Meaning of CHIEDE in Italian

How do you use the verb chiede in Italian? What does it mean? How do you pronounce it?

In this lesson, we will look at how to use this word with the help of many audio recordings and example sentences. Read on to learn everything you need to know!

let's start! - woman writing on a q&a blocknote - how to use chiede in italian and how is it pronounced?

How to use chiede in Italian

What is chiede?

Chiede is a present tense conjugation of the verb chiedere, which means to ask. To be more precise, it’s the third-person present tense conjugation of chiedere, which is a regular verb in Italian, translating as “he/she asks”.

Let’s hear how it is pronounced.

Chiede
He/she asks

Its pronunciation is close to kee-eh-deh. If you have trouble pronouncing Italian sounds, check out the Italian pronunciation guide.

Now, let’s see some example sentences with chiede in Italian, before we take a look at how to use the verb chiedere along with its other present tense conjugations as well.

Title: Italian All-in-One For Dummies
Language: English / Italian
Publisher: For Dummies
Pages: 672

Learn to speak Italian like a native? Easy.
Italian All-in-One For Dummies appeals to those readers looking for a comprehensive, all-encompassing guide to mastering the Italian language. It contains content from all For Dummies Italian language instruction titles, including Italian For Dummies, Intermediate Italian For Dummies, Italian Verbs For Dummies, Italian Phrases For Dummies, Italian Grammar For Dummies, and Italian For Dummies Audio Set.

La maestra chiede qualcosa allo studente.
The teacher asks the student for something.

Luca ti chiede un grosso favore: lo accompagneresti alla festa?
Luke asks you a big favor: would you accompany him to the party?

Il cane chiede il permesso di uscire.
The dog asks for permission to go outside.

Il bambino chiede di comprare un nuovo giocattolo.
The child asks to buy a new toy.

little child playing with construction blocks

Now let’s see where chiede in Italian comes from.


Use of chiede in Italian

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:
tremare ➡️ trem-
piovere ➡️ piov-
cucire ➡️ cuc-
Italian verb endings for each tense are added to these root forms of the verb.

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Now, how would you conjugate the present tense of chiedere, “to ask”?

Remove the infinitive ending -ere and add -o!

Chiedere… ➡️ Chied-… ➡️ Io chiedo?

That’s right! 🙂 This is also why we say chiede in Italian, because the third-person conjugation adds -e, as we’ll see in a moment.

So let’s see the present tense conjugation of chiedere along with its pronunciation.

Present tense conjugation for chiedere

iochiedo
tuchiedi
lui, leichiede
noichiediamo
voichiedete
lorochiedono
group of students working on a shared project

For example, you could say…

Quando Giulia esce, mi chiede sempre di tenere d’occhio casa sua.
When Giulia goes out, she always asks me to keep an eye on her house.

Mattia chiede sempre la mia opinione.
Mattia always asks for my opinion.

Tom non è il tipo di persona che chiede aiuto agli altri.
Tom isn’t the type of person who asks others for help.

Paolo chiede sempre quando tornerai.
Paolo always asks when you are coming back.

Il cliente chiede il menù del giorno e un bicchiere di birra.
The customer asks for the menu of the day and a glass of beer.

customer ordering at the restaurant with his family

And that’s the end of our lesson on how to use chiede in Italian!


What next?

Now that you’ve seen how to use chiede in Italian, you might want to keep learning Italian online with these free Italian resources:

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