If you look up the verb aspettare in the dictionary, the first English translation you will find is "to wait." Or almost. You might see "to await." That is because, even though we don't use the verb "to await" much in general conversation, it's a transitive verb, and so is aspettare. They can line up. So that's something to remember.

Aspettare is transitive most of the time (except when it means something like "Hey wait!"). We don't need a preposition after it as we do in English — "to wait for." This lesson isn't about English, but let's just mention that lots of people use "to wait on" in certain contexts, and other people use "to wait for." In Italian, we don't have to worry about that. 

Adesso bisogna aspettare il risultato dell'autopsia e poi finalmente potrete organizzare il funerale.

Now we have to wait for the results of the autopsy and then, finally, you'll be able to organize the funeral.

Captions 21-22, Il Commissario Manara S1EP1 - Un delitto perfetto - Part 4

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Waiting with aspettare

Just as in English, we can use the imperative form aspetta! (informal singular), aspettate! (informal plural), aspettiamo (first person plural) or aspetti (formal, singular) on its own to mean "Wait!"

Aspetta, aspetta, ti levo il cerotto piano piano. Aspetta, aspetta.

Wait, wait, I'll remove the band-aid slowly, slowly. Wait, wait.

Caption 55, Il Commissario Manara S1EP1 - Un delitto perfetto - Part 12

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Aspettate, lascio il libro sul tavolo

Wait, I'll leave the book on the table

Caption 3, Corso di italiano con Daniela Il futuro - Part 4

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Dottor Barale, aspetti!

Mister Barale, wait!

Caption 29, Adriano Olivetti La forza di un sogno Ep. 1 - Part 18

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In a question, let's remember again that aspettare is transitive. So if you want to ask the common question: "What are you waiting for?" you don't need the preposition. 

Mai. -E che aspetti?

Never. -And what are you waiting for?

Caption 44, Questione di Karma Rai Cinema - Part 8

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Expectations with aspettarsi

When we use aspettare reflexively, in other words — aspettarsi — the meaning changes. It becomes "to expect." 

Cioè, il ladro può essere entrato in biblioteca senza aspettarsi che Fazi fosse lì.

That is, the thief could have gone into the library without expecting Fazi to be there.

Caption 11, Il Commissario Manara S1EP4 - Le Lettere Di Leopardi - Part 7

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So when the verb is conjugated rather than in the infinitive, we have to look for an object pronoun (or noun). Here are two examples. The first is not reflexive so aspettare here means "to wait."

Erano cinque anni che aspettavo questo momento.

I'd been waiting five years for this moment.

Caption 16, L'Oriana film - Part 15

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If we find an object pronoun nearby (in this case mi), then we're likely looking at the reflexive version of aspettare and it will mean "to expect." And in many cases, we'll see some sort of preposition afterwards. In the examples below, first we have di and then, in the next example, we have da. We also often find the conjunction che, as in the third example below. 

Grazie. -E non mi aspettavo di rivedervi così presto.

Thank you. -Uh, I wasn't expecting to see you again so soon.

Caption 21, Imma Tataranni Sostituto procuratore S1EP1 L'estate del dito - Part 19

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Cosa ti aspetti da questo Real Madrid?

What do you expect from this Real Madrid [team]?

Caption 12, Spot Sky Sport con Perrotta, Totti, Marchisio

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Mi aspettavo che tu fossi più sincera,

I expected that you'd be more sincere,

Caption 30, Anna e Marika Il verbo essere - Part 4

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And, since an expectation is often tied to uncertainty, and che triggers the subjunctive, we will likely find the subjunctive form of the verb in the subordinate clause. 

The nuance

But... sometimes the difference is nuanced. For example, when a person is pregnant, we use "expecting" in English. In Italian, not necessarily. 

We usually hear the non-reflexive form of aspettare. 

È vero, aspetto un bambino da Arturo.

It's true, I am expecting a baby of Arturo's.

Caption 6, I Bastardi di Pizzofalcone EP1 I Bastardi - Part 21

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When you're expecting a package, or sometimes a person, you'll likely use the non-reflexive version. 

Senta, Lei è un bel tipo, io non lo posso negare, però io sto aspettando una persona molto importante.

Listen, you're a cute guy, I can't deny it, but I'm expecting a very important person.

Captions 6-7, Il Commissario Manara S1EP1 - Un delitto perfetto - Part 6

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Another case in which English might use "expect," is when you invite someone and then you expect them at a certain hour. "I'll be expecting you!" Italians just use aspettare. Think of the end of a video when Marika talks about seeing you in the next video. She might say: 

Io ti lascio lavorare in pace e ti aspetto nel prossimo video!

I'll leave you to work in peace, and I'll be waiting for you in the next video!

Caption 56, Marika spiega I verbi riflessivi e reciproci

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We've translated this with the verb "to wait," because there is no reflexive, but it could have been, "I'll be expecting you in the next video" or "I look forward to seeing you in the next video." 

If we look at the Italian translation of the verb "to expect," we can see that there are all sorts of nuances. But what we can say is that when it's about waiting for something to arrive, as in expecting a package, expecting a child, or expecting a guest, we can use aspettare. 

This is one more thing to have fun paying attention to when you watch Yabla videos!

