Learn Italian: L'aria condizionata non funziona: chiamo il tecnico. - The air conditioning does not work: I call the technician.

L'aria condizionata non funziona: chiamo il tecnico.

The air conditioning does not work: I call the technician.

Breakdown of L'aria condizionata non funziona: chiamo il tecnico.

to work / to function (machines, devices)

il tecnico

the technician

Questions & Answers about L'aria condizionata non funziona: chiamo il tecnico.

Why is it funziona instead of lavora for "works"?

In Italian, there is a strict difference between a machine working and a person working. Use funzionare (to function/work) for machines, devices, or systems. Use lavorare only when talking about a person doing a job. Since the air conditioning is a machine, we must use funziona.

Why use the present tense chiamo if I am about to call the technician in the future?

Italians often use the present tense instead of the future tense for actions they are about to do immediately or in the very near future. While chiamo literally means "I call" or "I am calling", here it naturally translates to "I'll call" or "I'm going to call".

Why is the article l' used for aria instead of la?

Because aria is a feminine singular word that starts with a vowel. To make pronunciation smoother, Italian drops the "a" from the feminine article la and replaces it with an apostrophe, creating l'aria.

If I needed to call multiple technicians, how would I say "the technicians"?

The plural of il tecnico is i tecnici. For masculine words ending in -co, the plural usually ends in -ci, which also changes the hard "k" sound at the end to a soft "ch" sound.