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- Topic: Italian >
- "Lei è la donna."
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"you" is used in English whether you're speaking to your little sister or to the leader of your country, and whether you're speaking to one person or several.
In Italian, you make a difference between talking to one person (you = tu) and talking to several people (you = voi). And when you're speaking politely/formally, you use you = Lei (capitalised for politeness).
So lei = she, Lei = you.
At the beginning of a sentence, you can't tell them apart.
Yes, you are :) However. Please keep in mind that sometimes "il" (il libro) becomes "lo" (lo sport) or - when the following word begins with a vowel, it becomes "l'" ("L" + apostrophe, as in "l'albero", the tree); the latter also happens to the feminine "la", which becomes "l'" when preceding words beginning with a vowel (L+ apostrophe, as in "l'acqua", the water). This is probably just confusing you, so you can stick with il/masculine - la/feminine at first if it's easier for you :) Check this out: http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/italian/language_notes/il.html