Breakdown of Prendo una matita e segno quante bottiglie di olio mancano.
io
I
prendere
to take
di
of
e
and
quante
how many
la bottiglia
the bottle
l'olio
the oil
la matita
the pencil
segnare
to note
mancare
to be missing
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Questions & Answers about Prendo una matita e segno quante bottiglie di olio mancano.
What does mancano mean here and why is the Italian subject different from English?
Mancare means “to be missing” or “to lack.” In Italian, the thing that is missing is the grammatical subject—in this case quante bottiglie di olio—so the verb agrees in the third-person plural (mancano). English mirrors this by saying “how many bottles of oil are missing.”
Why is there no ci before mancano? Could I say ci mancano instead?
You can say ci mancano if you want to specify that the bottles are missing for us (ci = “to us”). Omitting ci makes the sentence a general statement (“there are bottles missing”), without focusing on who needs them. Both forms are correct; adding ci emphasizes the affected party.
Why use una matita (a pencil) with an indefinite article and no article before bottiglie?
- Una matita: we use the indefinite article because it’s one unspecified pencil.
- Quante bottiglie di olio: when you ask about quantity or use numbers/question words, you typically omit the article before the noun.
What nuance does segno carry compared to scrivo?
Segnare means “to mark,” “to tick off,” or “to note down,” implying a brief notation or tally. Scrivere is the more general “to write.” By using segno, the sentence suggests you’re marking a count on a list rather than writing full sentences.
Why is the present tense used for both verbs? Could you use the future?
Italian often uses the present tense to narrate immediate or sequential actions (the “historical present”). It makes the narration vivid: you pick up the pencil now and mark now. You could say prenderò una matita e segnerò to express a future action, but it sounds more formal or detached.
Why is it bottiglie di olio rather than bottiglie d’olio?
Both are correct. Before a vowel, di can elide to d’, so bottiglie d’olio is the contracted form you’ll hear in speech. In writing, Italians often keep the full di olio for clarity or style.
Why isn’t there a conjunction like che before quante bottiglie di olio mancano?
Italian allows verbs like segno to take an embedded interrogative clause directly, without che. This construction—an embedded question—does not require a conjunction. Adding che here (e.g. segno che quante bottiglie…) would be ungrammatical.
Could I invert the clause and say segno mancano quante bottiglie di olio?
No. In Italian embedded questions or declarative clauses, the normal order is Subject-Verb: quante bottiglie di olio (subject) + mancano (verb). Inverting them (verb + subject) would sound like a direct question or a very marked style.