The verb guidare is fairly intuitive; its prefix clearly mirrors the English ‘to guide.’ While that is one possible translation, there is plenty more to discover. Let’s take a look now!
guidare
Before we begin, it’s worth mentioning that guidare is an -ARE verb, making it fairly easy to conjugate. Here it is in the present tense:
- io guido
- tu guidi
- lui guida
- lei guida
- noi guidiamo
- voi guidate
- loro guidano
As I mentioned above, the first possible translation for guidare is to guide. It can mean to guide, in the sense of leading a group of people or animals from one physical place to another, or in a more figurative sense, teaching or advising a group of students, leading a government, or managing a company.
Chiara Montanari fu la prima italiana a guidare una spedizione in Antartide.
Chiara Montanari was the first Italian to lead an expedition to Antarctica.
È importante guidare i propri figli nello sviluppo dell’autodisciplina.
It is important to teach your children to develop self-discipline.
Secondo te, è la persona giusta per guidare il governo?
In your opinion, is he/she the right person to lead the government?
In an even more abstract sense, you can use guidare when discussing your emotions, sentiments or instincts. For example, someone who si lascia guidare dal suo istinto (let’s themselves be guided by their instincts) is more likely to make quick decisions that align with their authentic self or inner moral compass.
Dobbiamo cercare la persona giusta per questo posto di lavoro senza farci guidare dalla fretta.
We need to find the right person for this job without rushing (lit. being guided by haste).
Guidare can also mean to lead, to be at the top, or to be in first place in a sporting context. It’s a synonym for the expression essere in testa (to be in the lead).
La squadra di Mario guida la classifica.
Mario’s team is in first place.
Every single one of these translations for guidare will crop up frequently in Italian, but the one with which beginners tend to be most familiar is ‘to drive‘ – as in to drive a car, bus, or motorcycle. You might encounter common phrases such as:
- Mi piace / Non mi piace guidare. = I like / I don’t like driving.
- Guido bene / male. = I drive well / I drive poorly.
- Non so guidare. = I don’t know how to drive.
Ho guidato tutta la notte per venire da te.
I drove all night to get to you.
And this brings us to a mistake that many learners make when speaking Italian, including those with years of experience! The verb guidare cannot be used when translating phrases such as:
- I drive home / to work / to school.
- I drive my friend home.
This is because guidare doesn’t actually express movement in Italian. It simply describes the act of driving or operating a vehicle. In English, on the other hand, ‘to drive’ can describe both the act of driving and the act of moving from point A to point B. If you want to express movement in Italian, you need to use a movement verb such as andare (to go), venire (to come), tornare (to return), accompagnare (to accompany/take) and so on instead.
Let’s take a look at a few examples:
Vado a scuola in macchina.
I drive to school.
Literally: I go to school by car.
Accompagno il mio amico al lavoro in macchina.
I drive my friend to work.
Literally: I accompany my friend to work by car.
Dopo il lavoro torno a casa in macchina.
I drive home after work.
Literally: After work I return home by car.
If you do end up saying guido a casa or guido al lavoro by mistake, people might wrongly assume that you are driving at home, or at work, rather than towards home or towards your workplace. (Just imagine the skid marks on the living room floor!)
The same rule applies to the verbs camminare (to walk) and volare (to fly). You cannot say *camminare a casa for ‘I walk home‘ – instead you need to say vado a casa a piedi (I go home on foot). And by the same token, you cannot say *volo in Canada for ‘I fly to Canada‘ – you need to say vado in Canada in aereo (I go to Canada by plane).
If you really want to use guidare o camminare to express movement, you could do that with the preposition verso (towards), as in camminare verso casa (walking towards home) and guidare verso casa (to drive towards home). However, in this case, the use of such phrase is more indicative of a specific place you’re heading to, rather than a more general meaning of I’m going home or I’m going to work.
Heather Broster is a graduate with honours in linguistics from the University of Western Ontario. She is an aspiring polyglot, proficient in English and Italian, as well as Japanese, Welsh, and French to varying degrees of fluency. Originally from Toronto, Heather has resided in various countries, notably Italy for a period of six years. Her primary focus lies in the fields of language acquisition, education, and bilingual instruction.
