Breakdown of Mia figlia va alla scuola elementare.
la figlia
the daughter
mio
my
andare
to go / to be fine / to work out
alla
to the / at the (feminine singular)
la scuola
the school
elementare
elementary (la scuola elementare = primary school)
Questions & Answers about Mia figlia va alla scuola elementare.
Why is there no article before mia figlia? I thought possessives usually need one.
You generally do need a definite article (like il or la) before possessive words. However, the rule changes for family members: singular family words (like figlia, madre, fratello) drop the article. If you were talking about multiple daughters, the article comes back: le mie figlie.
We usually say andare a scuola. Why does this sentence use alla?
When you talk about going to school in general, you use just the preposition a (va a scuola). But because we are specifying exactly what kind of school it is by adding the adjective elementare, the noun becomes specific. For specific places, Italian requires the definite article, so a + la becomes alla.
Since scuola is feminine, why doesn't the adjective end in -a (elementara)?
Elementare belongs to a group of adjectives that naturally end in -e in the singular. These adjectives don't change based on gender—they use the exact same -e ending for both masculine and feminine nouns. If you were talking about multiple primary schools, the ending changes to an -i: le scuole elementari.
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