Learn Italian: Devo comprare i biglietti dal tabaccaio. Ci vado stamattina. - I must buy the tickets at the tobacconist. I am going there this morning.

Devo comprare i biglietti dal tabaccaio. Ci vado stamattina.

I must buy the tickets at the tobacconist. I am going there this morning.

Breakdown of Devo comprare i biglietti dal tabaccaio. Ci vado stamattina.

from, at (someone's place) / by (oneself), on one's own

andare

to go / to be fine / to work out

Questions & Answers about Devo comprare i biglietti dal tabaccaio. Ci vado stamattina.

What does ci refer to in Ci vado stamattina?

Ci means there or to that place. In this sentence, it replaces dal tabaccaio (at the tobacconist). Instead of repeating the whole phrase, we just say Ci vado (I am going there). Notice that the locative pronoun ci goes right before the conjugated verb vado.

Why do we use dal instead of al or nel for at the tobacconist?

In Italian, when you are talking about going to a person's shop, office, or house (like a doctor, baker, or tobacconist), you use the preposition da rather than a or in. Since tabaccaio is a masculine noun that takes the article il, da combines with il to make dal.

Where does the word stamattina come from?

It is a very common contraction of questa mattina (this morning) that is written as a single word. You will often see this same pattern with other times of day, such as stasera for questa sera (this evening).

Why isn't there an io (I) before Devo or Ci vado?