Breakdown of Cerca lo scolapasta e inizia a grattugiare il formaggio, che il riso è pronto.
essere
to be
e
and
pronto
ready
cercare
to look for
iniziare
to start
il formaggio
the cheese
il riso
the rice
a
(linking a verb to a following infinitive)
che
because (informal justification)
lo scolapasta
the colander
grattugiare
to grate
Questions & Answers about Cerca lo scolapasta e inizia a grattugiare il formaggio, che il riso è pronto.
Why does the sentence use che here instead of perché?
Why is there an a between inizia and grattugiare?
The verb iniziare (to begin/start) requires the preposition a when it is followed by another verb in the infinitive. Whenever you want to say to start doing something in Italian, you must use the pattern iniziare a fare qualcosa.
The word scolapasta looks like a combination of two words. How does its plural work?
Scolapasta (colander) is a compound noun made from the verb scolare (to drain) and the noun pasta. Compound nouns formed from a verb and a feminine singular noun are invariable, meaning they do not change their ending in the plural. If you needed more than one, you would just change the article: gli scolapasta.
How do we know cerca and inizia are commands and not just he/she looks or he/she starts?
The context of giving instructions to someone directly tells us this is the imperative mood. For regular -are verbs like cercare and iniziare, the informal tu command ends in -a, which happens to look exactly like the third-person singular present tense.
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