Breakdown of L'ambasciata è aperta dal lunedì al venerdì.
essere
to be
aperto
open
al
to the / at the
il lunedì
Monday
il venerdì
Friday
dal
from the; to/at the (da + il)
l'ambasciata
the embassy (f)
Questions & Answers about L'ambasciata è aperta dal lunedì al venerdì.
Why do we use dal and al here instead of just da and a?
When talking about a regular, recurring schedule (like opening hours every week), Italian adds the definite article to the days of the week. Da (from) + il combines to make dal, and a (to) + il makes al. If this were a specific one-time event next week, you would usually just say da lunedì a venerdì.
Why aren't lunedì and venerdì capitalized?
Is aperta a verb or an adjective here?
It is the past participle of the verb aprire (to open), but here it acts as an adjective describing the current state of l'ambasciata. Because ambasciata is a feminine singular noun, aperta takes the feminine singular -a ending.
How would this look if we used a direct object clitic and the passato prossimo, like in this lesson?
This specific sentence just uses the present tense verb essere to describe a state. However, if you wanted to say "I opened it" (referring to the embassy), you would use the feminine clitic la (which becomes l' before the verb) and say L'ho aperta. Notice how the past participle aperta agrees with the feminine direct object clitic!
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