Italian All-in-One For Dummies (102 page)

Possessive adjectives and pronouns:
La nostra macchina è rossa
(
Our car is red
);
La macchina rossa è la nostra
(
The red car is ours
).

Firms, institutions, and clubs:
la General Motors
(
General Motors
),
la Chiesa
(
the Church
),
la Roma
(
Roma Football Club
).

Abstractions:
La tolleranza è fondamentale in democrazia
(
Toleration is fundamental in democracies
).

When (and when not) to use an indefinite article

Although Italian uses the indefinite article much the same as English does, in some situations where an indefinite article is appropriate in English, Italian leaves it out. Consider the following situations where you'd leave out the indefinite article:

When using a noun as a qualifier of the subject after the verbs
essere
(
to be
):
Mia madre è vedova
(
My mother is a widow
);
Suo fratello è medico
(
Her brother is a physician
).

In exclamations introduced by
che
and
quanto
(
how
):
Che uomo coraggioso!
(
What a courageous man!
)

Chapter 3

All about Pronouns

In This Chapter

Knowing when and how to use subject and stressed pronouns

Playing around with direct and indirect object pronouns

Combining direct and indirect object pronouns

Adding more pronouns:
ci
and
ne

Recognizing reflexive pronouns

I
talian has many types of pronouns, each with a special function. Most pronouns replace people, places, concepts, and quantities that have already been mentioned.
Subject pronouns
don't replace anything but rather convey who's performing the action. Italian uses pronouns often because they allow you to avoid repetition and shorten sentences.

Understanding and using Italian pronouns is challenging because they vary so much in form, position, and function, but they're indispensable, so you need to work through the tough stuff. This chapter presents the various pronouns and the functions they perform. They can be

Subject pronouns, as in
Io
ho telefonato a Giovanna
(
I called Giovanna
)

Stressed pronouns, as in
Non credo di andare al cinema con
lei
(
I don't think I'll go to the movies with her
)

Direct object pronouns, as in
Li
ha già ordinati
(
She already ordered them
)

Indirect objects pronouns, as in
Le
ho detto che ero stanca
(
I told her that I was tired
)

This chapter also covers two other pronouns that perform a lot of functions in Italian:
ci
(
here; there; about this/that; of this/that; on this/that
) and
ne
(
of
/
about it/him/her/them/this/that
). You also may use another set of pronouns, called
reflexive pronouns,
when the object of the sentence is the same as the subject. In English, it's translated with
myself, yourself,
and so on. Reflexive pronouns don't substitute already mentioned concepts, but they're conjugated directly with the verbs.

In most cases, Italian and English use pronouns in similar ways, but they also have some differences:

Italian uses subject pronouns much less than English.
In Italian, you can omit subject pronouns because the verb conjugation indicates the person performing the action.

Italian has several sets of pronouns.
Even when they perform the same function, the object pronouns may change in form, depending on where they're placed in the sentence.