Learn Italian: Non puoi usare il telefono nel museo. - You cannot use the phone in the museum.

Non puoi usare il telefono nel museo.

You cannot use the phone in the museum.

Breakdown of Non puoi usare il telefono nel museo.

in / made of (material)

il museo

the museum

Questions & Answers about Non puoi usare il telefono nel museo.

Why is usare not conjugated here?

Usare means "to use". Because we already conjugated the modal verb potere (can/to be able to) into puoi (you can), the second verb stays in its dictionary form (the infinitive). This is just like English: "you can use", not "you can uses".

Why does non come before puoi instead of before usare?

In Italian, the negative word non almost always goes directly before the conjugated verb. Here, the conjugated verb is puoi, so it becomes non puoi (you cannot).

What does nel mean and how is it formed?

Nel means "in the". It is a combination of the preposition in (in) and the definite article il (the). Because museo is a masculine singular noun starting with a consonant, it takes il, making in + il = nel.

Is it okay to say "Non tu puoi usare" to mean "You cannot use"?

If you want to include the word for "you" (tu), it must go before the non, making it Tu non puoi usare. However, in Italian, the subject pronoun is usually dropped because the verb form puoi already tells us exactly who is doing the action.