Learn Italian: Il sabato faccio colazione tardi. - On Saturdays I have breakfast late.

Il sabato faccio colazione tardi.

On Saturdays I have breakfast late.

Breakdown of Il sabato faccio colazione tardi.

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Questions & Answers about Il sabato faccio colazione tardi.

Why does it say Il sabato instead of using a word for "on"?

In Italian, you don't use words like "on" with days of the week. To say that you do something regularly on a certain day (like "on Saturdays" or "every Saturday"), you just put the word for "the" (il or la) before the day. Since Saturday is masculine, we use il sabato.

Why use faccio (I do/make) instead of a verb for "to have"?

In English, we say "I have breakfast", but Italians literally say "I do breakfast" or "I make breakfast". Faccio is the "I" form of the verb fare (to do/make). This is a fixed phrase in Italian: fare colazione.

Is there a reason why there's no word for "a" or "the" before colazione?

Yes, the phrase is simply fare colazione. In Italian, you don't need an extra article here. You just put the verb and the noun together, very similar to how we say "have breakfast" in English instead of "have a breakfast".

Could I use in ritardo instead of tardi to say "late"?

Not in this context. Use tardi when an action happens late in the day or at a late hour. You only use in ritardo when someone or something is running behind schedule (like a person or a train arriving late). Here, you're just eating at a late time, so tardi is the correct word.