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Italian Grammar Lessons: Pronominal Verbs Farcela & Andarsene

The Italian verb ‘farcela’ is a pronominal verb, which means that it is composed of a base verb, in this case ‘fare’, plus pronouns that modify the base verb’s meaning.

Farcela means ‘to manage to do’ or ‘to achieve something’. It’s very common both in oral and written Italian. It conjugates like this:

Farcela in the present

io ce la faccio
tu ce la fai
lui/lei ce la fa
noi ce la facciamo
voi ce la fate
loro ce la fanno

Farcela in the past

io ce l’ho fatta
tu ce l’hai fatta
lui/lei ce l’ha fatta
noi ce l’abbiamo fatta
voi ce l’avete fatta
loro ce l’hanno fatta

As you can see, in the present tense we conjugate the main verb ‘fare’ while in the past tense we conjugate the auxiliary verb ‘avere’. The past participle of farcela has the same form for all conjugations: ‘fatta’.

Here are some examples of the verb in use, along with English translations:

Sono stanco. Non ce la faccio più a lavorare!
I’m tired. I can’t (manage to) work any more!

Ha chiamato Francesco. Voleva dirti che ieri non ce l’ha fatta a prendere il treno.
Francesco called. He wanted to tell you that yesterday he didn’t manage to catch the train.

Ti ringrazio, ma ce la faccio da sola.
Thanks but I can manage (it, by myself).

Ragazzi, ce la fate a portare le valigie da soli?
Guys, can you (manage to) carry those suitcases by yourselves?

Signore, ce la fa ad essere qui in ufficio per le sette e mezzo?
Will you manage to be here in the office by half-past-seven?

Siamo usciti presto di casa, ma non ce l’abbiamo fatta ad arrivare in tempo alla stazione.
We left home early but we didn’t manage to get to the station in time.

Another common pronominal verb is ‘andarsene’, which means’to leave’ in the sense of ‘to quit a place or event’. It’s reflexive and is often used instead of the simpler ‘andare’ (to go). Think of it as meaning ‘take yourself away from a place’.

Notice that the first pronoun is the reflexive one and changes according to the subject, whereas the second (ne) is always the same.

Here are the conjugations in present and past, then some examples of the verb in use:

andarsene = andare + si + ne [to go away]

Andarsene in the presente

io me ne vado
tu te ne vai
lui/lei se ne va
noi ce ne andiamo
voi ve ne andate
loro se ne vanno

Andarsene in the past

io me ne sono andato/a
tu te ne sei andato/a
lui/lei se ne è andato/a
noi ce ne siamo andati/e
voi ve ne siete andati/e
loro se ne sono andati/e

Here are some examples of the verb in use, with English translations:

Ce ne andiamo da questo quartiere perché è troppo caro.
Let’s leave this area – it’s too expensive.

Se ne sono andati dalla festa prima di tutti.
They left the party before everyone else.

Silvia se ne è andata dall’Italia per studiare a Londra.
Silvia left Italia to study in London.

Perchè tu e Gianni ve ne siete andati senza salutare?
Why did you and Gianni leave without saying goodbye?

Back to Italian lesson on: Pronominal Verbs

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