Learn Italian: Aspetto troppo tempo al semaforo. - I wait too long at the traffic light.

Aspetto troppo tempo al semaforo.

I wait too long at the traffic light.

Breakdown of Aspetto troppo tempo al semaforo.

troppo

too, too much, too many

il tempo

the time, the weather

aspettare

to wait / to wait for

to / at

Questions & Answers about Aspetto troppo tempo al semaforo.

Why do we use al here instead of just a or another form like alla?

al is formed by combining the preposition a (at) with the definite article il (the). Because semaforo (traffic light) is a masculine singular noun that starts with a standard consonant, it takes the article il. When a and il bump into each other, they merge into al to mean "at the".

The translation says "too long", but isn't tempo the word for "time"?

Exactly! In English, we talk about the length of a wait ("too long"), but Italians talk about the amount of time. Troppo means "too much" and tempo means "time", so troppo tempo literally translates to "too much time".

Does the verb aspetto mean "I wait" or "I wait for"?

The infinitive verb aspettare means both "to wait" and "to wait for". The "for" is built right into the verb itself, so you never need to add a translation of "for" (like per) after it. Here it just means "I wait", but if you wanted to say "I wait for the bus," it would simply be Aspetto l'autobus.

Does troppo change its ending depending on the word that comes after it?