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Il principe è il figlio del re.

Il principe è il figlio del re.
The prince is the son of the king.
From Lesson 107:Irregular verbs in the imperfect (facevo, bevevo, dicevo)·Italian

Questions & Answers about Il principe è il figlio del re.

Why is it del re instead of just di il re?
In Italian, when the preposition di (of) meets the definite article il (the), they must combine into the single word del. You will almost never see di il written as separate words.
Why doesn't the word re have an accent mark, like è does?
Most single-syllable words in Italian don't take an accent mark. The verb è (is) gets one so you don't confuse it in writing with e (and). Because re (king) doesn't have a common twin word to mix it up with, it doesn't need an accent.
I learned we drop the article ('the') for family members. Why do we say il figlio here?
The rule about dropping the article with family members only applies when you are using a possessive word, like mio or tuo (for example, mio padre). Because there is no possessive word here, we need the standard article il.
Could I say il re's figlio to mean 'the king's son' like in English?
No, Italian doesn't have an apostrophe-s structure to show ownership. You always have to flip the phrase and use di (of), literally saying 'the son of the king' (il figlio del re).

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