Learn Italian: Gli spaghetti costano poco.

Gli spaghetti costano poco.

Spaghetti costs little.

Breakdown of Gli spaghetti costano poco.

poco

little, few, not very

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Questions & Answers about Gli spaghetti costano poco.

Why is the verb costano in the plural form when the English translation says "costs"?

In English, spaghetti is treated as a singular, uncountable noun. In Italian, spaghetti is a plural noun (the singular form is spaghetto, which means a single strand). Because the subject is plural, the verb must also be plural: costano (they cost).

Since spaghetti is masculine plural, shouldn't poco change to pochi?

Not in this case! Here, poco is acting as an adverb describing the verb costano (how much it costs), so it stays in its default form. If it were describing the noun directly, like saying "few spaghetti noodles", it would change to pochi spaghetti.

How would I ask "How much does the spaghetti cost?" using the question word quanto?

You would ask Quanto costano gli spaghetti? Just like poco in this sentence, quanto is acting as an adverb modifying the verb costano, so it does not change its ending to match the plural spaghetti.

Why do we need the article Gli at the beginning of the sentence?

In Italian, definite articles like Gli (the) are almost always required before the subject of a sentence, even when speaking about things in general. In English we just say "Spaghetti costs little", but Italian requires "The spaghetti".