Learn Italian: Abbiamo cercato il cagnolino davanti al supermercato. - We looked for the puppy in front of the supermarket.

Abbiamo cercato il cagnolino davanti al supermercato.

We looked for the puppy in front of the supermarket.

Breakdown of Abbiamo cercato il cagnolino davanti al supermercato.

Questions & Answers about Abbiamo cercato il cagnolino davanti al supermercato.

How do we get cagnolino from the regular word for dog (cane)?

The base word is cane (dog). To make it a diminutive (small or cute), we add the suffix -ino. However, cane uses a slightly irregular root here, changing to cagn- before adding the suffix, resulting in cagnolino (little dog or puppy).

Why isn't there a word for "for" after cercato?

In Italian, the verb cercare means "to look for" all by itself. You never need to add a preposition like per after it. You just put the thing you are looking for directly after the verb, as in cercato il cagnolino.

Why do we use al before supermercato instead of just il?

The phrase for "in front of" is always davanti a. When the preposition a meets the masculine singular article il (from il supermercato), they glue together to form the combined word al.

Since "we" are doing the looking (abbiamo), why doesn't cercato end in an "-i" to match the plural subject?