Il salumiere pesa il formaggio e poi mi dà lo scontrino.

Salumiere is the person who sells cured meats, cheese, and similar products at a deli or food counter. In this sentence, it is best understood as the deli clerk or the deli worker.

It comes from salumi, which are cured meat products such as salami, ham, and so on.

Il is the masculine singular definite article, meaning the.

So:

• il salumiere = the deli clerk
• il formaggio = the cheese

Italian often uses the definite article in places where English might also use the, but sometimes Italian uses it even where English might sound more natural with some or no article at all. In this sentence, il formaggio refers to the cheese being bought, so the cheese is a natural translation.

Pesa is the third-person singular present tense of pesare, which means to weigh.

So:

• io peso = I weigh
• tu pesi = you weigh
• lui / lei pesa = he / she weighs

Here, the subject is il salumiere, so pesa means he weighs.

Italian usually does not need subject pronouns when the verb ending already shows who is doing the action.

So instead of saying:

• Lui pesa il formaggio

Italian very often just says:

• Pesa il formaggio

In your sentence, the subject il salumiere is already stated, so adding lui would usually be unnecessary.

Mi means to me here.

So:

• mi dà lo scontrino = he gives me the receipt

It is an indirect object pronoun.

In Italian, short object pronouns like mi, ti, gli, le, ci, vi usually come before a conjugated verb:

• mi dà = gives me
• ti dà = gives you
• ci dà = gives us

English puts me after the verb, but Italian places mi before it.

Dà is from the verb dare, meaning to give.

The accent helps distinguish it from da, which is a very common preposition meaning things like from, by, or at depending on context.

So:

• dà = gives
• da = from / by / at

The accent is mainly there to avoid confusion in writing.

Lo scontrino means the receipt, usually a shop or cash-register receipt.

It uses lo because scontrino begins with s + consonant: sc. In Italian, masculine singular nouns beginning with s + consonant, z, ps, gn, and a few other sound combinations often take lo instead of il.

For example:

• lo scontrino
• lo studente
• lo zaino

But:

• il formaggio
• il salumiere

So the article changes because of the sound that follows.

Poi means then or afterwards.

So the sentence shows a sequence of actions:

1. Il salumiere pesa il formaggio
2. e poi mi dà lo scontrino

That means:

1. The deli clerk weighs the cheese
2. and then gives me the receipt

It helps make the order of events clear.

Yes, in many contexts it could.

• Il salumiere pesa il formaggio e poi mi dà lo scontrino.
• Il salumiere pesa il formaggio, poi mi dà lo scontrino.

Both are natural.

Using e poi gives a smooth and then feeling. Using just poi can sound slightly more direct, like then.

Il formaggio refers to the cheese involved in this specific situation, meaning the cheese being bought or handled.

Del formaggio would mean some cheese.

So the difference is roughly:

• pesa il formaggio = he weighs the cheese
• pesa del formaggio = he weighs some cheese

In this sentence, the speaker is talking about a specific purchase, so il formaggio is the natural choice.

Yes, that is a very close literal translation.

Word by word:

• mi = to me
• dà = gives
• lo scontrino = the receipt

A very literal English structure would be gives me the receipt, while natural full English would be then he gives me the receipt.

A simple pronunciation guide is:

eel sah-loo-MYEH-reh PEH-zah eel for-MAHD-joh eh POY mee DAH loh skon-TREE-noh

A few useful notes:

• gli in formaggio sounds like a softened ly / dy sound, not a hard English g
• sc in scontrino sounds like sk
• poi sounds like poy
• dà has the stress on the single syllable: dah

Yes, if the context is already clear.

You could say:

• Pesa il formaggio e poi mi dà lo scontrino.

Italian often drops the subject when it is obvious from the situation. But keeping il salumiere is helpful when you want to be explicit about who is doing the action.