Question 1

Why is there an a between vado and prendere?

Accepted Answer

When a verb of motion like andare (to go) is followed by an infinitive verb, you must connect them with the preposition a. So vado a prendere means "I am going to pick up" or "I go and pick up".

Question 2

Doesn't prendere normally mean "to take" or "to get"?

Accepted Answer

Yes, prendere is a very versatile verb! In the context of people or things waiting at a location, the phrase andare a prendere is the standard, idiomatic way to say "to go pick [someone/something] up".

Question 3

Why is it just mio figlio instead of il mio figlio? I thought possessives needed definite articles.

Accepted Answer

You are right that possessives usually take a definite article (like la mia macchina), but there is a major exception. For singular, unmodified family members, the article is dropped. Because figlio is a singular family word, we just say mio figlio.

Question 4

Why does the English translation say "from school" when the Italian preposition a usually means "to" or "at"?

Accepted Answer

In Italian, the location where you are picking someone up is treated as the place where the action happens, so it takes the preposition a (at). Literally, the sentence says you are going to pick up your son "at school", which we naturally translate to English as "from school".

Question 5

If I wanted to replace mio figlio with the pronoun lo (him), where would it go?

Accepted Answer

Because this sentence has a conjugated verb (vado) followed by an infinitive (prendere), you have two choices for the clitic pronoun. You can attach it to the end of the infinitive (dropping the final -e) to make vado a prenderlo, or you can place it before the conjugated verb to make lo vado a prendere. Both are perfectly natural.

Oggi vado a prendere mio figlio a scuola.

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