Learn Italian: La carne dura è impossibile da masticare.

La carne dura è impossibile da masticare.

Tough meat is impossible to chew.

Breakdown of La carne dura è impossibile da masticare.

to (purpose/necessity after a noun)

duro

hard

Questions & Answers about La carne dura è impossibile da masticare.

Why do we use da before masticare instead of di or a?

When you use an adjective like impossibile, facile, or difficile to describe a noun, you connect it to the infinitive verb with da. In English you say 'impossible to chew', but Italian requires da because the subject (la carne) is the thing receiving the action of the verb (it is being chewed).

If I wanted to say 'It is impossible to chew the tough meat', would I still use da?

No, you would drop it! If you change the sentence structure so the verb comes right after the adjective, you say È impossibile masticare la carne dura. You only use da when the noun being acted upon comes before the adjective.

I learned that dura means 'hard'. Why is it translated as 'tough' here?

Duro (and its feminine form dura) does mean 'hard' or 'solid' in most contexts. However, when talking about food, particularly meat, it translates to 'tough'. If you wanted to say the meat is tender, you would use the adjective tenera.

Why does the sentence start with La if it is talking about tough meat in general?

In Italian, you must use definite articles like il or la when talking about broad categories or general concepts. While in English we just drop the article and say 'Tough meat', Italian requires it.