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dire

to say; to tell

verb DEE-reh Common

Origin: Latin dicere (to say)

Usage Note

Dire is highly irregular: present dico, dici, dice, diciamo, dite, dicono; imperative di'! (say!); past participle detto. The phrase si dice (one says / they say) is used to introduce common expressions or hearsay. Vuol dire means 'it means' — cosa vuol dire questa parola? (what does this word mean?). It takes avere as its auxiliary.

Examples

"Cosa vuoi dire con questo?"

Natural Translation

What do you mean by this?

Literal Translation

What you-want to-say with this?

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