Learn Italian: Non ho capito. Come si scrive questa parola? - I didn't understand. How do you write this word?

Non ho capito. Come si scrive questa parola?

I didn't understand. How do you write this word?

Breakdown of Non ho capito. Come si scrive questa parola?

how do you write / spell...?

Questions & Answers about Non ho capito. Come si scrive questa parola?

Why doesn't Non ho capito include the word for "I" (io)?

In Italian, the subject pronoun (io) is usually dropped because the verb itself already tells us who is doing the action. Here, ho is the "I" form of avere (to have), so the "I" is already built into the sentence!

Why is the past tense formed with ho (I have) here?

Italian forms its most common past tense (the passato prossimo) using a helper verb, which is usually avere (to have), plus the past-tense form of the main verb. So ho capito literally means "I have understood."

What does the si do in Come si scrive?

Si is used here as an impersonal pronoun. While English uses a general "you" to ask about how things are done (as in "How do you write..."), Italian uses si with the "he/she/it" verb form. It literally translates to "How does one write..." or "How is it written?"

Why is it questa parola and not questo parola?

Questa means "this" and it must match the gender of the noun it points to. Since parola (word) is a feminine singular noun, you have to use the feminine singular form questa instead of the masculine questo.