Log inSign up

La visita di mia zia è stata breve.

La visita di mia zia è stata breve.
My aunt's visit was short.
From Lesson 400:Possessives with family exceptions·Italian

Breakdown of La visita di mia zia è stata breve.

la zia
the aunt
breve
short, brief
la visita
the visit

Questions & Answers about La visita di mia zia è stata breve.

Why is it di mia zia instead of della mia zia in this sentence?
This follows the standard rule: singular, unmodified family members drop the definite article with possessive adjectives. You only keep the article (and use della) if you modify the noun, for example, della mia zia preferita (of my favorite aunt), or if it is plural (delle mie zie).
Does la visita di mia zia mean she visited me, or I visited her?
di mia zia means it was her visit to you (literally, the visit of my aunt). If you meant a visit to her house, you would use the preposition da (at the place of) and say la visita da mia zia.
Why is the past participle stata feminine?
The subject of the sentence is la visita (feminine singular). Since the verb essere uses itself as an auxiliary in the past tense (è stata), the past participle must agree with the subject in gender and number.
Why doesn't the adjective breve change to end in -a to match the feminine subject?
Breve is an adjective that ends in -e in its dictionary form. These adjectives have only two forms: they end in -e for both masculine and feminine singular, and they change to -i for the plural (brevi).

Learn La visita di mia zia è stata breve and more in Italian

All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.

  • ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
  • ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
  • ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free
Start learning Italian →