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Hanno inventato una tastiera lavabile con acqua e sapone.

Hanno inventato una tastiera lavabile con acqua e sapone.
They invented a keyboard washable with soap and water.
From Lesson 343:Adjectives of possibility (-bile)·Italian

Questions & Answers about Hanno inventato una tastiera lavabile con acqua e sapone.

How is lavabile formed from the verb lavare?
It is formed by taking the stem of lavare (to wash) and adding the suffix -abile. For regular verbs ending in -are, the suffix is always -abile. This creates an adjective meaning 'capable of being washed', perfectly mirroring how '-able' and '-ible' work in English.
The English translation says 'soap and water,' but the Italian is acqua e sapone. Is this specific word order required?
Yes, acqua e sapone (literally 'water and soap') is a fixed phrase in Italian. As a bonus B2 idiom, this exact phrase is also used to describe a person with a natural, 'fresh-faced' beauty, implying they wear little to no makeup (e.g., 'una ragazza acqua e sapone').
Why are there no definite articles before acqua and sapone here?
When uncountable nouns like acqua (water) and sapone (soap) are used in a general, generic sense after a preposition like con (with), the definite articles are usually omitted. Adding them here would make it sound like you are referring to a specific, previously mentioned bucket of water and bar of soap.
Since there is no subject pronoun before hanno inventato, how do we know who 'they' are?
We don't need to know! In Italian, using the third-person plural verb without a specified subject is a very common way to express an impersonal 'they' or 'someone.' It functions exactly like the generic 'they' in English phrases like 'they say' or 'they finally invented a flying car.'

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