Learn Italian: Vi accompagniamo al supermercato. - We accompany you all to the supermarket.

Vi accompagniamo al supermercato.

We accompany you all to the supermarket.

Breakdown of Vi accompagniamo al supermercato.

to / at

il supermercato

the supermarket

you all (direct object)

accompagnare

to accompany

Questions & Answers about Vi accompagniamo al supermercato.

Why is vi at the very beginning of the sentence?

In English, we put the object after the verb ('We accompany you'). But in Italian, short object pronouns like vi (meaning 'you all') go directly before the verb. Literally, the sentence structure is 'You all we accompany.'

Where is the word for 'we' in this sentence?

The 'we' is built right into the -iamo ending of the verb accompagniamo. You could say Noi vi accompagniamo, but Italians usually drop the subject pronoun (noi) since the verb ending already makes it perfectly clear who is doing the action.

Since vi is at the start, is it easy to mistake this for 'You all accompany'?

It can be tricky at first! But remember to look at the verb. The word order puts the object (vi) first, but the verb accompagniamo always means 'we accompany'. If you wanted to say 'You all accompany us', you would change both words to Ci accompagnate.

Why does the sentence use al instead of just a for 'to'?

al is a combined word. When the preposition a (to) is followed by the definite article il (the), Italian glues them together into one word. Because supermercato uses the article il, the math is simply: a + il = al.