#100: Saying what you do as your profession in Italian
In Italian there are two ways to say what you do for work:
- fare + profession:
Faccio il giornalista.
I am a journalist. - essere + profession:
Only with essere + profession is the definite article is omitted:
Sono giornalista.
I am a journalist.
If the profession is modified by an adjective or noun phrase, then the definite article must be used:È il giornalista intelligente.
He is an intelligent journalist.
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Umh, “È il giornalista intelligente” seems to me more like “He is (the only) intelligent journalist”. If you want to say “He is an intelligent journalist” then probably you need to write “È un giornalista intelligente”. Note: “Il giornalista è intelligente” is “The journalist is intelligent” (but not sure, i’m italian not english!)
Your comment makes sense – thank you for pointing that out.
I will try to find a better example. But the point that I was trying to make is that when the noun is modified the definite article must be used.