Breakdown of L'America occidentale è molto montuosa.
essere
to be
molto
very
occidentale
western
l'America
America (f)
montuoso
mountainous
Questions & Answers about L'America occidentale è molto montuosa.
Why do we use the definite article L' for America occidentale?
Continents always take a definite article when they are the subject of a sentence. However, the key rule here is that because America is modified by the adjective occidentale, the article becomes mandatory in all grammatical situations. For example, while you drop the article after the preposition in for unmodified continents (in America), you must keep it when modified (nell'America occidentale).
Why isn't occidentale capitalized like 'Western' is in English?
In Italian, adjectives indicating geographical directions like occidentale (western) or meridionale (southern) are not capitalized unless they form part of an official proper name. Since it just describes a region here, it stays lowercase.
Could I put occidentale before America, like in the English translation?
No. In Italian, classifying adjectives that specify a geographical sub-category or direction must strictly follow the noun they modify.
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