Learn Italian: Il mio vicino è anziano ma molto gentile. - My neighbor is elderly but very kind.

Il mio vicino è anziano ma molto gentile.

My neighbor is elderly but very kind.

Breakdown of Il mio vicino è anziano ma molto gentile.

Questions & Answers about Il mio vicino è anziano ma molto gentile.

Why do we use the article il in il mio vicino? I thought we dropped it for people?

We only drop the definite article for singular, close family members (like mio padre or mia madre). Since a neighbor (vicino) isn't a family member, you must use the article before the possessive word.

Why use anziano instead of vecchio for "old"?

Anziano means "elderly" or "senior" and is the polite way to describe an older person in Italian. Using vecchio (old) to describe people can come across as rude or blunt.

If the neighbor were a woman, would gentile change to gentila?

No, it stays exactly the same! Gentile belongs to a group of adjectives that end in -e in the singular. They use the same -e ending for both masculine and feminine nouns. The rest of the sentence would change, though: La mia vicina è anziana ma molto gentile.