Breakdown of L'aglio è piccolo, ma molto forte.
essere
to be
piccolo
small
molto
very
ma
but
forte
strong
l'aglio
the garlic (m)
Questions & Answers about L'aglio è piccolo, ma molto forte.
Why does the sentence use l'aglio instead of just aglio?
In English, we usually drop the article when making general statements, like "Garlic is small." In Italian, however, you almost always need the definite article when talking about a noun as a broad category or general concept. So, it translates literally as "The garlic is..."
Why does forte end in -e if it describes the masculine word aglio?
While many adjectives end in -o for masculine words (like piccolo), Italian has a second group of adjectives that end in -e in the singular. Adjectives like forte (strong) or intelligente (smart) use the -e ending for both masculine and feminine nouns. They only change to an -i ending in the plural.
If we changed aglio to a feminine word like cipolla (onion), would molto become molta?
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