Learn Italian: Il pollo fritto è croccante, ma facile da masticare. - The fried chicken is crispy, but easy to chew.

Il pollo fritto è croccante, ma facile da masticare.

The fried chicken is crispy, but easy to chew.

Breakdown of Il pollo fritto è croccante, ma facile da masticare.

to (purpose/necessity after a noun)

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.