Which verbs are the most important to know in Italian?
Prendere is definitely one of them.
You’ll need it when ordering your favorite Italian dishes or organizing travel plans. And it appears in many daily expressions you might not expect.
There are also a couple of mistakes to watch out for when using prendere , but luckily they’re not too complicated!
In this lesson, you’ll learn when to use (and when not to use 😁) prendere and how to say it in a couple of different tenses.
Using prendere for food and drink
When you’re traveling around Italy, you’ll definitely want to try as much Italian food as you can.
Whether you’re ordering a coffee and pastry from a bar in the morning, trying the local seafood pasta for lunch, or asking someone out for a drink, prendere is a verb you’ll need.
Here’s why:
Italians use prendere when talking about having a drink:
| Prendiamo una birra? | Shall we have a beer? | Pren-dyah-mo oo-nah beer-rah? |
| Prendo un caffè | I have / am having a coffee | Pren-doh un kahf-feh |
| Prende uno spritz | S/he is having a spritz | Pren-deh oo-noh spreetz |
And when ordering drinks or food:
| Cosa prendi? | What are you having? | Koh-zah pren-dee? |
| Per dolce, prendo un gelato | For desert, I’ll have an ice-cream | Per dol-cheh, pren-doh un jeh-lah-toh |
| Prendiamo una margherita | We’ll have a margherita (pizza) | Pren-dyah-mo oo-nah mar-geh-ree-tah |
Don’t use avere ! In the above examples, you can see that in English we use “have”. But don’t use the verb “to have” in Italian when talking about having food and drink. Use prendere instead.
So not:
❌ Ho un caffè - lit. I’m having a coffee
But:
✅ Prendo un caffè - I’m having a coffee (lit. I’m taking a coffee)
How "Prendere" is like "To Take" in English
Most of the time, prendere means "to take" in English. That’s why it’s an important verb for travel, when you’ll be talking about taking transport, or grabbing the things you’ll need for your trip.
Here are some situations where prendere is used like in English.
Grabbing or picking up
| Prendiamo i biglietti alla biglietteria | We pick up the tickets at the ticket office | Pren-dee-ah-mo ee beel-yet-tee ahl-lah beel–yet–teh-ree–ah |
| Prendi un po’ di pane | Take a bit of of bread | Prehn-dee oon poh dee pah-neh |
| Hai preso le chiavi? | Did you take / pick up the keys? | Ah-ee preh-zoh leh kee-ah-vee |
Using transport
| Prendo il treno | I take the train | Prehn-doh eel treh-noh |
| Prendo l’aereo | I take the plane | Prehn-doh lah-eh-reh-oh |
| Prendiamo un autobus. | We take the bus | Prehn-dyah-mo oon ow-toh-boos |
How do I conjugate prendere
Like any verb, you can change the ending of prendere to show who did the taking, and when they did it!
Here are the endings for prendere in the present tense :
| Prendere: Present | Translation |
| Prendo | I take |
| Prendi | You take |
| Prende | S/he takes; you take (formal) |
| Prendiamo | We take |
| Prendete | You take (plural, to two or more people) |
| Prendono | They take |
In the past tense, prendere goes to preso . It’s an irregular verb in the past tense, so it doesn’t follow the normal pattern. Don’t worry about the usual past tense rules , just learn the form preso .
| Prendere: Past | Translation |
| Ho preso | I’ve taken |
| Hai preso | You’ve taken |
| Ha preso | S/he has taken; you have taken (formal) |
| Abbiamo preso | We have taken |
| Avete preso | You have taken (plural, to two or more people) |
| Hanno preso | They have taken |
The past and present are really useful tenses for prendere . Knowing them will allow you to talk about lots of different things, like asking friends out for a drink, or explaining what you did on your trip.
For example:
Prendiamo uno Spritz? – Shall we have a Spritz?
Abbiamo preso il treno per Genova – We took the train to Genoa
Now you already know how to use prendere with two tenses! If you want to learn more, you can check out this handy verb conjugator on wordreference.com .
What are some common expressions with prendere ?
Prendere is such a common verb that it’s used in many Italian expressions.
