Dice

Italian word of the day

Dice is a present tense conjugation of the verb dire, which means to say. To be more precise, it’s the third-person present tense conjugation of dire, which is a very irregular verb in Italian, translating as “he/she says”.

Dice

He/she says

Examples

La mamma dice di non parlare con gli estranei.	Mom says not to talk to strangers.
Stefano dice spesso di voler andare a vivere a New York.	Stefano often says that he wants to go and live in New York.
Il mio insegnante dice che sono un bravo studente.	My teacher says I’m a good student.
Non credere a quello che dice Elena. Racconta solo bugie.	Don’t believe what Elena says. She only tells lies.
Luca dice di avere sete.	Luke says he is thirsty.

Use of dice in Italian

You likely already know that the indicativo presente (present tense) conjugation for the pronoun io adds the ending -o to the root of the verb, or stem (see note for more info).

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:
portare ➡️ port-
scendere ➡️ scend-
aprire ➡️ apr-
Italian verb endings for each tense are added to these root forms of the verb.

Now, how would you conjugate the present tense of dire, “to say”?

Take away the infinitive ending -ere and add -o!

Dire… ➡️ D-… ➡️ Io do?

You may be surprised to learn that the correct conjugation is actually io dico. Io do actually means I give, and it’s a conjugated form of the verb dare, to give.

This is because dire is an irregular verb. This is also why we will say dice in Italian.

That said, let’s take a look at the present tense conjugation of dire along with its pronunciation.

io	dico
tu	dici
lui, lei	dice
noi	diciamo
voi	dite
loro	dicono

For example, you can say…

Come si dice “gatto” in inglese?	How do you say “gatto” in English?
Io dico che sarebbe meglio non entrare.	I say it would be better not to go in.
Ma cosa dici? Io non ho mai rubato nulla dalla tua dispensa!	What are you talking about? I never stole anything from your larder!

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