Prego!

Check out my free Italian course now!

I’m sure that you have seen it and probably used it yourself many times but quite a few of my students are confused on when to use it correctly so here is a new video  on this topic!

This word is indeed used in many different contexts the most common one is as a reply when somebody is thanking you.

For example look at this dialogue:

• "Grazie mille per il regalo! Mi piace molto!" (Thank you so much for the gift! I really like it!)
  • Grazie means thank you 
• Answer: prego!
  
  • Prego means you are welcome

So if somebody says GRAZIE (thank you) you will reply with PREGO!

In an easy dialogue like this one you will use PREGO as an answer to thank you:

• Maria… mi fai un caffè per favore? (Maria... can you make e a coffee please?)
• Certo! (Sure!)
• Grazie! (Thank you!)
• Prego! (You are welcome!)

 Prego can also be used if you have to say that you are sorry in this case you are almost begging for forgiveness…. yeah.. you know that we Italians tend to be dramatic!

Look at this example: 

TI PREGO PERDONAMI!  (Please forgive me!)

You can then use PREGO it to invite a person to do something. For example if you go to a restaurant and the waiter will show you to your table he will most likely say something like this:

"prego… mi segua…." (please follow me)

 If you are inviting somebody to sit down …. like a guest at your house… you will invite them to sit down by saying

• Prego… accomodati (informal) (please have a seat)
• Prego … si accomodi (formal) (please have a seat)

 Another way to use prego is if you need to ask somebody to repeat something for you. For example you are in a shop and you don’t understand something because it’s noisy  most likely you can say something like

• "prego?" (which implies can you repeat?)

You can say prego by itself or you can say… "prego…può ripetere?"

The fifth version of prego is that of the verb meaning that prego comes from the verb PREGARE which means to pray so PREGO is conjugated like this

• io prego
• tu preghi
• lui/lei prega
• noi preghiamo
• voi pregate
• loro pregano

If I say "Io prego" i’m simply saying that I pray.

I really hope that this video has cleared up some doubts on this overly used italian word! 

Did you know all the different meanings of this word? If you still have some doubts please feel free to write a comment and I will be more than happy to help you out!

Also if there are other similar words that confuse you let me know and I will create a specific video on it!

If you haven’t done so already please subscribe to my Youtube channel or check out my website at italianlanguagehub.com!