Italian All-in-One For Dummies (126 page)

Sì, vorrei un po' di vino, grazie.
(
Yes, I'd like some wine, thank you.
)

Ci vuole un po' di costanza.
(
You need a little perseverance.
)

You use
di
after an indefinite pronoun when an adjective follows:

Hai visto qualcosa di interessante alla mostra?
(
Did you see something/anything interesting at the exhibit?
)

When you don't want to repeat the noun or pronoun representing a set already mentioned in a sentence with an indefinite pronoun, you can replace the set with the pronoun
ne
(
of those; them
), either placed before the verb or attached to the infinitive or the gerund. If you use a past participle or another adjective, you coordinate it with the word
ne
refers to:

Hai comprato delle banane?
(
Did you buy some bananas?
)

Sì, ma forse ne ho comprate troppe!
(
Yes, but maybe
I bought too many [of those]!
)

If you use
uno/nessuno
(
one/none
), the past participle takes the singular, coordinated in gender with the item you're talking about:

Hai visto i tuoi amici?
(
Did you see your friends?
)

No, non ne ho visto nessuno.
(
No, I didn't see any [of them].
)

You can employ any quantifier, not just indefinites, to express a part of a set. For example:

Hai comprato dieci borse?!
(
Did you buy ten handbags?!
)

No! Ne ho comprate due!
(
No! I bought two!
)

Assigning Ownership with Possessive Qualifiers

To assign ownership in English, you add a possessive adjective (
my
or
our
)
to the object owned by referring to that object through a possessive pronoun (
mine
or
ours
) or by adding
's
(or just the apostrophe) to the noun or name that conveys the owner. In Italian, you have three options: Add a possessive adjective to the owner, introduce the owner with the preposition
di
(
of
), or employ the idiomatic expression
essere di
+ the owner's name, which means something like
to belong to.

Unlike in English, in the third person singular Italian, the possessive adjective or pronoun doesn't convey whether the owner is male or female. That information is clarified only by the context of the sentence; for example,
la sua gatta
can mean
his/her cat.

Table 6-3
lists possessive adjectives and pronouns, which are identical in Italian, along with the corresponding definite articles.

In Italian you use the definite article with possessive adjectives and pronouns, except in two cases:

You don't use the article with the names of close relatives in the singular form, but you do with the modified version of these nouns (for example:
mia sorella/la mia sorellina, mia madre/la mia matrigna
) except for the use with
loro.
So you say:
mio marito
(
my husband
);
vostra nonna
(
your grandmother
);
i loro genitori
(
their parents
);
la loro famiglia
(
their family
).

When you use a possessive word after the verb
essere
(
to be
), you can use the article or skip it, whichever comes easier, as when you say
Quell'automobile è la mia
(
That car is mine
) or
Quell'automobile è mia
(
That car is mine
).

Note, however, that the presence or absence of the article conveys a slightly different meaning:
Quell'automobile è la mia
(pronoun) means
That car is mine
(as opposed to being
yours
or
hers,
and so forth).
Quell'automobile è mia
(adjective), on the other hand, means simply
That car belongs to me
(as in,
I bought it; I didn't rent it
).

If you select one or more items out of a group of things owned, in Italian you can use

Any quantifier (a number or an indefinite pronoun) followed by
dei, degli,
or
delle
+ a possessive qualifier + a noun in the plural:

Sono tre dei miei amici.
(
They're three of my friends.
)

uno
or
dei
+ a possessive adjective + a noun:

È un mio amico.
(
He's a friend of mine.
)

Sono dei miei amici.
(
They're friends of mine.
)

Note, however, that
È un amico dei miei
means
He's a friend of my parents.

Chapter 7

Making Connections with Conjunctions and Relative Pronouns

In This Chapter

Joining thoughts thanks to conjunctions and prepositions

Linking clauses with relative pronouns

I
n speech and writing, you use many sentences, not just one. You can string them out one after another, separating them with periods. But you often need to link together thoughts expressed in different sentences. This chapter shows you how to do that with coordinating or subordinating conjunctions or with relative pronouns.

Linking Words and Clauses with Conjunctions and Prepositions

As you know, a clause is a grouping of words that includes a verb, which sometimes is all you need:
Entrate!
(
Come in!
) But in most situations, you need a subject, an object, adjectives and other qualifiers, other nouns introduced by a preposition, and so forth to express your meaning. When you're on a roll with sentence construction and want to keep going, you can link full sentences together using conjunctions and prepositions.

When you rely on conjunctions, you employ invariable words whose only purpose in life is to join clauses. In both Italian and English, you encounter coordinating and subordinating conjunctions. Here's a rundown of both:

You use coordinating conjunctions — such as
e
(
and
),
o/oppure
(
or
), or
ma
(
but
) — when you link together clauses that are (grammatically) of equal standing.

Vai in crociera o stai sul lago?
(
Are you going on a cruise or are you staying at the lake?
)

You use subordinating conjunctions — such as
perché
(
because
),
quando
(
when
), or
finché
(
in so far as, as long as
) — when you link together dependent and independent clauses.

Quando torni dobbiamo parlare.
(
When you come back, we need to talk.
)

Connecting words or sentences with coordinating conjunctions

You can use coordinating conjunctions in various ways:

To link names, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and adverbs in the same sentence.

Mi piacciono i romanzi e i resoconti di viaggio.
(
I like novels and travel books.
)

Vorrei un vestito elegante, ma comodo.
(
I'd like an elegant but comfortable dress.
)

To coordinate verbs in the infinitive, such as when they follow a modal auxiliary.

No so né sciare né arrampicarmi/scalare.
(
I can neither ski nor climb.
)

To link together two (or more) sentences that remain meaningful even if you take the conjunction away.

Lia scrive poesie e Ugo suona il piano.
(
Lia writes poems, and Ugo plays the piano.
)

Table 7-1
lists coordinating conjunctions you can use to link words or sentences.

When you use the conjunction
e,
you can invert the order of the sentences. Think of them in mathematical terms: In multiplication or addition, the product or sum doesn't change if you move numbers around. This is also the case with
o
(
or
),
o . . . o
(
either . . . or
),
né . . . né
(
neither . . . nor
), and
sia . . . sia
(
either . . . or
). But with other conjunctions (as with division and subtraction), order matters. You can't swap the sentence order if you

Establish a contrast with
ma
(
but
) or
tuttavia
(
however
).