Learn Hardcore Italian: Prima di cucinare indosso il grembiule pulito che mi ha regalato mia nonna. - Before cooking I put on the clean apron my grandmother gave me.

In Italian, to express “before doing something” you need the fixed construction prima di + infinitive. The preposition di is mandatory. Saying prima cucino would be understood as “first I cook,” not “before cooking.”

What does indosso mean, and can I use porto or metto instead?

Indossare means “to wear” (an item of clothing).

Mettere focuses on the action “to put on.”
Portare can also mean “to wear,” but it often carries the sense “to carry” or “to wear around.”
In this context, indosso (1st-person present of indossare) is the most natural way to say “I wear/put on” the apron before cooking. You could use metto to stress the act of putting it on, but indosso is idiomatic here.

Why is there no io before indosso?

Italian verb endings indicate the subject. The -o ending of indosso already tells you it’s “I.” Therefore the pronoun io is optional and is usually omitted unless you want to add emphasis.

Why use il before grembiule instead of un?

Il is the definite article (“the”) and signals you’re referring to a specific apron—namely the one your grandmother gave you. Using un grembiule would mean “an apron,” without specifying which one.

Why is pulito placed after grembiule instead of before?

In Italian, most descriptive adjectives follow the noun. Placing pulito (“clean”) after grembiule (“apron”) is the standard order. If you put it before, you might add a poetic or emphatic nuance, but it isn’t the neutral word order.

What role does che play in che mi ha regalato?

Che is a relative pronoun meaning “that” or “which.” It links grembiule to the clause mi ha regalato (“gave me”), so the phrase reads “the apron that my grandmother gave me.”

Why is mi used with ha regalato?

Mi is the first-person indirect object pronoun (“to me”). The verb regalare (“to give as a gift”) requires an indirect object, so mi ha regalato literally means “she gave (a gift) to me.”

Why is the verb in the relative clause ha regalato (passato prossimo) and not another past tense?

The passato prossimo describes a completed action with relevance to the present—here, you still have the apron. The passato remoto (regalò) is mostly literary or regional, and the imperfetto (regalava) would imply a habitual or ongoing action in the past. Ha regalato is the natural choice for a single past event.

Why doesn’t mia nonna have an article like la mia nonna?

In Italian, when you use a possessive adjective with a singular, unmodified close family member (madre, padre, nonno, nonna, etc.), you drop the definite article. That’s why mia nonna is correct. If you add another adjective (e.g. mia cara nonna), you would then use la (la mia cara nonna).