They’re not just fun expressions, they’re ones that are actually used. So you can use them in conversation and it will make your Italian sound really authentic.
| Prendere freddo | Get cold | Pren-deh-reh freh-doh |
| Prendere un raffreddore | Catch a cold | Pren-deh-reh un raf-freh-doh-reh |
| Prendere il sole | Sunbathe | Pren-deh-reh eel soh-leh |
| Prendere nota | Take note | Pren-deh-reh noh-tah |
| Prendere una decisione | Make a decision | Pren-deh-reh oo-nah deh-chee-zyoh-neh |
| Prendere un appuntamento | Make an appointment | Pren-deh-reh un ap-poon-tah-men-toh |
| Prendere sul serio | Take seriously | Pren-deh-reh sool ser-ee-oh |
| Prendere con le pinze | Take with a pinch of salt (lit. take with pincers) | Pren-deh-reh kohn leh peen-tseh |
| Prendere in giro | Make fun of | Pren-deh-reh een jee-roh |
For example:
Ho preso un appuntamento per una visita guidata - I’ve made an appointment for a guided tour
Mi piace prendere il sole in spiaggia - I like to sunbathe on the beach
Prendere vs Portare : what’s the difference?
Both prendere and portare can be translated by “to take” in English.
So what’s the difference?
Prendere is used when you’re picking something up, while portare is for when you’re carrying something with you.
For this reason, portare can be translated by not only “to take”, but also “to bring”, “to carry” and “to wear”.
Here are some examples of where we would use portare and not prendere.
| Domani porto mio fratello all'aeroporto | Tomorrow, I’m taking / bringing my brother to the airport | Doh-mah-nee, por-toh mee-oh fra-tel-loh ahl-lah-eh-roh-por-toh |
| Porto un dolce alla festa | I’ll bring a dessert to the party | Por-toh oon dol-cheh ahl-lah fes-tah |
| Porta il tuo documento d'identità | Bring your ID card | Por-tah eel too-oh doh-koo-men-toh dee-den-tee-tah |
It can help to think about prendere as a quick action, while portare emphasizes bringing something away with you for a longer period of time.
Prendere: why you need to know this Italian verb: Review
You’ve seen how prendere appears in all sorts of situations, from chatting about food and travel to using it in everyday expressions. Let’s bring it all together.
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Use prendere (and not avere ) to talk about having or ordering food and drink.
Prendiamo una birra? - Shall we have a beer?
Prendo un caffè - I have / am having a coffee
-
Similarities to “to take” in English: Prendere often mirrors the English verb “to take” in various contexts.
Prendo il treno - I take the train
Prendi un po’ di pane - Take a bit of bread
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Prendere can mean “take”, “grab” or “pick up”. Portare means take in the sense of taking away with you, or “carry”, “wear” or “bring”.
Hai preso le chiavi? - Did you pick up the keys?
Porto un dolce alla festa - I’ll bring a dessert to the party
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There are many useful expressions with prendere , such as:
Prendere una decisione - Make a decision
Prendere un raffreddore - Catch a cold
Prendere il sole - Sunbathe
K: Ciao a tutti e benvenuti! Hi everyone and welcome to “Learn Italian with Joy of Languages”.
M: Today we’re going to learn about the verb prendere. It’s a verb that you’ll definitely use when you’re speaking Italian.
K: You’ll use it all the time when ordering food and drink, or talking about getting transport. And it’s in lots of common expressions.
M: It’s not too complicated to learn, because most of the time, we use it in a very similar way to English.
K: But there’s one situation where it’s different from English, so it’s easy to make mistakes with. We’ll help you avoid this soon.
M: Once you know how it works, you’ll see it’s not too difficult.
K: But before we look at some nice conversation phrases with prendere , we have a little favour to ask. If you’re listening to this on your podcast app, could you click the subscribe or follow button? This way you’ll get notified when we release a new episode and you’ll help our podcast grow so we can keep making free lessons like this. Grazie!
M: So you’re going to hear a typical conversation that Katie and I might have as we’re getting ready for a trip. There are lots of lovely cities near Milan that you can get to by train.
K: I’m a really bad judge of time and I’m often late for stuff, but because I worry about missing the train, I go the other extreme with transport and want to get to the station way too early!
Listen to the conversation. How many phrases with prendere can you hear?
K: Sei pronto?
M: Sì, prendo un caffè poi andiamo
K: Dobbiamo prendere il treno! Hai preso tutto?
M: Sì: biglietti, soldi, chiavi… E tu, hai preso una felpa?
K: No… perché?
M: C’è l’aria condizionata sul treno: prendi freddo
K: Quanto sei italiano!
K: I asked Matteo:
M: Sei pronto? – Are you ready?
Sei – you are
Pronto – ready?
K: Then Matteo replied:
M: Sì, prendo un caffè poi andiamo – Yes, I’ll have a coffee then let’s go. Literally:
M: Prendo - I take
Un caffè - a coffee
Poi - then
Andiamo - we go
K: It might seem a bit strange to “take” a coffee. But this is how we say it in Italian. We don’t use “have” like in English. We use prendere, which means “to take”. In this case, Matteo said prendo (x2), which translates as “ I take”.
M: And here’s something very important to know: you also use prendere to order food or drinks.
