Time for some more grammar that I really should have learnt a decade or so ago, but somehow managed to avoid by prioritising trivia like earning a living and bringing up children.
This time, by popular request, Italian pronouns!
Given that people seem to find pronouns a confusing area, I’ll be tackling them in bite-sized chunks.
In today’s article, the first in a short series, we’ll get to grips with “direct pronouns”, that is to say pronouns which stand in for another word which is the direct object in a sentence.
What’s a direct object? Thought you’d never ask. A direct object is that part of your sentences which is “verbed”:
“Romeo loves Juliet”.
Juliet is the direct object, lucky lady, the person being “loved”.
Romeo wants HER. He needs HER, but he can’t have HER (‘cos she’s dead, and so is he.)
“HER” is the direct pronoun, useful so we don’t have to keep repeating “Juliet”.
See?
So, how does this work in Italian? Well, take a look at some examples taken from Italian Workout! A1:
1) Vorrei un pezzo di parmigiano, vorrei il parmigiano fresco.
Vorrei un pezzo di parmigiano, lo vorrei fresco.2) Vorrei due etti di mortadella, ma vorrei la mortadella affettata sottile.
Vorrei due etti di mortadella, ma la vorrei affettata sottile.3) Vorrei due yogurt, vorrei gli yogurt magri.
Vorrei due yogurt, li vorrei magri.4) Vorrei due etti di olive, vorrei le olive verdi.
Vorrei due etti di olive, le vorrei verdi.5) Vorrei un po’ di farina, vorrei un kilo di farina,
Vorrei un po’ di farina, ne vorrei un kilo.
In these pairs, the first sentences repeat the objects (very tedious), while the second ones, which are much more natural, substitute them with direct pronouns.
If you can get your head around the masculine/feminine singular/plural mess, do it like in the second sentence and you’ll sound SO COOL!
These are the Italian direct pronouns. Tattoo them on your arm, or something:
(masc.) singular: lo – plural: li
(fem.) singular: la – plural: le
(“invariable”) ne
The “invariable” pronoun ‘ne’ is used when talking about the quantity of something, as in the following example:
A: Vorrei un po’ di prosciutto cotto.
B: Quanto ne vuole?
A: Due etti, per favore.
You could translate it as “of it” or “of them”, if that would help.
So, not so difficult, right? Just five pronouns to remember today: lo/li/la/le/ne. And if you can’t, just look at your arm.
But we’re not done quite yet. There’s another thing to make a mental note of:
while the direct object normally follows the verb, direct pronouns must always be put BEFORE the verb
Like this:
Vorrei una bicicletta nuova.
La vorrei rossa.
More examples? Why certainly!
Ancora qualcos’altro? Della mortadella, ma la vorrei affettata sottile.
Il parmigiano fresco o stagionato? Lo preferisco piuttosto stagionato.
Sei peperoni, per cortesia. Li vuole rossi o gialli?
Compri tu le olive? Sì, le prendo verdi o nere?
Questa torta è davvero buona! Ne vorrei ancora una fetta.
Any questions, just leave a comment and we’ll find a real, live Italian person to answer them for you.
P.S. Watch out for the next in the “pronouns” series, which will be cluttering up your in-box very soon!
John Paloni says
I really love these short bite sized vignettes of Italian. Right now I don’t have time to take on a full course but these short insightful emails are fantastic and keep me hanging out for more.
Keep it up
Grazie Tanto
John
Daniel says
Useful feedback John. Now I know what people like, I can be sure to do more of it. Thanks for your input. Hope to hear from you again soon.
Dot Read says
Grazie mille Daniel!
This is just what I needed – I don’t know why I find pronouns so difficult.
And as Kelli says, bite-sized chunks are the way to do it.
Dot
Daniel says
Thanks Dot.
Our teachers (and my mum) say that pronouns are one of the most difficult areas. Given that I’ve never actually studied them (until yesterday) I can’t yet explain why, but watch this space as I’m planning to go through them step by step over the next few days… Hope I won’t regret it!
Daniel
Kelli Courtney says
Hi,
I love your big little lesson!
Even for me though, this little bit is alot!
It makes me feel more connected to this website via the e-mail
verses the pdf’s etc.;
‘your’ comments and my e-mail translator make the difference.
Reading the pdf a-1 lessons, copying and pasting into google translate
just isn’t as personal and not as connected.
Adding that to the bold step of entering the forums,
even the English forums, is overwelming at least for me.
There are no real comrades; it’s an isolated experience
and the irony is that help is so close…right here in the forums.
This is just an idea. Could it be possible for a paid subscription amount monthly
[because ‘monthly’ would be all I could effectively budget out]
to start e-mail lessons of the workout series in very very very small
increments.? You wouldn’t have to add anything to them as far as your comments
unless you felt it was necessary. The goal is to get people into the forums
and asking lots of questions, right? Everyone, at least everyone that subscribes
initially will be on the same page with the e-mails and would be asking questions
or posting things regarding the first mini lessons. ..
The lessons would have to be very small; smaller than the one you sent
today. If it is too slow for someone, they could skip ahead in the workout book.
We could also read in the workout book ahead to anticipate your e-mail lesson.
If you want us to actually
enter the Italian forum as well as the English one then you could add
very simple simple questions with
at least one correct response. See how you read each example today twice.
If challenged and with good examples as your e-mail today, people would feel confident
to enter the Italian forum with their answers. We might get to know the
other subscribers to the e-mail lessons because of their comments in the forum.
You could even offer the e-mail lessons at a discounted rate for those who
participate in the forums….
Whoosh!!
Kelli
Daniel says
Hi Kelli,
Thanks for all the great ideas. It’s really nice that you took the time to respond at such length. I appreciate it.
At the moment I’m not thinking of a paid subscription model for this site, but I certainly think that what you suggest would be useful for OnlineItalianClub.com users – information in small regular “chunks”, the possibility of studying ahead using the e-books or free courses, and above all, forum interaction.
As you can see, we have difficulty getting people to use the forums… but equally believe that they have a huge potential so we don’t want to give up on them. So, perhaps I can try some of your ideas (free) and see if that would help!
Watch this space. And thanks again for your input. Do keep me posted on whether future efforts are meeting your needs, won’t you?
Daniel
P.S. Google translate is an instrument of the devil…
Sieglind D'Arcy says
Kelly, thanks you said a lot of things which I think hold true for many of us. Among other things, in our busy lives, it’s about some regular discipline. I love the emails we get daily (?) from Daniel though I don’t always take the time to respond or feel I have anything worthwhile to say, just appreciate the lesson or the prompt to hang in there.
Sieglind