Learn Italian: Ci si prepara prima di uscire. - One gets ready before going out.

Ci si prepara prima di uscire.

One gets ready before going out.

Breakdown of Ci si prepara prima di uscire.

before (doing something) / before (a noun / point in time)

ci si

one (impersonal with reflexive verbs)

Questions & Answers about Ci si prepara prima di uscire.

Why do we use ci si here instead of just si?

The verb is prepararsi (to get oneself ready), which is reflexive and already requires the pronoun si. When we want to make it impersonal to say "one gets ready," we would theoretically need two si pronouns (si si prepara). To avoid this awkward sound, Italian changes the first one to ci, resulting in ci si prepara.

Why is the verb prepara in the third-person singular form?

The impersonal pronoun si (and the reflexive combination ci si) always takes the third-person singular form of the verb, unless there is a plural object following it. It behaves grammatically just like the English word "one" or "he/she".

Could ci si prepara also mean "we get ready"?

Yes! In everyday spoken Italian, the impersonal si structure is very frequently used to mean "we" instead of using the standard noi form (noi ci prepariamo). Depending on the context of the conversation, this sentence could perfectly translate to "We get ready before going out."

Why is uscire in the infinitive instead of being conjugated?