K: So how would you say “I’ll have a coffee” to the barista ? Literally “I take a coffee”.
[...]
M: Prendo un caffè (x2)
K: Then I said:
M: Dobbiamo prendere il treno!
Dobbiamo – we must
Prendere – take
Il treno – the train
K: Just like in English, we use “take” to talk about taking public transport. Remember that “I take” is prendo. How would you say “I take the train”?
M: Prendo il treno (x2)
K: Next, I asked Matteo:
M: Hai preso tutto? – Have you got everything? Literally:
Hai – you have
Preso – taken
Tutto – everything
K: When talking about taking something in the sense of picking it up or grabbing it, we use prendere . In this example, we’re using the past tense: preso (x2). It’s an irregular verb in the past tense, so you just have to learn the word preso rather than following the normal past tense rules. So again, you have taken, in the sense of you have picked up, is:
M: Hai preso (x2)
K: Then Matteo said:
M: Sì: biglietti, soldi, chiavi… – Yes, tickets, money, keys
Sì – yes
Biglietti – tickets
Soldi – money
Chiavi – keys
M: E tu, hai preso una felpa? – And you, have you picked up a sweatshirt? Literally:
Hai – you have
Preso – taken
Una felpa – a sweatshirt
K: Here you heard hai preso, “you have taken”, again, in the sense of “you’ve picked up”. Then I replied:
M: No… perchè? – No, why?
K: And Matteo said:
M: C’è l’aria condizionata sul treno – There’s air conditioning on the train
C’è – There is
L’aria condizionata – the airconditioning
Sul – on the
Treno – train
K: He continued
M: Prendi freddo – you’ll get cold. Literally:
Prendi – you take
Freddo – cold
K: Here we saw how prendere was used in an everyday Italian expression.
M: Prendi freddo – you’ll get cold
K: Italians use prendere freddo, literally “to take cold” to describe when you’re outside, or in airconditioning, and the low temperature makes you unwell.
K: Then I replied:
M: Quanto sei italiano! – You’re so Italian!
Quanto – how much
Sei – you are
Italiano – Italian
M: You always laugh about how Italians think the cold can make you unwell, but we got our revenge. Finally, you learnt to take us seriously!
K: That’s true. Italians are obsessed with temperature and health (I think probably too much!) but once when I slept with a fan on and woke up in the morning, I couldn’t move because I’d put out my neck and back. So I learnt that maybe Italians are onto something! Maybe.
M: So, you've learned a few different ways to use the verb prendere in Italian. Most of the time, it's the same as "to take" in English, for example, taking the train, or picking up and grabbing things.
K: Prendere is also very important when ordering food and drink, or saying what drink you’re having. So while in English, we use “have”, like “I’ll have a coffee”, in Italian we say “I take a coffee”.
K: Remember how to say it?
[...]
M: Prendo un caffè (x2)
K: You also learned that prendere in the past is preso. How would you say “have you got everything?” Literally “you have taken everything”?
[...]
M: Hai preso tutto (x2)
Let’s listen to the conversation again.
K: Sei pronto?
M: Sì, prendo un caffè poi andiamo
K: Dobbiamo prendere il treno! Hai preso tutto?
M: Sì: biglietti, soldi, chiavi… E tu, hai preso una felpa?
K: No… perchè?
M: C’è l’aria condizionata sul treno: prendi freddo
K: Quanto sei italiano!
K: Prendere is one of the most important verbs to learn in Italian, so over on the blog, you’ll find a more complete guide to the different forms and how to use it in everyday phrases and situations.
M: You’ll also see everything written down, and get bonus materials, like vocabulary cards and a quiz.
K: To continue the lesson, head over to our website by clicking the link in the description.
M: See you next time.
K: Or as we say in Italian.
Alla prossima!
Time to check your understanding and remember everything you just learned! Below you’ll find a mini-quiz and some vocabulary cards to help it all go in.
Quiz
How much did you learn? Find out in the quiz!
Click here to take the quiz for this episode: Prendere: why you need to know this Italian verb
Vocabulary
Prendo il treno = I take the train
Prendo un caffè = I have (lit. I take) a coffee
Hai preso tutto? = Have you taken everything?
Prendere freddo = Get cold
Prendiamo l’autobus = We take the bus
Prendiamo i biglietti alla biglietteria = We pick up the tickets at the ticket office
Prendiamo una birra? = Shall we have (lit. shall we take) a beer?
Prendere il sole = Sunbathe
Prendere una decisione = Make a decision
Prendere un appuntamento = Make an appointment
Flashcards: Prendere: why you need to know this Italian verb
Not sure how it works? Click here to watch the tutorial
