Meaning of vanno in Italian
Vanno is one of the present tense conjugations of the verb andare, which means to go. To be more precise, it’s the third-person plural present tense conjugation of andare, which is a very irregular verb in Italian and means “they go”.
Vanno
They go
Vanno in Italian: Examples
Andiamo a scuola tutte le mattine.
We go to school every day.
A che ora vai in ufficio al mattino?
What time do you go to the office in the morning?
Vado a trovare dei miei amici.
I’m going to visit some friends.
Eleonora va spesso in biblioteca.
Eleonora often goes to the library.
Vanno in Italian: How to use it
You probably 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 infinitive verbs end in -ARE, -ERE and -IRE.
Cut off this part and you are left with the root verb.
Examples:
sudare ➡️ sud-
credere ➡️ cred-
dormire ➡️ dorm-
Italian verb endings for each tense are added to these root forms of the verb.
Now, how would you conjugate the present tense of andare, “to go”?
Remove the infinitive ending -ere and add -o!
Andare… ➡️ And-… ➡️ Io ando?
You may be surprised to learn that the correct conjugation is actually io vado. This is because andare is an irregular verb. This is also why we will say vanno in Italian.
Present tense conjugation for andare
| io | vado |
| tu | vai |
| lui, lei | va |
| noi | andiamo |
| voi | andate |
| loro | vanno |
For example, you can say…
I miei genitori vanno al cinema ogni sabato sera.
My parents go to the movies every Saturday night.
Questi pantaloni non vanno bene. Sono troppo stretti.
These pants don’t fit. They are too tight.
(andare bene = “to go well” = to fit [clothing])
Molti turisti vanno a visitare il Colosseo.
Many tourists go to visit the Colosseum.
Moltissime persone vanno in spiaggia ad agosto.
A lot of people go to the beach in August.
Le mie compagne vanno a fare shopping.
My (female) classmates go shopping.
More free Italian resources
You might want to keep learning Italian online with these free Italian resources:
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