Breakdown of Ha un'origine nobile, tuttavia abita in un quartiere povero.
un
a / an (masculine)
avere
to have
in
in / made of (material)
abitare
to live
Questions & Answers about Ha un'origine nobile, tuttavia abita in un quartiere povero.
Why use tuttavia instead of ma here?
Could I use eppure in this sentence instead of tuttavia?
Yes, eppure works perfectly here too. While tuttavia states a factual contrast (however), eppure adds a slight tone of surprise or contradiction (and yet, he lives in a poor neighborhood).
Why is there an apostrophe in un'origine but not in un quartiere?
The word origine is a feminine noun that starts with a vowel, so the feminine article una drops its final letter and takes an apostrophe to become un'. Quartiere is a masculine noun, so it takes the standard masculine article un, which never gets an apostrophe. This is an important rule to remember as it tells the reader the gender of the noun!