Discussing Eating in Italian

You likely know that mangiare is to eat in Italian. For instance, you could say:

• Ho mangiato una pizza (I ate a pizza)

• Sto mangiando una pera (I’m eating a pear)

• Mangio la pasta tutti i giorni (I eat pasta every day)

And so on.

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Fare colazione

Where Italian differs from English is in its idiomatic use around specific eating times, such as breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

In English, we eat or have breakfast. In Italian, we “do” it.

• Faccio colazione alle 8 (I eat breakfast at 8)

• Di solito faccio colazione a casa (I usually eat breakfast at home)

Technically, you could say mangio la colazione but it’s a lot more idiomatic to just say faccio colazione.

Pranzare e cenare

For lunch and dinner, we have our own dedicated verbs. Respectively, pranzare and cenare.

• Pranzo con Giovanni (I’m having lunch with Giovanni)

• Ceno molto tardi (I eat dinner very late)

If you want to express that you’re making breakfast, lunch, or dinner, you can use the verb preparare (to prepare).

• Preparo la colazione (I prepare breakfast)

• Preparo il pranzo (I prepare lunch)

• Preparo la cena (I prepare dinner)

Note that if you are listing more than one meal, you can drop the articles. For example:

• Preparo colazione, pranzo e cena. Potresti almeno apparecchiare!
  (I prepare breakfast, lunch, and dinner. You could at least set the table!)

Cenare con vs cenare da

Finally, let’s discuss the subtle difference between dining con someone and dining da someone.

• Ceniamo con Michele (We have dinner with Michele — it could be at his place or out at a restaurant)

• Ceniamo da Michele (We have dinner at Michele’s)

If you use andiamo before cenare, then con precludes that the person we mention is the host:

• Andiamo a cena con Michele (We are going to dinner with Michele somewhere that is neither our current place nor Michele’s.)

• Andiamo a cena da Michele (We are going to have dinner at Michele’s — similar to Ceniamo da Michele)

If you want to specifically mention that you are eating out, you could also say:

• Andiamo a cena fuori con Michele (We are going out for dinner with Michele)

• Andiamo al ristorante cinese con Michele (We are going to a Chinese restaurant with Michele)

The latter part of this post covered subtleties that you can safely ignore if your Italian is not at an advanced level, but the key takeaway should be that we “do breakfast” and that we use pranzare and cenare as verbs for having lunch and dinner.

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Exercises

Fill in the blanks. The answer key is provided below for our paid subscribers.

1. Ogni mattina ________ una banana prima di uscire.

2. Stasera ________ sushi con gli amici.

3. Marta non ________ mai carne.

4. Luigi ________ sempre colazione al bar sotto casa.

5. A che ora ________ colazione di solito?

6. Noi non ________ colazione la domenica.

7. Domani ________ con i colleghi in mensa.

8. I miei genitori ________ alle otto di sera.

9. Di solito noi ________ alle dodici e mezza.

10. Stasera ceniamo ________ Paolo e Lucia. (We're eating with them)

11. Domani andiamo a pranzo ________ Marco. (We're eating at Marco’s)

12. Vuoi venire a cena ________ noi? (at our place)

13. Mangiamo fuori ________ Anna. (with Anna)

14. La domenica pranziamo ________ mia nonna. (at my grandma’s)

15. Lucia ________ pranzo e cena tutti i giorni.

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Answer Key