Breakdown of Leggo la mail sul cellulare.
leggere
to read
sul
on the; about the (su + il)
il cellulare
the mobile phone, the cell phone
la mail
the email (= l'email)
Questions & Answers about Leggo la mail sul cellulare.
Since this lesson is about the past tense, how would I change this sentence to say "I read the email" in the past?
You would use the passato prossimo. The verb leggere (to read) takes the helper verb avere. Its past participle is irregular: letto. So, to say "I read the email" in the past, you would say Ho letto la mail sul cellulare.
Why is the English word mail used with the feminine article la?
When Italian adopts English words, it usually assigns them a gender based on their Italian equivalent. Since the Italian words for mail or letter (la posta, la lettera) are feminine, mail becomes feminine too. Because it is a foreign word, it doesn't change its ending in the plural: one email is la mail and two emails are le mail.
Why does the Italian sentence say sul instead of translating "on my"?
Sul combines the preposition su (on) with the article il (the) to mean "on the". In Italian, when talking about everyday personal items like a phone, you usually just use "the" instead of a possessive word like "my" if it is obvious who the owner is. Since you are doing the reading, it is understood that it is your phone.
How do I pronounce the double "g" in leggo?
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