Breakdown of L'infermiere dice al paziente di mettere le gocce.
mettere
to put / to put on / play (music)
a
to / at
dire
to say, to tell
di
to (linking a verb to a following infinitive)
Questions & Answers about L'infermiere dice al paziente di mettere le gocce.
Why do we use di mettere here to mean 'to put'?
This sentence uses indirect speech to report a command. If the nurse spoke directly, he would use the imperative: Metti le gocce! (Put the drops in!). When reporting a command indirectly, Italian replaces the imperative with di + the infinitive verb, which is mettere here.
How do we know the nurse in this sentence is male?
The noun infermiere is masculine, referring to a male nurse. If it were a female nurse, the word would be infermiera. Because both start with a vowel, they both take the elided article l', making the noun ending the only clue to gender.
Why is it al paziente rather than just il paziente?
The English translation says 'put the drops in'. Why is there no word for 'in' in the Italian sentence?