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I pendolari preferiscono le auto elettriche.

I pendolari preferiscono le auto elettriche.
Commuters prefer electric cars.
From Lesson 258:Invariable plurals for clipped nouns (le foto, le moto)·Italian

Questions & Answers about I pendolari preferiscono le auto elettriche.

Why is it le auto instead of le aute?
Auto is an abbreviation of the feminine noun automobile. In Italian, when a noun is clipped or shortened like this, its ending does not change in the plural. You only change the article to show it is plural, so the singular l'auto becomes the plural le auto.
Why does the adjective elettriche end in -e if the noun auto ends in -o?
Even though the abbreviation auto does not change its ending, it remains grammatically feminine and plural. Adjectives describing it must match this underlying gender and number. Therefore, the masculine singular elettrico becomes the feminine plural elettriche. The h is added to keep the hard C sound from the singular form.
How can you tell if pendolari is masculine or feminine here?
You can tell it is masculine by looking at the plural article i. The singular form is il pendolare (the commuter). Remember that nouns ending in -e in the singular always change to -i in the plural, regardless of whether they are masculine or feminine.
Why is there an -isc- inside the verb preferiscono?
Preferire (to prefer) is one of the many -ire verbs that insert -isc- into their stem for the present tense. They do this in all forms except the we and you-all forms. This is the exact same pattern you learned earlier with verbs like capire (capiscono) and finire (finiscono).

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