ELONIO
Log inSign up

Il pollo fritto è croccante, ma facile da masticare.

Il pollo fritto è croccante, ma facile da masticare.
The fried chicken is crispy, but easy to chew.
From Lesson 269:Adjectives with infinitives (bello da vedere)·Italian

Questions & Answers about Il pollo fritto è croccante, ma facile da masticare.

Why do we use da between facile and masticare?
When an adjective describes a specific noun (like the chicken) and is followed by an action done to that noun, Italian uses the preposition da plus the infinitive verb. You will often see this pattern with adjectives like facile (easy), difficile (hard), and impossibile (impossible).
Since il pollo is masculine and ends in -o, shouldn't croccante also end in -o?
Not all Italian adjectives end in -o or -a. Croccante (crispy) belongs to a group of adjectives that end in -e in the singular. These adjectives don't change based on gender, so it is croccante for both masculine (il pollo) and feminine (la mela) nouns. They only change to -i in the plural.
Is fritto a verb or an adjective in this sentence?
It is acting as an adjective, but it comes from a verb. Fritto is the irregular past participle of the verb friggere (to fry). Just like in English, past participles in Italian are very commonly used as adjectives to describe how food is prepared, and they must agree in gender and number with the noun.

Learn Il pollo fritto è croccante, ma facile da masticare and more in Italian

All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.

  • ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
  • ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
  • ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free
Start learning Italian →