Breakdown of Questi turisti non capiscono la rigidità del confine.
non
not
questi
these (masculine)
di
of, from
capire
to understand
il turista
the tourist
il confine
the boundary
la rigidità
the strictness / the rigidity
Questions & Answers about Questi turisti non capiscono la rigidità del confine.
How could we rewrite this sentence to use the emphatic pleonastic che?
To emphasize the strictness, you could exclaim: Che rigidità del confine che non capiscono questi turisti! (What strictness of the border these tourists don't understand!). In spoken Italian, adding that second, grammatically unnecessary che (the "pleonastic" one) connects the exclamation to the rest of the sentence while adding strong emotional emphasis.
The singular is turista (ending in -a). Why does the plural end in -i here?
Nouns ending in -ista (like turista, dentista, giornalista) are the same for both masculine and feminine in the singular. However, they branch out in the plural: they take -isti for a masculine or mixed group, and -iste for a purely feminine group. The masculine plural adjective questi tells us this is a masculine or mixed group of tourists.
If we were talking about multiple strict rules, how would rigidità change in the plural?
Could I use frontiera instead of confine here?
Yes, they are often interchangeable, but there is a slight nuance. Confine generally refers to the strict geographical or political line separating two territories. Frontiera often brings to mind the physical border crossing, complete with customs, guards, and passport control.
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