Breakdown of Se la porta scricchiola, si mette un po’ di olio sulla serratura.
su
on
mettere
to put
la porta
the door
se
if
un po’ di
a bit of
si
one
la serratura
the lock
l'olio
the oil
scricchiolare
to creak
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Questions & Answers about Se la porta scricchiola, si mette un po’ di olio sulla serratura.
Why does Italian use si mette here instead of a subject like tu metti?
The si is the impersonal pronoun. It generalizes the statement to “one puts” or “you put,” without specifying who. Italians often use this construction for instructions or general truths: “Se la porta scricchiola, si mette un po’ di olio sulla serratura” = “If the door squeaks, you put a bit of oil on the lock.”
Why are the verbs in the present tense (scricchiola, mette) even though the door might squeak later?
This is the zero conditional. In Italian, if-clauses that express general truths or habitual actions take the present indicative. So Se la porta scricchiola doesn’t refer to a single future event but to any time the door squeaks.
What does un po’ di mean and why not un poco di?
Un po’ is the colloquial contraction of un poco (“a little”). Italians often drop the “-co” and replace it with an apostrophe. Both are correct, but un po’ di is more idiomatic in everyday speech to mean “a bit of.”
Why is it sulla serratura and not su la serratura?
In Italian, prepositions fuse with definite articles. Su + la becomes sulla. Likewise su + il = sul, su + i = sui, su + gli = sugli, etc.
What does scricchiola come from? Is it irregular?
Scricchiola is the third-person singular of scricchiolare, a regular -are verb meaning “to squeak” or “to creak.” Its present-tense conjugation is regular: scricchiolo, scricchioli, scricchiola, scricchioliamo…
Could we use ungere instead of mettere olio?
Yes. Ungere means “to grease” or “to oil.” You could say Si unge la serratura or Si unge la serratura con un po’ di olio. But mettere un po’ di olio (“to put some oil”) is very common and a bit more transparent for learners.
How do I know that porta is feminine and takes la?
In Italian, most nouns ending in -a are feminine. Porta (door) follows this pattern, so you use la porta in the singular and le porte in the plural. Adjectives and articles must agree in gender and number with the noun.