Question 1

Why is it rotta with an "-a" at the end?

Accepted Answer

Rotta is the past participle of the irregular verb rompere (to break). Here it acts as an adjective describing la lavatrice, which is a feminine noun, so the ending changes to -a to match.

Question 2

Is there a trick to remember that lavatrice is feminine?

Accepted Answer

Yes! Nouns ending in -trice are almost always feminine. This ending is often used for machines (like la lavatrice, the washing machine) or female professions (like l'attrice, the actress).

Question 3

Why does the English translation say "what a problem", but the Italian doesn't use the word for "a" (un)?

Accepted Answer

When you use che in an exclamation to mean "what a..." or "what...", you never use an article after it in Italian. You just say che directly followed by the noun.

Question 4

Since problema ends in "-a", does that make it a feminine word?

Accepted Answer

No, problema is actually a masculine noun, so you would say il problema if you needed an article. Many Italian words that end in -ma and come from Greek are masculine exceptions, like il sistema (the system) or il programma (the program).

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