Word
Mia figlia va alla scuola elementare.
Meaning
My daughter goes to primary school.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
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)
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.