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It's true that asking questions in Italian can be as easy as changing your inflection. Part one of this lesson discusses that. Nonetheless, there are times when you need question words (and we'll get to that in a future lesson). But even more basically, how do we talk about asking questions? 

How do you say "question" in Italian?

BANNER PLACEHOLDER

Good question!

While the cognate questione exists, it's not the word we are looking for right now. We'll talk about questione further on. In English, we have the noun "the question" and we ask a question. 

In Italian, it's a little different. "The question" is often translated into Italian as la domanda and rather than using a verb that means "to ask," Italians usually "make" a question with fare (to make, to do):

Quando io conosco una persona, prima la saluto.

When I meet a person, first I greet him or her.

Abbiamo imparato: buongiorno, buonasera,

We learned "good morning" — "good evening."

poi faccio la seconda domanda importante: come ti chiami?

Then I ask the second important question: What's your name?

Captions 9-11, Corso di italiano con Daniela - Tu o Lei?

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More often than not, we ask someone a question, so we may need an indirect pronoun: "I ask you/him/her/them/myself a question." In Italian, this indirect pronoun often comes before the verb, as in the following example.

Ma, ci torneresti con tua moglie? -No.

But would you go back to your wife? -No.

Perché mi fai questa domanda?

Why are you asking me this question?

Captions 33-34, Sposami - EP 1

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The previous example was a question, but even in a statement, the indirect pronoun will come before the verb.

Ti faccio una domanda semplice (I'm going to ask you a simple question).

When the question takes some thought

There is another verb we can use in place of fare. It's a little more formal, it has an English cognate, and it often indicates that some thought is needed in the asking and the answering. The verb is porre (to put, to place, to pose).

Daniela talks about this verb in a lesson:

"Porre": io ponevo, si usa spesso con "domanda".

“To pose.” I was posing, it's often used with "question."

"Scusi, posso porre una domanda?"

“Sorry, may I pose a question?”

Al posto di "fare" — "posso fare una domanda?"

Instead of using “to ask” — "may I ask a question?"

— dico: "Posso porre una domanda?"

— I say: “May I pose a question?”

Captions 33-37, Corso di italiano con Daniela - L'imperfetto

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Asking yourself a question

We use the reflexive for this in Italian:

Allora, pur con la testa tra le nuvole,

So, even with his head in the clouds,

cominciò a porsi qualche domanda.

he began to ask himself a few questions.

Ma, ma il resto di me c'è ancora?...

But, but is the rest of me still here?...

Captions 13-15, Dixiland - Testa tra le nuvole

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You can also use the verb fare reflexively for the same purpose — farsi una domanda (to ask oneself a question).

Verbs that mean "to ask"

La domanda has a verb form as well, and we can use it both reflexively and not: domandare (to ask).

Of course, sometimes we don't need to ask a question. We can just ask someone something. Domandare (to ask).

Perché non mi lasci in pace?

Why don't you leave me in peace?

-Eh, me lo domando anch'io.

-Yeah, I ask myself that, too.

Captions 7-8, Provaci Ancora Prof! - S1E1 - Il regalo di Babbo Natale

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Just as in English we have the noun and verb "to request," Italian has the cognate richiedere (to request, to require) and la richiesta (the request) but it also has chiedere (to ask, to request), which is used a lot, in many different contexts.

Dal momento che il progetto del tuo muro

Since your wall project

taglierebbe fuori la mia zona di cucina,

would cut off my kitchen area,

avresti dovuto chiedere il mio parere.

you should have asked for my opinion.

Captions 22-24, La Ladra - Ep. 7 - Il piccolo ladro

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 In the following example, we can see the relationship between chiedere and richiesta.

Lorenzo ti ha chiesto di dargli un po' di tempo, no?

Lorenzo asked you to give him a little time, right?

Fossi in te, rispetterei la sua richiesta.

If I were you, I would comply with his request.

Captions 33-34, La Ladra - EP. 8 - Il momento giusto

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Making sense of the different ways to use richiedere will have to wait for another lesson. It can get kind of complex.

What about the noun la questione?

Let's remember that in English, "question" can also mean "matter." For example in this book title: A Question of Integrity by Susan Howatch. In this case, it's not a question we ask. With that in mind, we can easily transfer the idea to Italian. In fact, we have a movie on Yabla: Questione di Karma.

Sono dieci giorni che aspetto, è diventata una questione di vita o di morte.

I've been waiting ten days. It's become a question/matter of life or death.

Caption 5, Questione di Karma - Rai Cinema

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BANNER PLACEHOLDER

What we hope you take away from this lesson is that for normal questions you ask, the noun is la domanda (the question) and that we "make" a question: fare una domanda (to ask a question). Using porre works, too, but it's a little more serious: porre una domanda (to pose a question). Both fare and porre can be used reflexively when we ask ourselves a question: porsi una domanda (to ask oneself a question, to wonder), farsi una domanda (to ask oneself a question). We can talk about asking with the verbs domandare (to ask) and chiedere (to ask).

PRACTICE

To get a feel for all these words, we suggest doing a search on the videos page to find examples of these words. Don't forget to use singular, plural, masculine and feminine where applicable, and different conjugations of verbs. Searching and reading all the instances will give you an overview of real people using these words. Repeat the sentences to yourself, and if you get confused, drop us a line — chiedere! — in the comments tab or by sending an email to newsletter@yabla.com. We are happy to help.