Quando piove, bisogna rallentare e non accelerare troppo.

and

Breakdown of Quando piove, bisogna rallentare e non accelerare troppo.

• quando: when
• non: not
• piovere: to rain

Questions & Answers about Quando piove, bisogna rallentare e non accelerare troppo.

Why does Italian say piove without a subject, while English says it rains?

Because piove is an impersonal verb. In Italian, weather verbs like piove, nevica, and grandina usually appear without a subject pronoun.

So:

• Piove = It’s raining / It rains
• not esso piove or anything similar

English needs the dummy subject it, but Italian does not.

Why is it Quando piove and not Se piove?

Quando means when or whenever, while se means if.

In this sentence, Quando piove gives a general rule:

• Quando piove, bisogna rallentare... = Whenever it rains, you need to slow down...

If you said Se piove, that would sound more like a specific condition:

• Se piove, restiamo a casa. = If it rains, we’ll stay home.

So quando works well here because the sentence is giving general advice for rainy conditions.

What exactly does bisogna mean here?