Learn Italian: L'osservatore è noto per scoprire giovani promettenti. - The scout is known for discovering promising youths.

L'osservatore è noto per scoprire giovani promettenti.

The scout is known for discovering promising youths.

Breakdown of L'osservatore è noto per scoprire giovani promettenti.

essere

to be

per

for / in order to / because of

scoprire

to discover

l'osservatore

the scout (sports), observer (m)

Questions & Answers about L'osservatore è noto per scoprire giovani promettenti.

Why is it noto per scoprire and not noto di scoprire?

The adjective noto (known/famous) requires the preposition per when you want to state why someone is known. Just like in English ("known for"), this preposition is followed by an action. In Italian, prepositions are followed by the infinitive form of the verb, giving us per scoprire (for discovering).

L'osservatore literally means "the observer". Is it the standard word for a talent scout?

Yes! In the context of sports, music, or modeling, a talent scout is commonly called an osservatore (or sometimes a cacciatore di talenti). You will see this word used frequently in Italian football (soccer) journalism.

Why is giovani used here as a noun instead of an adjective?

It is very common in Italian to use an adjective directly as a noun to refer to a category of people. Here, the adjective giovane (young) is used as the plural noun giovani to mean "young people" or "youths".

What form is the word promettenti?

It is the present participle of the verb promettere (to promise), functioning here as an adjective meaning "promising". Because the singular form ends in -e (promettente), it changes to -i in the plural (promettenti) to agree with the plural noun giovani.