Learn Italian: Cerca lo scolapasta e inizia a grattugiare il formaggio, che il riso è pronto. - Look for the colander and start grating the cheese, because the rice is ready.

Cerca lo scolapasta e inizia a grattugiare il formaggio, che il riso è pronto.

Look for the colander and start grating the cheese, because the rice is ready.

Breakdown of Cerca lo scolapasta e inizia a grattugiare il formaggio, che il riso è pronto.

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?

In spoken, informal Italian, che is often used as a shorthand for perché (because) or poiché (since) to justify a command or statement. You will hear this explanatory che a lot right after an imperative, explaining exactly why the person needs to do what you just asked them to do.

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?