Learn Spanish (Latin America): El italiano es un idioma bonito.

El italiano es un idioma bonito.

Italian is a beautiful language.

Breakdown of El italiano es un idioma bonito.

Questions & Answers about El italiano es un idioma bonito.

Why is it un idioma bonito and not una idioma bonita since idioma ends in 'a'?

In Spanish, most words ending in '-a' are feminine, but idioma is an exception. It comes from Greek, and many Spanish words of Greek origin that end in '-ma' (like el problema or el sistema) are actually masculine. Because it's masculine, we use un and the masculine adjective bonito.

Why isn't the word italiano capitalized?

In Spanish, names of languages, nationalities, and months are not capitalized unless they appear at the very beginning of a sentence.

Why do we need El before italiano? In English, we just say "Italian is...".

When you are talking about a language in a general sense, especially when it is the main subject of the sentence, Spanish requires the definite article (el). You would usually drop the el if it came right after a verb like speaking or studying, such as in Yo hablo italiano.

Why does bonito come after idioma instead of before it like in English?

In Spanish, descriptive adjectives (like bonito, which means beautiful or pretty) usually come directly after the noun they describe. So instead of "a beautiful language", you say "a language beautiful" (un idioma bonito).