Breakdown of Ascoltiamo la musica russa.
ascoltare
to listen / to listen to
la musica
the music
russo
Russian
Questions & Answers about Ascoltiamo la musica russa.
Why isn't there a word for "to" after Ascoltiamo?
In Italian, the verb ascoltare already means "to listen to". You don't need to add an extra preposition like you do in English, so Ascoltiamo covers "we listen to" all by itself.
Why do we say la musica if the English translation is just "Russian music" without "the"?
In English, we drop "the" when talking about a general category like Russian music. In Italian, you almost always keep the definite article (il, la, etc.) before a noun, even when speaking about things in general.
Why does russa end in an "a"?
Adjectives in Italian must match the gender and number of the noun they describe. Since musica is a feminine singular noun, the base adjective for Russian (russo) changes its ending to "a" to match, becoming russa.
Why does the adjective russa come after the noun?
In Italian, descriptive adjectives, including nationalities, usually come right after the noun they describe. So instead of "Russian music", the word order is literally "music Russian".
Why is russa written with a lowercase "r"?
Unlike English, Italian does not capitalize adjectives that describe languages or nationalities. It is always written in lowercase.
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