Learn Italian: All'improvviso arriva il temporale. - All of a sudden the thunderstorm arrives.

In storytelling, all'improvviso (suddenly) is a classic trigger for an interrupting action. If this sentence were in the past, the verb would take the passato prossimo (e.g., è arrivato) to interrupt an ongoing background action described with mentre and the imperfetto (like 'While we were walking, suddenly the storm arrived').

Why does the verb come before the subject here (arriva il temporale instead of il temporale arriva)?

Italian often places the subject after the verb to emphasize a sudden appearance or event. Saying arriva il temporale makes the arrival of the storm feel more dramatic and immediate than standard word order.

What is the literal breakdown of the phrase all'improvviso?

It literally means 'at the sudden'. It combines the preposition a (at/to), the definite article lo (the, which drops its 'o' before a vowel to become l'), and the word improvviso (sudden or unexpected).

Temporale ends in '-e'. How can I remember if it is masculine or feminine?