Basic Italian

A Grammar and Workbook

Stella Peyronnel, Ian Higgins

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2005
• ISBN:
  9781134277797
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Lingue e linguistica
• Subtopic: Lingue

Introducing Italian culture and people through the medium of the language used today, Basic Italian: A Grammar and Workbook provides readers with the basic tools to express themselves in a wide variety of situations.

Presenting twenty-three individual grammar points in lively and realistic contexts, Basic Italian is an accessible reference grammar with related exercises in one, easy to follow volume. Each unit consists of jargon-free explanations and comparisons with English, which focus upon the more common difficulties experienced by learners of Italian.

Features include:

* contemporary examples in both Italian and English

* grammar tables for easy reference

* full exercise answer key

* glossary of grammatical terms.

Basic Italian is the ideal reference and practice book for beginners, as well as for students with some knowledge of the language.

UNIT SEVEN
Direct object pronouns (1)

1 A direct object is the person or thing that the verb directly impacts on:
Invito Elena (I’m inviting Elena); Uso il computer tutti i giorni (I use the computer every day).

A direct object pronoun replaces a noun used as a direct object; it must therefore agree in gender and number with the noun it refers to. Direct object pronouns normally come before the verb. In the following examples, the pronouns are in italics:

Quando vedo Elena la invito a cena.	When I see Elena I'll invite
[la replaces and agrees with Elena (fs)]	her to dinner.
Quando vedo Lorenzo lo invito a cena.	When I see Lorenzo I'll invite
[lo replaces and agrees with Lorenzo	him to dinner.
(ms)]
Scrivo le cartoline e poi le imbuco.	I write the postcards and
[le replaces and agrees with le	then post them.
cartoline (fp)]
Appena compro i biscotti li mangio.	As soon as I buy biscuits I
[li' replaces and agrees with i biscotti	eat them.
(mp)]
Prendo il giornale e lo leggo subito.	I get the paper and read il
[lo replaces and agrees with il	immediately.
giornale (ms)]

2 The forms of the direct object pronouns are as follows:

Subject	Direct object
io	mi	me
tu	ti	you
lui/lei	lo [m]/la [f]	him/her/it
noi	ci	us
voi	vi	you
loro	li [m]/le [f]	them

Giacomo mi invita spesso	a cena.	Giacomo often invites me to dinner.
Se vuoi, ti aiuto.		If you want. I'll help you.
Lo conosco bene.		I know him well.
La vedo tutti i giorni..		I see Aer every day.
Vi invito alla festa.		I’m inviting you to the party.

3 We saw in Unit 3 that if an adjective refers to two or more nouns that are different in gender, it has the masculine plural form, e.g. Laura e Piero sono italiani (Laura and Piero are Italian). The same principle applies to direct object pronouns:

'Conosci Laura [f] e Piero [m]?' 'Si,	'Do you know Laura and Piero?' "Yes.
li [mp] conosco bene.'	I know Mem well.'
'Usì il computer [m] e la stampante	'Do you use the computer and the
[f]?' 'Sì, li [mp] uso spesso.'	printer?' 'Yes. I often use them.'

Negative form

4 The negative is formed by putting non before the pronoun:

Non lo conosco bene.	I don't know him well.
Non vi invito alla festa.	I'm not inviting you to the party.
Non li vedo spesso.	I don't often see them.
Non ti capisco.	I don't understand you.

5 When a direct object pronoun is used with a verb in the infinitive (usually after verbs like dovere, potere, volere or sapere), it can be attached to the infinitive, which drops the final vowel:

La devo chiamare.	or	Devo chiamarla.	I must call her.
Ti voglio invitare.	or	Voglio invitarti.	I want to invite you.
Lo puoi prendere.	or	Puoi prenderlo.	You can take it.
Lo so fare.	or	So farlo.	I can/know how to do it.
Lo devo tradurre.*	or	Devo tradurlo.*	I've got to translate it.

Each pair of sentences has exactly the same meaning – the form used makes no difference.

* Note that verbs in -urre drop the second r as well as the final vowel: lo devo tradurre or devo tradurlo.

6 The pronoun lo [ms] is often used to replace a whole clause:

‘Sai che oggi è il compleanno di	'Do you know that it's Carla's
Carla?' 'Sì, lo so.' [lo = oggi éil	birthday today?' 'Yes, I do.' [lit. Yes,
compleanno di Carla]	I know it]
'Dove sono le chiavi?' 'Non lo so.'	'Where are the keys?' 'I don't know.’
[lo = dove sono le chiavi]	[lit. I don’t know it]
'Devi cambiare la cartucc...