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La donna cinese lavora qui.

La donna cinese lavora qui.
The Chinese woman works here.
From Lesson 44:Nationalities (le nazionalità)·Italian

Breakdown of La donna cinese lavora qui.

la donna
the woman
qui
here
lavorare
to work
cinese
Chinese

Questions & Answers about La donna cinese lavora qui.

Why is it cinese and not cinesa if donna is feminine?
Most Italian adjectives end in -o (masculine) or -a (feminine). However, adjectives that end in -e in their dictionary form, like cinese or intelligente, are used for both masculine and feminine nouns. If we were talking about a Chinese man, it would also be l'uomo cinese.
Why does cinese come after donna?
In Italian, adjectives usually come after the noun they describe. So instead of saying 'Chinese woman', you say 'woman Chinese' (donna cinese).
Why isn't cinese capitalized like it is in English?
In English, we capitalize nationalities. In Italian, you do not capitalize adjectives of nationality. You only capitalize the name of the country itself, like la Cina (China).
Which verb does lavora come from?
It comes from the regular verb lavorare (to work). Since la donna is a 'she' (third-person singular), we drop the -are ending and add -a, giving us lavora.

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