Breakdown of La carne è tenera da tagliare, ma il pane è duro da masticare.
essere
to be
ma
but
il pane
the bread
la carne
the meat
Questions & Answers about La carne è tenera da tagliare, ma il pane è duro da masticare.
Why is da used before the verbs tagliare and masticare instead of a or di?
In Italian, when an adjective describes a quality of a noun in relation to an action (like being tender to cut or hard to chew), we use the preposition da followed by the infinitive. This is a set structure you are learning in this lesson: subject + essere + adjective + da + infinitive verb.
Why does tenera end in -a while duro ends in -o?
The adjectives are describing the nouns, not the verbs. Tenera is feminine singular to agree with la carne, while duro is masculine singular to agree with il pane. Even though they are followed by the da + infinitive structure, standard adjective agreement rules still apply to the noun.
Both carne and pane end in -e. Is there a rule for their genders?
Is this da + infinitive structure related to phrases like qualcosa da mangiare (something to eat)?