Breakdown of Parla del suo lavoro con passione.
il lavoro
the work / the job
suo
his/her/Your
con
with
parlare
to speak / to talk
del
of the; than the (di + il)
la passione
the passion
Questions & Answers about Parla del suo lavoro con passione.
How do we know Parla means "she talks" and not "he talks"?
The verb form parla can mean "he talks," "she talks," or even formal "you talk." Because Italian usually drops subject pronouns like lui (he) or lei (she), you have to rely on the wider context of the conversation to know who is speaking. If it wasn't clear, the speaker would have said Lei parla.
Why is it del suo lavoro instead of just di suo lavoro?
When talking about a topic, Italian uses the preposition di. Unlike English, Italian requires a definite article before most possessive adjectives, so "her work" is il suo lavoro. When you combine di + il, they merge into the combined word del.
If suo is masculine, how can it mean "her" work?
This is a common English-to-Italian mix-up! In Italian, the possessive adjective always agrees in gender and number with the thing being owned (il lavoro, which is masculine), not the person who owns it. Therefore, il suo lavoro can mean "his work," "her work," or even "its work." Context tells us which one it is.
Why isn't there an article before passione? Don't abstract nouns usually take definite articles in Italian?
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