E penso a te
Before we start, try listening to the song below to get in the mood for today’s lesson.
It’s called E penso a te and was composed by Lucio Battisti in 1970.
Io lavoro e penso a te.
Torno a casa e penso a te.
Le telefono e intanto penso a te.
Come stai? E penso a te.
Dove andiamo? E penso a te.
Here’s its translation:
I work and I think of you.
I go home and I think of you.
I call her and, in the meantime, I think of you.
How are you? And I think of you.
Where are we going? And I think of you.
What’s the structure of pensare a?
Now that you’re in the mood let’s get started!
In Italian, we use the preposition a when we think of (or about) something or someone.
The construction is pensare a + something or someone
And here’s an example:
Penso a Maria tutti i giorni.
I think of Maria every day.
What’s the structure of pensare + pronoun?
When we refer to someone, we might say their name, but we might also just use a followed by a pronoun.
| a | me |
| a | te |
| a | lui/lei |
| a | noi |
| a | voi |
| a | loro |
Just like the title of the song we saw above:
E penso a te.
And I think of you.
What’s the structure of pensare + article?
Also, since we think of different things and people, instead of just a we can combine it with an article, depending on the gender and number of what we’re referring to:
| il + a | al |
| lo + a | allo |
| la + a | all’ / alla |
| i + a | ai |
| gli + a | agli |
| le + a | alle |
Have a look at the examples below:
Sto pensando al mio gatto.
I’m thinking about my cat.
Stai pensando alle tue bambine?
Are you thinking about your girls?
The conjugation of the verb pensare
We can conjugate the verb pensare the way we want, depending on what we want to say, like in the examples below:
Sto pensando a te.
I’m thinking of you.
Abbiamo pensato a un bel regalo per Giovanni.
We thought about a nice present for Giovanni.
A chi pensi?
When we want to ask what or who someone is thinking about, we place the a at the beginning, like in the questions below:
A cosa pensate?
What are you thinking about?
A chi pensi?
Who are you thinking about?
Pensare a: examples
Here’re some more examples:
Penso sempre ai miei allievi.
I always think about my students.
Devi pensare al futuro.
You have to think about the future.
Sto pensando a loro.
I’m thinking about them.
Sto pensando a tutto quello che devo ancora fare.
I’m thinking of all the things I still have to do.
A: A chi stai pensando?
B: Sto pensando a mio fratello.
A: Who are you thinking about?
B: I’m thinking of my brother.
A: A cosa pensi?
B: Penso alle mie vacanze.
A: What are you thinking about?
B: I’m thinking about my holidays.
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