Voted Best Answer
Mar 17, 2015 - 08:12 AM
Ciao MountainMom,
We have 2 different structures here. Take this example:
Volete un' altra cosa da bere? = Do (you(p)) want something else to drink?
The verb "want" is followed by a noun and not a verb. It's: want something / a drink / a coffee. So we could just say:
Do you want something else?
Without specifying if it's to drink or to eat and we would have a complete sentence. Here, to clarify if we are offering food or a drink, we can add "to drink" or "to eat". And to do so in Italian we need the "da + infinitive" - "da bere" or "da mangiare". We taught this as an expression:
Un' altra cosa da bere / mangiare = Something / Anything else to drink / eat
However, in your example:
Voi volete bere un' altra cosa? = Do you(p) want to drink something else?
"want" is followed by a verb: to drink, which is then followed by an object: un' altra cosa. So here it could just be: Do you want to drink? You already know that, unlike in English, "volere" doesn't need the preposition "to" when followed by an infinitive. So it's just:
Volere bere / mangiare
So, in our examples we have two ways of expressing the same thing. And how we say it, depends on what comes after the verb "volere" - "want". If it's followed by a verb we don't need "da" to form the infinitive:
Volete bere un' altra cosa? = Do (you(p)) want to drink something else?
But if the verbs "mangiare" or "bere" are added to qualify the "un' altra cosa" then we need the "da":
Volete un' altra cosa da bere? = Do (you(p)) want something else to drink?
I hope this helps.
We have 2 different structures here. Take this example:
Volete un' altra cosa da bere? = Do (you(p)) want something else to drink?
The verb "want" is followed by a noun and not a verb. It's: want something / a drink / a coffee. So we could just say:
Do you want something else?
Without specifying if it's to drink or to eat and we would have a complete sentence. Here, to clarify if we are offering food or a drink, we can add "to drink" or "to eat". And to do so in Italian we need the "da + infinitive" - "da bere" or "da mangiare". We taught this as an expression:
Un' altra cosa da bere / mangiare = Something / Anything else to drink / eat
However, in your example:
Voi volete bere un' altra cosa? = Do you(p) want to drink something else?
"want" is followed by a verb: to drink, which is then followed by an object: un' altra cosa. So here it could just be: Do you want to drink? You already know that, unlike in English, "volere" doesn't need the preposition "to" when followed by an infinitive. So it's just:
Volere bere / mangiare
So, in our examples we have two ways of expressing the same thing. And how we say it, depends on what comes after the verb "volere" - "want". If it's followed by a verb we don't need "da" to form the infinitive:
Volete bere un' altra cosa? = Do (you(p)) want to drink something else?
But if the verbs "mangiare" or "bere" are added to qualify the "un' altra cosa" then we need the "da":
Volete un' altra cosa da bere? = Do (you(p)) want something else to drink?
I hope this helps.