Learn Italian: Siete stanchi, ma ascoltate attentamente. - You are tired, but you listen carefully.

Siete stanchi, ma ascoltate attentamente.

You are tired, but you listen carefully.

Breakdown of Siete stanchi, ma ascoltate attentamente.

to listen / to listen to

Questions & Answers about Siete stanchi, ma ascoltate attentamente.

How is the adverb attentamente formed from its adjective?

In Italian, adverbs ending in -mente (which is like the English "-ly") are usually formed by taking the feminine singular version of an adjective. The adjective for careful or attentive is attento. We change it to the feminine attenta, and then add -mente to get attentamente (carefully).

Why is there an "h" in stanchi?

The singular masculine adjective is stanco (tired), which has a hard "c" sound (like a "k"). When making it plural, Italian adds an "h" to keep that hard "c" sound. Without the "h", the word would be pronounced with a soft "ch" sound, like in the English word "cheese".

Does this sentence refer to one person or multiple people being tired?

It refers to multiple people. In English, the word "you" can be singular or plural, but the Italian verbs siete (you all are) and ascoltate (you all listen) are specifically in the voi (plural "you") form. The adjective stanchi is also in its plural form to match.

Why doesn't the sentence start with the pronoun voi?

In Italian, you usually drop the subject pronoun because the verb forms themselves tell you who is doing the action. The endings of siete and ascoltate make it perfectly clear that voi (you all) is the subject, so adding the word voi is unnecessary unless you really want to emphasize it.