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La polizia indaga su un omicidio molto strano.

La polizia indaga su un omicidio molto strano.
The police are investigating a very strange murder.
From Lesson 367:Fact vs. opinion clauses (il fatto che)·Italian

Breakdown of La polizia indaga su un omicidio molto strano.

strano
strange
indagare
to investigate
la polizia
the police
l'omicidio
the murder (m)

Questions & Answers about La polizia indaga su un omicidio molto strano.

Why is the verb indaga in the singular when the English translation says 'The police are'?
In Italian, la polizia is a singular feminine noun referring to the police force as a single collective entity, so it requires a singular verb. English treats 'police' as a plural noun, which makes this a very common trap for English speakers translating into Italian.
Why is there a su after indaga? Doesn't 'investigate' just take a direct object?
In English, 'to investigate' is transitive, meaning it takes a direct object directly after the verb. However, the Italian verb indagare requires the preposition su when expressing what is being investigated. You are essentially saying that the police are investigating 'on' a murder.
I have also seen the word assassinio for murder. Why use omicidio here?
While they are often used as synonyms, omicidio is the standard, broader legal term for homicide, which makes it the natural choice for a formal police investigation. Assassinio strongly implies a deliberate, premeditated murder, often of a prominent person.
Could we change the word order to put molto strano before omicidio?
It would sound very unnatural here. While some descriptive adjectives can go before the noun for subjective or stylistic reasons, when an adjective is modified by an adverb like molto, the phrase becomes grammatically 'heavy' and almost always must follow the noun it describes.

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