Italian word of the day
| Origin | From the Italian non (not) + lo (it) + so (I know) |
| Translation | I don’t know |
| IPA pronunciation | /non lo sɔ/ |
Non lo so comes from the present tense conjugation of the verb sapere, which means to know.
To be more precise, it’s the first person present negative conjugation of sapere, which is a very irregular verb in Italian and means “I don’t know”.
Non lo so
I don’t know
Literally: I don’t know it
For example, you can say…
Dove sono i miei occhiali? – Non lo so.
Where are my glasses? – I don’t know.
Sai dov’è andato Federico? – Non lo so.
Do you know where Federico has gone? – I don’t.
Come si apre questo cassetto? – Non lo so.
How do you open this drawer? – I don’t know.
Quando partirai? – Ancora non lo so.
When are you going to leave? – I don’t know yet.
Using non lo so in Italian
You probably already know that the indicativo presente (present tense) conjugation for the pronoun io adds the ending -o to the root or stem of the verb (see note for more information).
What’s the stem of a verb?
Italian infinite verbs end in -ARE, -ERE and -IRE.
Cut off this part and you are left with the root verb.
Examples:
tremare ➡️ trem-
piovere ➡️ piov-
cucire ➡️ cuc-
Italian verb endings for each tense are added to these root forms of the verb.
How would you conjugate the present tense of sapere, “to know”?
Take away the infinitive ending -ere and add -o!
Sapere… ➡️ Sap-… ➡️ Io sapo?
That’s… not quite right.
You might be surprised to know that the correct conjugation for sapere is actually io so. Remember, sapere is an irregular verb.
Present tense conjugation for sapere
| io | so |
| tu | sai |
| lui, lei | sa |
| noi | sappiamo |
| voi | sapete |
| loro | sanno |
For example, you can say…
So che Grazia ha avuto un incidente con la bici. Ora sta bene?
I know that Grace had an accident with her bicycle. Is she okay now?
Sapete dove posso trovare una risma di fogli di carta?
Do you know where I can find a ream of paper?
Tu sai tante cose, ma non puoi sapere tutto.
You know many things, but you cannot know everything.
More free Italian resources
You might want to keep learning Italian online with these free Italian resources:
Aiuta Lingookies con un 👍!
❤️ If you liked this lesson on the meaning of non lo so in Italian, share it with your friends!