Lesson Transcript

Hello and welcome back to ItalianPod101. My name is Desy, and in this video, we're going to talk about two verbs that sometimes make people confused, and those are: andare and camminare.
Andare
Camminare
First things first, andare means "to go," while camminare means "to walk."
Also, camminare is regular, so you take camminare, say goodbye to -are at the end, and just add the endings that you use for other verbs too, like parlare or cantare, so to talk, to sing. And it becomes io cammino, tu cammini, lui cammina, noi camminiamo, voi camminate, essi or loro camminano.
While andare is irregular and it changes completely. It becomes io vado, tu vai, lui or lei va, noi andiamo, voi andate, and essi or loro vanno. Which may lead you to prefer camminare over andare. Unfortunately, you can't always use camminare, even when you're walking, okay? Because even though in English you can say, I walk to the supermarket, so you're going to the supermarket by foot, you're walking there, in Italian, even if I would understand what you mean by cammino al supermercato, we actually say:
Vado al supermercato.
And that's because andare is really, really used in Italian, especially with the compound of Andare a …fare qualcosa.
So “to go and do something.”
So vado al supermercato implies that you're going to buy stuff. So
Vado al supermercato a fare la spesa.
To do groceries, or
Vado al supermercato a comprare due cose.
To buy two things, okay?
So cammino al supermercato focuses the attention on the fact that you're walking. So we would rather say:
Cammino fino al supermercato e torno.
For example, like “I'll walk tI'll the supermarket and then come back”, which puts the attention on the fact that you're walking tI'll there, you’re going to take a walk, walk tI'll that point and then come back. It doesn't have to be the supermarket, okay? The focus is on you actually moving your legs, okay? That's the point.
While if you say andare a fare qualcosa, the focus is on that something that you're going to do. Stasera vado al cinema. “Tonight I'm going to the cinema.”
I don't say stasera cammino fino al cinema, like tonight I'm walking tI'll the cinema. That's not the point. The point is that I'm going to the cinema.
Well, if I want to say that I'm going to walk, and that's what I want to convey, I would just say Vado al cinema a piedi.
Andare a piedi, so going by foot, by walking. And of course camminare a piedi is something that you’d never say because camminare is walking already and you don’t have to say that you use your legs.
Unless you want to say:
Cammino sulle mani.
Which is like walking on my hands. In that case you have to specify, ok?
Something that really sums this up is the example:
Vado a camminare. “I go walking.”
I go and take a walk.
Another way you can say that, which is a colloquial way, is:
Vado a fare due passi.
So “I go make”, take in English, “two steps”, just to take a walk, vado a fare due passi.
In that case, too, you would say, for example, vado a fare due passi fino al parco, till the park, or vado a camminare fino al parco.
Let's take the example of the cinema again. And if I say
Stasera vado al cinema… to my mother, “tonight I'm going to the cinema”, and let's assume she knows that my car is broken or something, she may ask me:
Come vai fino là? “How do you go till there?”
And I can say,
Vado a piedi.
So I'm going to walk there, right?
And she would say,
Cammini fino al cinema? “Are you gonna walk till the cinema?”
Vuoi che ti presti la macchina? “You want me to lend you my car?”
And that would be really nice.
But yeah, to sum up, you don't put camminare together with a piedi, but also not only camminare with just the place where you're going, because in that case, its more natural to just say andare al cinema, andare al supermercato, and not camminare al supermercato. Okay?
Hopefully, this will be useful for you when you have to decide between andare and camminare. And if you have any other doubts, please feel free to comment down below.
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