Breakdown of La funivia del paese è chiusa, ma quella della montagna è aperta.
essere
to be
ma
but
aperto
open
chiuso
closed
quello
that
la montagna
the mountain
il paese
country
del
of the; than the (di + il)
della
of the (di + la)
la funivia
the cable car
Questions & Answers about La funivia del paese è chiusa, ma quella della montagna è aperta.
Why do we use quella here instead of repeating the noun?
In English, we say 'the mountain's' or 'that of the mountain'. In Italian, to avoid repeating the feminine singular noun funivia, we use the demonstrative pronoun quella (that one). You must use a form of quello here to mean 'the one'; you cannot just use the definite article la by itself.
Why does the sentence use della montagna rather than just di montagna?
We are talking about a specific mountain's cable car, so we need the definite article la with the noun montagna. When you combine the preposition di (of) with la, it forms the combined preposition della.
Why do chiusa and aperta both end in -a?
They are adjectives describing the cable car. Because funivia is a feminine singular noun, the adjectives must match. Notice that aperta still takes the feminine singular form to agree with the pronoun quella, which is standing in for the feminine noun.
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