Se vuoi, facciamo due passi lungo il fiume.

If you want, let’s take a short walk along the river.

Breakdown of Se vuoi, facciamo due passi lungo il fiume.

• tu: you
• volere: to want
• il fiume: the river
• se: if

Questions & Answers about Se vuoi, facciamo due passi lungo il fiume.

Why is vuoi used here? Is Se vuoi literally if you want?

Yes. Se vuoi literally means if you want or if you’d like.

In this sentence, it sounds natural and polite, like:

• If you want, ...
• If you’d like, ...
• If you feel like it, ...

Italian often uses se vuoi to soften a suggestion, just like English does.

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Why is it facciamo and not something like faremo or andiamo?

Facciamo is the 1st person plural present indicative of fare: we do / we make.

But in Italian, this form is also very commonly used to make a suggestion:

• Facciamo una pausa. = Let’s take a break.
• Andiamo? = Shall we go?
• Mangiamo fuori. = Let’s eat out.

So here facciamo due passi means let’s go for a walk, not literally we do two steps.

It is similar to English using Let’s ...

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Why doesn’t Italian use a separate word for let’s here?