Italian All-in-One For Dummies (180 page)

I ragazzi
si svegliano
presto in vacanza.
(
The kids get up early on vacation.
) This is the present indicative with a specified subject (
i ragazzi
—
the kids
).

Here are some examples of the reflexive construction in the
si impersonale:

Ci si alza
presto in campagna.
(
They/people get up
early in the country.
)

Ci si
vede
(from the reciprocal verb
vedersi
). (
See you around.
)

Ci si diverte
in Italia;
ci si diverte
a sciare
.
(
People have fun
in Italy; skiing is fun.
)

Applying the impersonal in other tenses

Technically, you can apply the
si impersonale
to any verb tense — and certainly any of the tenses covered in this book. You simply take the word
si
+ the verb in the tense you need, be it third person singular or plural. (The only exception to this construction is the present perfect impersonal, discussed in a moment.) But, for the sake of brevity, you can look at the impersonal in only a few of the more common tenses in
Table 5-2
.

The present perfect (covered in
Chapter 1
of Book V) is similar to the normal construction of the impersonal, but it has its own set of quirky rules. For the present perfect, always use the verb
essere
(
to be
) as your auxiliary verb, regardless of whether you're working with an
essere
verb (intransitive and reflexive) or an
avere
(
to have;
transitive) verb. Nonetheless, you still distinguish between the transitive and intransitive verbs!

Verbs that take
essere
have the following structure:

Si
+ past participle ending in
-i

Here are some examples:

Si è andati
a letto presto.
(
Everyone went to bed early.
) (
Andare
is an intransitive verb that takes
essere.
)

Ci si è divertiti
alla festa!
(
We had fun at the party!
) (
Divertirsi
is a reflexive verb that takes
essere.
)

Verbs that take
avere
have a past participle that ends in
-o
if the sentence identifies no object. If the sentence specifies a direct object, the past participle agrees with the direct object (
-o, -a, -i, -e
):

Si è parlato
del più e del meno.
(
We talked about this and that.
)

Si è preparata
la cena.
(
The dinner was prepared.
)

Si sono comprati
gli stivali a Venezia.
(
Boots were bought in Venice.
)
(
We/they bought boots in Venice.
)

Si sono dette
delle brutte cose.
(
Ugly things were said.
)
(
They said ugly things.
)

No subject is really specified with the
si impersonale.
And when you see the pronoun
ci
placed before the pronoun
si,
you know that the verb is reflexive.

Getting proactive about the passive voice

The passive voice takes the action out of a sentence. For example, you can change the sentence
La bambina
apparecchia
la tavola
(
The little girl is setting the table
) to the passive form:
La tavola
è apparecchiata
dalla bambina
(
The table is set by the little girl
).

The passive voice is very similar in meaning to the impersonal
you
(see the previous sections). For example, when you ask the question
Scusi,
si
parla
inglese?
(
Excuse me, is English spoken here?
) by using the impersonal
you,
you may also say,
Scusi, l'inglese
è
parlato
qui?
(
Excuse me, is English spoken here?
) In this particular case, the impersonal is the more common of the two, but many other cases call for the passive voice as the more common construction. For example, if you don't want to assign blame, you can use the passive voice as a tool. Science and medicine often use the passive voice in writings. After you understand how to form it — which is quite simple — you'll find yourself using it quite often in conversation (much to your English teacher's chagrin).

To form the passive voice in any tense — present, present perfect, past absolute, imperfect, future, conditional, present subjunctive, imperfect subjunctive, past subjunctive, and so on — you take the verb
essere
(
to be
) (in that particular tense) + the past participle of the verb. The past participle always agrees with the subject in number and gender. You can use only transitive verbs (verbs that usually take
avere
[
to have
] in compound tenses) in the passive voice. However, as part of the passive construction, transitive verbs take
essere.
Don't worry, this only sounds confusing! Consider these examples:

Le poesie
sono pubblicate
da una casa editrice italiana.
(
The poems are published by an Italian publisher.
)

La cena
è preparata
dal babbo.
(
Dinner is being prepared by Dad.
)

With the passive voice, you reverse the order of a sentence in the indicative or subjunctive: The direct object becomes the subject, and the subject (person or thing doing the action), if articulated, is introduced by the preposition
da
(
by
) by itself or contracted with a definite article.
Table 5-3
gives you a listing of definite articles and where they appear in passive constructions.

