"Lo squalo"

Translation: The shark

[Fuzzy_Eva]

Please give me 1 or 2 lingots if you don't mind.

[annie]

why 'lo' squalo and not 'il' squalo

[naten]

'lo' is used before masculine nouns (or noun phrases) beginning with s+consonant (sc, sp, sq, etc), z, x, gn, and maybe a few others I don't remember. 'il' is used before other consonants. l' before vowels.

[super_moi]

That's the kind of details that give Italian its incredible singing quality: for them, saying "il squalo" with three consecutive consonants (l, s, qu) is just WAY too harsh. Hence avoiding the problem by saying "lo". Imagine how rough a word like "strengthen" must sound to them.

[lorenagay]

Hahaha. It's why they can't learn German or any of the Slavic languages. Too many consonants in a row...

[lyserg173]

ps

[Lisagnipura]

Thanks, naten. good answer