English apostrophe-S ('s)?
Italian doesn't have an apostrophe-S to show possession. Instead, you have to use the structure 'the paintings of the two artists'. The word dei is an articulated preposition, which is just a combination of the preposition di (of) and the definite article i (the, matching due).
Why does comprato end in -o when the subject (le collezioniste) is feminine plural?
In the passato prossimo (past tense), the past participle (comprato) only changes to match the subject if the helper verb is essere (to be). Because comprare uses the helper verb avere (hanno), the participle stays in its default -o form.
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