"ed"
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I notice that the word for "and" in Italian, which is "e", sometimes becomes "ed". In particular, I've seen something like, "Marco ed io". So whenever "e" is followed by "io", "e" becomes "ed". This makes sense, because "ed io" is easier to say than "e io".My question is, is it the case that every time "e" is followed by a word that begins with a vowel, you use "ed"? So far I think I've only seen "ed io". So I'm wondering if this rule is confined to the word "io" only or it's a general rule concerning all "e"+ "vowel" combinations.Grazie!
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"My question is, is it the case that every time "e" is followed by a word that begins with a vowel, you use "ed"?"My answer is YES, and that is valid for both nouns and articles. Some examples:Giovanna ed Eleonora sono belle. Giovanna and Eleonora are good looking.Gli Etruschi ed i Romani sono popolazioni del passato. The Etruscan and the Romans are population of the pastThat said, if you say E instead of ED is a perfectly excusable mistake, not a big deal. But try to learn the correct way anyway.
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Great. Thank you Massimo. I have a follow-up question. Last night, somewhere in the Intermediate Italian book, I saw E followed by HO; i.e. although the H in HO is silent, the conjunction wasn't converted to ED.So E doesn't become ED when it's followed by a silent H?Thanks.
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The rule, in theory, is the following: if it is written, you do not need ED because H is a consonant. However, in spoken Italian you should say E HO. That said, you will not be able to tell the difference.
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Do you mean that the H in E HO becomes pronounced, no longer silent, when speaking that phrase aloud? If not, then I would think that the phrase becomes awkward in Italian speech. Would there be a glottal stop of sorts?
