Word
Indossa il giubbotto di salvataggio, altrimenti non puoi salpare.
Meaning
Wear the life jacket, otherwise you cannot set sail.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Indossa il giubbotto di salvataggio, altrimenti non puoi salpare.
non
not
altrimenti
otherwise
potere
to be able
indossare
to wear
Questions & Answers about Indossa il giubbotto di salvataggio, altrimenti non puoi salpare.
Why is there no tu in this sentence?
Italian often leaves out subject pronouns because the verb ending already shows who the subject is.
- indossa = (tu) indossa = you wear / put on
- puoi = (tu) puoi = you can
So the sentence is understood as speaking to you without needing to say tu.
You could add tu, but usually only for emphasis or contrast.
Is indossa a command here, or just a present-tense verb?
Here it is a command: the tu imperative of indossare.
For regular -are verbs, the tu imperative usually ends in -a:
- parlare → parla!
- guardare → guarda!
- indossare → indossa!
So Indossa il giubbotto di salvataggio means Put on the life jacket / Wear the life jacket.
A useful extra point: this form happens to look identical to the lui/lei present form, but here the meaning is clearly imperative because of the context.
Why use indossare here instead of mettere?