Learn Italian: La fortezza ha un grave danno strutturale e l'architetto ne è preoccupato. - The fortress has severe structural damage and the architect is worried about it.

Word

La fortezza ha un grave danno strutturale e l'architetto ne è preoccupato.

Meaning

The fortress has severe structural damage and the architect is worried about it.

Part of speech

sentence

Pronunciation

Course

Italian

Lesson

Semantic double plurals (-i vs -a)

Breakdown of La fortezza ha un grave danno strutturale e l'architetto ne è preoccupato.

Questions & Answers about La fortezza ha un grave danno strutturale e l'architetto ne è preoccupato.

Why do we use ne here instead of a pronoun like lo or ci?

The pronoun ne replaces phrases starting with the preposition di (meaning "of" or "about"). Because the Italian expression is essere preoccupato di qualcosa (to be worried about something), ne neatly steps in to mean "about it". Using lo would incorrectly replace a direct object.

The English translation says "severe damage", but the Italian says un grave danno. Is danno countable?

Yes! In English, "damage" is usually an uncountable noun, so saying "a damage" sounds incorrect. In Italian, however, danno is completely countable. You can have un danno (a single instance of damage) or molti danni (many damages).

Why is grave placed before danno while strutturale comes after?

Adjectives that objectively classify what kind of thing a noun is (like strutturale) must always go after the noun. Conversely, descriptive adjectives like grave can go before the noun to add emphasis. Grave danno is also a very strong, common set phrase in Italian.

Could I just say l'architetto è preoccupato di questo instead of using ne?