Breakdown of Attraverso la strada e cammino sul marciapiede.
e
and
la strada
the street
camminare
to walk
sul
on the; about the (su + il)
attraversare
to cross
il marciapiede
the sidewalk, the pavement
Questions & Answers about Attraverso la strada e cammino sul marciapiede.
I've seen attraverso used to mean 'through' or 'across'. Why does it mean 'I cross' here?
Attraverso does double duty in Italian! It is often a preposition meaning 'through', but here it is the first-person singular ('I') form of the verb attraversare (to cross). You can tell it's a verb because it expresses the main action, matching the 'I' form of cammino (I walk) later in the sentence.
How would I apply this lesson's topic to say 'One must cross the street'?
To express a general necessity, you use the impersonal expression bisogna (it is necessary / one must) followed by an infinitive verb (the dictionary form). You would change the conjugated verb attraverso back to its infinitive and say: Bisogna attraversare la strada.
Why is it sul instead of just su (on)?
In Italian, prepositions like su almost always combine with the definite article ('the') before a noun. Because marciapiede is a masculine singular noun starting with a consonant, it takes the article il. When you combine su + il, they merge into the combined preposition sul (on the).
Is marciapiede (sidewalk) a compound word?
Yes! It is literally a combination of marcia (march) and piede (foot), so it translates to a path for 'foot-marching'. Even though it ends in '-e' rather than '-o', remember that it is a masculine noun (il marciapiede).
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