Ciao!
One thing I’m always on my metaphorical soapbox about with Italian is that you MUST learn how to shift your thinking from the mindset of your native language to an Italian one. Put simply, in order to become fluent in Italian, you must learn how to think like one.
That’s why I produced this series called Think Like an Italian to offer another supplementary resource that helps you shift your thinking.
Today’s bite-sized lesson is also designed to help you do that.
How would you translate, “I’ll wait for you to respond?”
If you’re directly translating from English to Italian, you might want to say, “Aspetto per la tua risposta.”
However, in Italian, you don’t need the preposition “per.” You actually say, “Aspetto la tua risposta.” This is ALWAYS true with the verb “aspettare - to wait” in this context.
To help me remember, I think of it as, “I’ll AWAIT your response.”
Here are some other examples:
Ti aspetto. - I’ll wait for you.
La aspetta all’aeroporto. - He’s waiting for her at the airport.
It’s common for verbs in Italian to not need the same prepositions that they need in English. To learn about other similar situations, check out these articles.
4 Verbs in Italian You Might Be Using Incorrectly
Listen now (12 min) | Note: This episode is from the archives of the 30 Minute Italian Podcast. All of the links mentioned regarding The Iceberg Project in the episode are no longer active. If you have a question about where to find a resource, read the show notes below or leave a comment so I can help you find something similar!
4 More Verbs in Italian You Might Be Using Incorrectly
Listen now (9 min) | Some rules about how to use the Italian verbs prendere, avere, raccontare and passare. As I mentioned in this article on using some verbs in Italian, like mancare and perdere, incorrectly, there are lots of other verbs that we can play with when it comes to figuring out the differences between how Italians understand something and how English speakers pe…
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