Learn Italian: Ci si accorge subito dei danni strutturali, se le mura della fortezza non sono stabili. - One immediately notices the structural damages, if the fortress's exterior walls are not stable.

Word

Ci si accorge subito dei danni strutturali, se le mura della fortezza non sono stabili.

Meaning

One immediately notices the structural damages, if the fortress's exterior walls are not stable.

Part of speech

sentence

Pronunciation

Course

Italian

Lesson

Semantic double plurals (-i vs -a)

Breakdown of Ci si accorge subito dei danni strutturali, se le mura della fortezza non sono stabili.

immediately / right away

Questions & Answers about Ci si accorge subito dei danni strutturali, se le mura della fortezza non sono stabili.

Why does this sentence use le mura instead of i muri for "the walls"?

Muro is a noun with two plurals (a semantic double plural). I muri (masculine) refers to individual walls or the interior walls of a building. Le mura (feminine) refers collectively to the exterior, defensive walls of a city, castle, or fortress, which is exactly the context we have here.

How do adjectives and verbs agree with le mura?

Even though mura ends in -a and looks like a feminine singular noun, it is grammatically feminine plural. Verbs take the plural form (like sono here) and adjectives must agree in the feminine plural. The adjective stabili happens to end in -i for both genders, but if we used "high," it would be le mura sono alte, not alti.

What is the grammar behind the phrase ci si accorge?

This is the impersonal form ("one notices") of the reflexive verb accorgersi. Normally, the impersonal is formed by simply adding si before the verb. However, placing two si pronouns together (si si accorge) sounds awkward in Italian. To fix this, the first one changes to ci, creating ci si.

Why do we need the preposition dei before danni strutturali?