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È un maschio o una femmina? È un maschio.

È un maschio o una femmina? È un maschio.
"Is it a male or a female?" "It is a male."
From Lesson 135:Formal commands (Lei, Loro)·Italian

Questions & Answers about È un maschio o una femmina? È un maschio.

Why use maschio and femmina here instead of uomo and donna?
Maschio (male) and femmina (female) are used to talk about the biological sex of animals or babies. For adult humans, you would normally use uomo (man) and donna (woman).
Where is the word for 'it' in È un maschio?
Italian almost always drops subject pronouns like 'it', 'he', or 'she' when the meaning is clear. So, instead of using a specific word for 'it', you just start the sentence with the verb È (is).
How do you pronounce the sch in maschio?
In Italian, the combination sch followed by an i or e makes a hard 'sk' sound, like in the English word 'skip'. So, maschio is pronounced 'MAH-skyoh', without any 'sh' sound.
Why does the article change between un maschio and una femmina?
The word for 'a' or 'an' must match the gender of the noun it belongs to. Since maschio is a masculine noun, it takes the masculine article un. Femmina is a feminine noun, so it takes the feminine article una.

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