Italian All-in-One For Dummies (63 page)

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seguire
(seh-
gwee
-reh) (
to follow
)

tornare indietro
(tohr-
nah
-reh een-
dyeh
-troh) (
to go back
)

Imperatives are useful verb forms to know in a variety of situations, including when you're trying to get around in unfamiliar territory. This list shows the informal verb form (
tu
), the formal verb form (
Lei
), the informal plural form (
voi
), and the formal plural form (
Loro
). Check out Book I,
Chapter 3
, for help on deciding whether to use formal or informal forms.

What to say when you don't understand

Occasionally, maybe frequently, you may not understand the directions someone gives you. For those times, you need some useful polite expressions to ask the other people to repeat their directions:

Come, scusi?
(
koh
-meh,
skooh
-zee?) (
I beg your pardon?
[formal])

Come, scusa?
(
koh
-meh,
skooh
-zah?) (
I beg your pardon?
[informal])

Mi scusi, non ho capito.
(mee
skooh
-zee, nohn oh kah-
pee
-toh.) (
I'm sorry, I didn't understand.
)

Può ripetere più lentamente, per favore?
(
pwoh
ree-
peh
-teh-reh pyooh lehn-tah-
mehn
-teh, pehr fah-
voh
-reh?) (
Can you please repeat it more slowly?
)

When someone does you a favor — explaining the way or giving you directions — you probably want to thank him or her, and that's the easiest task:
Mille grazie!
(
meel
-leh
grah
-tsyeh!) (
Thank you very much!
)

Here are conjugations of some regular and irregular verbs:

Va'/Vada/Andate/Vadano!
(
vah
/
vah
-dah/ahn-
dah
-teh/
vah
-dah-noh!) (
Go!
)

Gira/Giri/Girate/Girino!
(
jee
-rah/
jee
-ree/jee-
rah
-teh/
jee
-ree-noh!) (
Turn!
)

Prendi/Prenda/Prendete/Prendano!
(
prehn
-dee/
prehn
-dah/prehn-
deh
-teh/
prehn
-dah-noh!) (
Take!
)

Prosegui/Prosegua/Proseguite/Proseguano!
(proh-
seh
-gwee/proh-
seh
-gwah/ proh-seh-
gwee
-teh/proh-
seh
-gwah-noh!) (
Go on!
)

Segui/Segua/Seguite/Seguano!
(
seh
-gwee/
seh
-gwah/seh-
gwee
-teh/seh-
gwah
-noh!) (
Follow!
)

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