Here are some examples of the passive voice across the tenses:

Present:
Le pesche
sono vendute
solo a luglio e agosto.
(
Peaches are sold only in July and August.
)

Past:
Questo libro
fu scritto
nel 1906.
(
This book was written in 1906.
)

Future: Emilia
sarà ricevuta
alla stazione dalla sua famiglia-ospite.
(
Emilia will be welcomed at the station by her host family.
)

Chapter 6

Progressing through Gerunds in Italian

In This Chapter

Creating gerunds in the present tense

Incorporating irregular gerunds into your constructions

Taking on the past gerund form

Concentrating on the now with the present progressive

Utilizing the imperfect progressive form

G
erunds (words ending in
-ing
in English) are common in spoken and written Italian, much as they are in English. They give immediacy to a sentence or phrase and can express action. For example, you're
reading
this book, and you're really
enjoying
it! The Italian gerund (in the present) corresponds roughly to the English present participle ending in
-ing:
eating (
mangiando
), waking up (
svegliandosi
), going out (
uscendo
), and so on.

When you combine the verb
stare
(
to be
) + a gerund, you form what's called the
progressive,
which you use to describe things that are going on right at this moment or to describe things that were going on at a precise moment in the past. For example:
Cosa
stai facendo
?
(
What are you doing?
)
Sto
scrivendo
questa frase
(
I'm writing this sentence
).

In this chapter, you discover how to use Italian gerunds and form them in the present and past tenses. You also get to work with the irregular forms of gerunds. From there, you move on to the present and imperfect progressive forms.

Forming Gerunds in the Present Tense

In many cases, you may need to use a gerund by itself, as with
present gerunds.
In this case, the subject is the same in both parts of your sentence. Notice that the gerunds in the following examples are in the subordinate clauses (the part of a sentence that can't stand on its own two legs):

Tornando
a casa, mi fermo al mercato.
(
On the way home/While returning home [
Literally:
Returning home], I'm going to stop at the market.
)

Essendo
stanco, Josh ha dormito tutto il giorno.
(
Being tired [or Because he was tired], Josh slept all day.
)

Gerunds that appear in the present tense are quite easy to form. You take the stem of
-are
verbs and add
-ando,
the stem of
-ere
verbs and add
-endo,
and the stem of
-ire
verbs and add
-endo.
The gerunds of reflexive verbs become
-andosi
(for
-arsi
verbs),
-endosi
(for
-ersi
verbs), and
-endosi
(for
-irsi
verbs). Here are some examples:

-are:
parlare
→
parlando
(
speaking, talking
):
Parlando
con te, ho perso il treno
(
While I was talking to you, I missed the train
).

-ere:
mettere
→
mettendo
(
putting
):
Ci sono rimasti duecento dollari,
mettendone
300 da parte per l'albergo
(
We have 200 dollars left, putting aside 300 for the hotel
).

-ire:
partire
→
partendo
(
leaving
):
Partendo
in orario, sarò da te alle 10.00
(
If I leave/Leaving on time, I'll be there at 10:00
).

-arsi:
alzarsi
→
alzandosi
(
getting up
):
Alzandomi
presto, riesco a produrre di più
(
Getting up early, I can accomplish more
).

-ersi:
sedersi
→
sedendosi
(
sitting
):
Sedendoci
in prima fila, possiamo seguire meglio lo spettacolo.
([By] sitting in the first row, we can follow the show better.
)