Breakdown of Vorrei accantonare i miei soldi piuttosto che sprecare tutto.
i soldi
the money
mio
my
tutto
everything
volere
to want
accantonare
to set aside (money)
piuttosto che
rather than (preference)
sprecare
to waste
Questions & Answers about Vorrei accantonare i miei soldi piuttosto che sprecare tutto.
Why is sprecare in the infinitive here instead of being a conjugated verb?
I sometimes hear native speakers use piuttosto che to mean 'or'. Is that what is happening in this sentence?
No, here it means exactly what standard grammar dictates: 'rather than' or 'instead of' (indicating a strict preference of one thing over another). It is true that in modern colloquial Italian, people sometimes use piuttosto che to list equal options (meaning 'or'). However, traditional grammar frowns on that usage, and in this sentence, the context clearly shows a preference for saving over wasting.
Why use accantonare here instead of a more common verb like risparmiare?
While risparmiare broadly means 'to save' (money, time, or energy), accantonare specifically means 'to set aside' or 'to stash.' It comes from the word canto (corner), so it carries the visual idea of putting your money in a corner for later. It is essentially a single-word equivalent of the phrase mettere da parte.
Why do we need the article i in i miei soldi?
As a quick refresher: in Italian, possessive adjectives almost always require a definite article in front of them, unlike in English where we just say 'my money.' The main exception is when you are talking about singular, unmodified close family members (like mio fratello). For regular nouns like soldi, the article i is mandatory.
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