Learn Italian: Le città moderne hanno bisogno di più lealtà.

Le città moderne hanno bisogno di più lealtà.

Modern cities need more loyalty.

Breakdown of Le città moderne hanno bisogno di più lealtà.

Questions & Answers about Le città moderne hanno bisogno di più lealtà.

Why does the plural word for cities remain città instead of changing its ending?

In Italian, nouns that end in an accented vowel, like città, are invariable. This means their ending does not change in the plural. So, la città is the city, and le città is the cities.

Since città doesn't change form, how do we know it is feminine plural in this sentence?

The words around it give it away! The plural feminine article Le and the plural feminine adjective moderne both agree with città, making it perfectly clear that we are talking about multiple cities rather than just one.

Why use hanno bisogno di instead of a single verb for need?

To express the verb to need in Italian, you typically use the phrase avere bisogno di, which literally translates to having need of. Here, hanno is the they form of avere, making the phrase they have need of. Remember that di is required before the thing that is needed!

The word lealtà also ends in an accented vowel. Is it plural here too like città?

No, lealtà (loyalty) is singular in this sentence. However, it belongs to the exact same noun class as città: if you ever needed to talk about multiple loyalties, the word would remain lealtà. Many Italian words ending in -tà are abstract feminine nouns, and they are all invariable.