Italian Clitcs from Duo Lingo by Murray Abby

Murray's chart has been re-integrated for ease of use.

First of all, let's hear from Marta:

So these are used with the transitive verbs, which makes it easier to understand which to use.

The difference between indirect and direct pronouns is usually the presence of a preposition. This can be thought of more easily as a pre-position. These proceed the pronoun in English and are obvious in phrases such as 

She sent the letter to you.

I will get the package for you.

The pronoun you is indirect in these cases.

A direct pronoun has no pre-position and so takes form such as:

No Susan, she wants you to go with her.

Are you finished?

These are direct pronouns and have no preposition/por-position. Their position is absolute and no pretext is required.

So the only difference between direct and indirect in an Italian sentence, is also a preposition. The two most common prepositions in Italian are “a” and “di”.  But there are others, such as "su", "per", "con", "da", ...etc. A preposition is a "linking" word that "shows the relationship between a noun or pronoun and other words in a sentence." In English, "to", "of", "on", "by", "with", "from", ...as above.

In Murray's diagram, you will notice that for the same object/ subject for both direct and indirect pronouns, some of the terms are shared; specifically “mi”, “ti”, “ci” and “vi”.

So the lazy method is to memorize that the presence of the English words to OR for are a giveaway for “indirect”, keeping in mind that it doesn’t work for verb infinitives— mangiare is the verb “to eat”, but there are no pronouns involved there, so there’s never any “direct” or “indirect” verbs. Only with objects and people. (We’re not even going to start discussing “Piacere” here, so forget that!)

So looking at a few lines of the table, you’ll see that:

• mi means me (direct), but both mi and a me mean either to me , or for me (indirect).

• lo means him (direct), but gli means either to him , or for him (indirect) , or even to/ for them (indirect).

and so on.

Thus; if you give something to someone, or make something for someone, then you need to look on that table for the indirect object pronoun. Again, the presence of “to” or “for” is your quick magic reminder for indirect objects but, indeed, any preposition should raise the same flag.

You probably already know this, now, but the “clitic” pronoun form is placed in front of the verb form. The verb form tells you who the person performing the action (a verb) is.

It is easy to practice in English. You would never say “To him I see”, so in Italian you would never say “Gli vedo”, because “Gli” is “To him”. Not just plain “him”; “To him”. Meanwhile, you’d never say “I give a book her”. You’d say “I give a book to her”, so “to her” is le , not la and you’d obviously use “Le dò un libro”. Where it sometimes gets tricky is when the preposition is only implied in English. “I read him a book” or “I ask her a question” needs to be considered in Italian as “I read (to) him a book” and “I ask (of her) a question”.

Here are some basic examples to help (and hopefully not confuse) you:

• ama He loves or She loves (or even It loves ); Ci ama he/ she/ it loves us.

• scrivo I write ; Lo scrivo I write it. Note that it wouldn’t be, “I write him” or “her”. Meanwhile...

• gli scrivo; gli is “to him”, so then I write to him.

• Le is “to her”, so then le scrivo I write to her. Unfortunately, le is also feminine “them” on the direct pronoun side, so if the subjects being written are all of feminine gender, Le scrivo could also mean “I write them”.

• What about a double pronoun sentence? “I read it to him”? That’s easy: Lo leggo a lui

• I see you Ti vedo (there is no “to” or “for”, so use the table for direct object pronoun).

• I play for him Gli suono (it can’t be direct, Lo suono, because of the word “for”). You can say the very same thing by using the “stressed form”, but after the verb: Suono a lui.

• Lo suono is “I play it” (it being a direct object, masculine, such as “un flauto”. Use La suono for “I play it”, it being a direct feminine object, such as “una chitarra”).

The Stressed pronouns do not get placed before the verb; they come after it.

Many of them can also be placed into the verb.

• Posso farlo (I can do it), comes by dropping the "e" from Fare (to do) and adding the pronoun "lo". Do that with most any verb infinitive.

Finally, when used in a negative sentence, the pronoun always goes between non and the verb: Non lo vedo = "I don't see him", or "I don't see it".

That should get you well on the way, and at least 3/4 the way through the Clitics lessons. I’ll leave it to others to explain “Ce” and “Ne”.

By the way, you can quickly spot a Reflexive Sentence if the subject and the pronoun being used are on the same line of the table above, or if the word “si” is present before a verb. (And not sì, meaning “yes”...).

• Mi lavo; I wash myself (same line for io (lavo) and Mi makes this sentence reflexive).

• Ti vedi; You see yourself (Tu vedi and Ti on the same line).

• Ci chiediamo; We ask ourselves (Noi chiediamo/ Ci on the same line).

The word “si” goes in place of him/ her/ it and also them, so there is no Gli/ Lo/ La/ Le/ Li to worry about in reflexive:

• Si lava; He washes himself, or She washes herself, (or even) It washes itself.

• Si lavano; They wash themselves. It is obviously not “They wash himself”. “They wash him”, on the other hand, is not reflexive, does not use “si”, and is simply “Lo lavano -- as per the rules on direct pronouns, in the initial section of this essay.

• ne and ci are two extremely useful pronouns which have no single equivalent
  in English. There are some phrases where you have to use them in Italian.

Ci substitutes phrases or words introduced by: a, in, con, su or with places. 

No, non ci voglio uscire 

Ne substitutes phrases or words introduced by: di/della or with amounts/quantities. To have / avere.

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