Italian All-in-One For Dummies (104 page)

Emphasizing Stressed Pronouns

Stressed pronouns are most often placed after a preposition, as in
Vieni con me al mercato!
(
Come to the market with me!
)
But you also can use them directly after a verb without a preposition for emphasis, as in
La mamma vuole te!
(
Mom wants you!
) At this stage, to make your life simpler, use the stressed pronoun only when you have a preposition. For example,
Qualcuno ha lasciato un messaggio per te
(
Someone left a message for you
).

Table 3-2
demonstrates the forms of the stressed pronouns. As you can see, the only forms that change from the subject pronouns listed earlier in this chapter are the forms for
io
(
me
) and
tu
(
te
). Although only four prepositions are shown here, you can combine any preposition with a stressed pronoun.

Table 3-2 Stressed Pronouns

Digging into Direct Object Pronouns

Whereas subject pronouns are sometimes optional, object pronouns aren't. You rely on object pronouns to replace objects or people who are recipients of that action — nice and straightforward. The following sections tell you more.

What direct object pronouns are and what they do

Here are a few key points about direct objects and direct object pronouns:

Direct objects follow transitive verbs and are called such because the action affects the object directly, as in
Vedo Angela
(
I see Angela
). If you replace
Angela
with a pronoun, the sentence becomes
La
vedo
(
I see her
).

Direct object pronouns usually answer the questions
who?
or
what?
When you can answer those questions, you can replace the answer (the direct object) with a pronoun. For example,
Leggo il giornale la domenica
(
I read the paper on Sunday
):
What do I read? The paper.
Lo leggo
(
I read it
).

Here's another example:
Ho invitato i nostri amici a cena
(
I invited our friends to dinner
). Who? Our friends.
Li ho invitati a cena
(
I invited them to dinner
).

Direct object pronouns can replace people, animals, things, and abstractions. For example,
Il ragazzo accarezza il cucciolo
(
The boy is petting the puppy
);
[Lo] L'accarezza
(
He is petting it
).
Quell'uomo ha perso la libertà
(
That man lost his freedom
);
L'ha persa
(
He lost it
).

Table 3-3
shows the direct object pronouns.

Table 3-3 Direct Object Pronouns

When you address someone formally in speech or writing, you use the direct object pronouns
La
(
you
[singular]) for a man or a woman,
Li
(
you
[plural]) for a group of men,
Le
for a group of women, or
Li
for a group of men and women:

Signore/Signora, La ringrazio di essere venuto/a.
(
Sir/Madam, thank you for coming.
)

Signori/Signore e Signori, Li ringrazio di essere venuti/e.
(
Gentlemen/Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for coming.
)

Signore, Le ringrazio di essere venute.
(
Ladies, thank you for coming.
)

In everyday life, the
voi
(
you
[plural]) form is much more commonly used (formally or informally), which simplifies things considerably. For example,
Signore e Signori, Vi ringrazio di essere venuti
(
Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for coming
).

Where to place direct object pronouns

Placement of the direct object pronoun varies according to the verb form:

The direct object pronoun often precedes the conjugated verb:
Quel ragazzo non dice mai la verità
(
That boy doesn't ever tell the truth
);
Non la dice mai
(
He never tells it
)
.