Breakdown of Il cameriere porta il menù appena ci sediamo.
Questions & Answers about Il cameriere porta il menù appena ci sediamo.
In Italian, after temporal conjunctions like appena, quando, finché, and non appena, you normally use the present indicative even if you refer to a future event. So:
- Il cameriere porta il menù appena ci sediamo.
literally “The waiter brings the menu as soon as we sit down,” but conveys the future meaning “will bring.”
Yes. You can also say:
• Appena ci sediamo, il cameriere porta il menù.
The meaning is identical. When the subordinate clause comes first, it’s common to insert a comma before the main clause.
Yes. If you want to make “to us” explicit, you’d say:
• Il cameriere ce lo porta appena ci sediamo.
Here ce = “to us” and lo replaces il menù as the direct object pronoun.
• appena = “as soon as”, stresses immediacy and uses the present indicative in Italian for both current and future events.
• quando = “when”, more neutral about timing and can take either present or other tenses depending on meaning.
Example:
- Appena ci sediamo, il cameriere porta il menù. (As soon as we sit down…)
- Quando ci sediamo, mangiamo subito. (When we sit down, we eat right away.)