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I cespugli, i cui rami nascondono il tronco, sono verdi.

I cespugli, i cui rami nascondono il tronco, sono verdi.
The bushes, whose branches hide the trunk, are green.
From Lesson 291:Relative possessives (il cui, la cui, i cui, le cui)·Italian

Questions & Answers about I cespugli, i cui rami nascondono il tronco, sono verdi.

Why does this sentence use i cui instead of il cui or le cui?
In Italian, the article before cui (whose) must agree in gender and number with the thing being possessed, not the possessor! Here, the bushes possess the branches (rami). Since rami is masculine plural, we use the masculine plural article i, making it i cui rami.
What is the subject of the verb nascondono (hide) in the middle clause?
The subject of nascondono is rami (branches). Even though the branches belong to the bushes (cespugli), it is the branches themselves that are doing the action of hiding the trunk. Since rami is plural, the verb takes the plural form nascondono.
How do we know that sono verdi (are green) refers to the bushes and not the trunk?
We can tell by looking at both the grammar and the sentence structure. Grammatically, sono is plural and verdi is a plural adjective, so they cannot refer to the singular il tronco. Structurally, i cui rami nascondono il tronco is an interrupting clause set off by commas. If you remove it, the main sentence remains clear: I cespugli sono verdi (The bushes are green).
What is the singular form of cespugli?
The singular is cespuglio (bush). When masculine words end in an unstressed -io, they form their plural by simply changing the ending to a single -i. This prevents an awkward double 'i' at the end of the word.

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