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Lavo le forchette e i piatti.

Lavo le forchette e i piatti.
I wash the forks and the plates.
From Lesson 96:In cucina (pentole e posate)·Italian

Breakdown of Lavo le forchette e i piatti.

e
and
il piatto
the plate
lavare
to wash
la forchetta
the fork

Questions & Answers about Lavo le forchette e i piatti.

In English I can say "I wash the forks and plates". Can I just say Lavo le forchette e piatti?
No, in Italian you generally must repeat the word for "the" before every noun in a list. Since forchette (forks) is feminine plural and piatti (plates) is masculine plural, you need to use both le and i.
Does i piatti only mean "the plates"?
While un piatto means "a plate", the plural i piatti is also used as the general term for "the dishes". The phrase lavare i piatti is the everyday way to say "to do the dishes" in Italian.
Why isn't the word io (I) at the beginning of the sentence?
In Italian, the verb ending usually tells you who is doing the action, so subject pronouns are dropped. The -o ending in lavo already means "I wash". You would only add io to add strong emphasis, like saying "I am the one washing them."
How do the noun endings match the words for "the" (le and i)?
Nouns ending in -a are usually feminine, so forchetta changes to forchette for the plural and uses the feminine plural article le. Nouns ending in -o are usually masculine, so piatto changes to piatti and uses the masculine plural article i.

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