Quando non capisco “gli”, apro il dizionario e controllo la pronuncia.

It can be understood as either, but in this kind of sentence it often has the sense of whenever.

Italian commonly uses the present tense for repeated or habitual actions:

• Quando non capisco gli, apro il dizionario...

This means something like:

• When/Whenever I don’t understand gli, I open the dictionary...

So it is not just about one specific moment. It can describe a general habit.

Because Italian often leaves out the subject pronoun when the verb already makes the subject clear.

Here the verbs are:

• capisco = I understand
• apro = I open
• controllo = I check

Since all three are clearly first person singular, io is unnecessary unless you want emphasis:

• Io non capisco... = I don’t understand...

That would sound more contrastive or emphatic.

Capisco is the 1st person singular, present indicative of capire.

So:

• capire = to understand
• capisco = I understand

It belongs to a group of verbs that insert -isc- in some present-tense forms:

• capisco
• capisci
• capisce
• capiamo
• capite
• capiscono

This is very common with verbs like finire, preferire, spedire, and many others.

Because the speaker is talking about the word or sound gli itself, not using it normally inside the sentence.

In other words, gli is being mentioned, not used.

That is why, in the original sentence, it appears in quotation marks. English does the same thing:

• When I don’t understand gli, I open the dictionary...

You could think of it as short for:

• the word gli
• the sound gli
• the spelling gli

Gli can be several things in Italian, which is one reason learners find it confusing.

Most commonly, it can be:

1. A masculine plural definite article
   Used before certain sounds:

   • gli amici = the friends
   • gli studenti = the students

2. An indirect object pronoun
   Usually meaning:

   • to him and sometimes, especially in modern spoken Italian, also to them in some contexts

3. A letter combination / sound inside words
   For example:

   • figlio
   • famiglia

So when a learner says they do not understand gli, they may mean the grammar word, the spelling, or the pronunciation.

This is one of the trickier sounds for English speakers.

A good beginner approximation is something like lyee, but that is only approximate. The real Italian sound is more precise and more palatal, and English does not have an exact equivalent.

A few useful points:

• Do not pronounce it like English glee
• Do not pronounce a hard g
• The tongue is raised toward the palate

You will hear this sound in words like:

• figlio
• famiglia
• moglie

So the sentence makes sense: if the learner is unsure about gli, they check the dictionary and the pronunciation.

Because Italian uses definite articles more often than English.

So:

• apro il dizionario

literally means I open the dictionary, even if English might sometimes say I open a dictionary or simply I check the dictionary depending on context.

In Italian, using the article here sounds natural and normal. Omitting it would usually sound incomplete.

Because Italian often uses the definite article where English might use a possessive or a more explicit phrase.

Here:

• controllo la pronuncia

means I check the pronunciation.

The context already tells us whose pronunciation it is: the pronunciation of gli.

Italian does not need to say:

• la sua pronuncia

That would usually sound less natural here and could even be unclear, because sua might suggest a person’s pronunciation rather than the pronunciation of the word gli.

Not in this sentence.

Here controllo comes from controllare, which often means:

• to check
• to verify
• to look at carefully

So:

• controllo la pronuncia = I check the pronunciation

This is a common false friend for English speakers, because controllare does not always mean to control in the English sense.

Because the sentence begins with a subordinate clause:

• Quando non capisco gli, ...

and then moves to the main clause:

• apro il dizionario e controllo la pronuncia

The comma helps separate those two parts. This is very similar to English:

• When I don’t understand gli, I open the dictionary...

In Italian, this comma is very natural when the quando clause comes first.

Because Italian uses the present tense to describe habits, routines, and general truths.

So this sentence is not necessarily about one single event. It describes what the speaker عادة does in that situation:

• non capisco = I don’t understand
• apro = I open
• controllo = I check

English does the same thing:

• When I don’t understand it, I open the dictionary...

So the present tense here is completely normal.