Breakdown of Il batterista non sa che cosa fare senza lo spartito.
non
not
che
what
la cosa
thing
senza
without
fare
to do / to make
sapere
to know
il batterista
drummer
lo spartito
sheet music
Questions & Answers about Il batterista non sa che cosa fare senza lo spartito.
Why do we use the infinitive fare here instead of conjugating it?
This is an implicit indirect question, which is exactly what this lesson covers! When the subject of the main verb (the drummer) is the same as the implied subject of the action (what he should do), Italian pairs a question word like che cosa directly with an infinitive like fare. It translates perfectly to the English structure "what to do."
Could I just say cosa fare instead of che cosa fare?
Batterista ends in -a, so why does it use the masculine article il?
Words ending in the suffix -ista that refer to professions or roles (like batterista, dentista, or turista) are identical for both masculine and feminine. The article is what tells you the gender of the specific person. Here, il batterista tells us the drummer is male. If the drummer were female, it would be la batterista.
A quick refresher: why is it lo spartito instead of il spartito?
Masculine singular nouns that begin with an "impure S" (which means an s followed by another consonant, like the sp in spartito) always require the definite article lo instead of il.
Learn Il batterista non sa che cosa fare senza lo spartito and more in Italian
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free