Breakdown of Durante la ristrutturazione, hanno messo l'intonaco su tutti i muri, tranne sulle mura della fortezza.
di
of, from
mettere
to put / to put on / play (music)
tutto
all the / whole
su
on, about
il muro
the wall
tranne
except
durante
during
la ristrutturazione
renovation
l'intonaco
plaster (building material)
la fortezza
fortress
Questions & Answers about Durante la ristrutturazione, hanno messo l'intonaco su tutti i muri, tranne sulle mura della fortezza.
Why does this sentence use both i muri and le mura if they both mean "the walls"?
Why is the preposition su kept separate in su tutti i muri, but combined into sulle in sulle mura?
When you use a preposition before tutto (all), the preposition stays separate from the definite article. Since tutti comes before the article, you write su tutti i muri. With mura, there is no tutto in the way, so su and the article le combine normally into the articulated preposition sulle.
Since le mura ends in -a, is it treated as a feminine plural if I add an adjective?
Yes! Even though the singular il muro is masculine, the collective plural le mura is grammatically feminine plural. If you wanted to describe the fortress walls as ancient, you would use a feminine plural adjective: sulle mura antiche.
Why is the preposition su repeated after tranne in tranne sulle mura?
Tranne (except) can be followed directly by a noun or it can repeat the preposition used earlier in the sentence. While you could technically just say tranne le mura, repeating the preposition to say tranne sulle mura creates a nice balance and emphasizes the contrast with the earlier phrase su tutti i muri.
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