Toccare – to touch
Have you ever heard or read the Italian sentence ‘mi tocca‘ and felt confused about it? That’s normal! The verb ‘toccare‘ is used with different meanings in Italian.
‘Toccare’ generally means ‘to touch’ in English with the meaning of coming physically into contact with something or someone. This meaning occurs when the verb is transitive.
For example, when the mum says to her kid:
- Non toccare il gatto! – don’t touch the cat!
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However, ‘toccare’ has a different meaning when used in the third person singular and conjugated with the indirect object pronoun.
The pattern is: ‘mi/ti/gli/ci/vi/gli tocca + infinitive verb.’
‘Mi tocca + infinitive verb‘ means something like ‘I have to do something’ or ‘it’s time to do something’ and emphasizes that external circumstances somehow compel the person carrying out the action to do it.
For example:
- ‘Mi tocca studiare oggi‘ – ‘I am forced to study today’ (due to external circumstances, e.g., an upcoming exam…)
- ‘Mi tocca pulire la casa oggi‘ – ‘I am forced to clean the house today’ (due to external events, e.g., my parents are visiting me).
