Learn how to use the pronoun NE
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Intro |
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| Hi everybody! Marika here. Welcome to Ask a Teacher, where I’ll answer some of your most common Italian questions. |
| The Question |
| The question for this lesson is: How can I use the pronoun ne? |
| Explanation |
| Ne is an Italian pronoun that takes the place of nouns so that we don’t have to repeat the same words. These nouns can refer to people, places, or things. Let’s take a look at how it can be used. |
| First, ne can be used when replacing a noun introduced by di (or any combination, like del, della, and so on). In this case, it has a partitive meaning. It can be translated as “any,” “some,” “of it,” “of them.” For example: |
| -Hai bisogno di soldi? -Sì, ne ho bisogno. |
| -“Do you need some money?” -“Yes, I need some.” |
| -Abbiamo del burro? -No, non ne abbiamo. |
| -“Do we have any butter?” -“No, we don’t have any (of it).” |
| Ne can also replace nouns introduced by a number or an expression of quantity. Let’s see some examples: |
| -Quante borse hai? -Ne ho solo tre. |
| -“How many purses do you have?” -“I have only three (of them)” |
| -Vuoi dello zucchero nel caffè? -Sì, ne vorrei due cucchiaini. |
| -“Would you like some sugar in your coffee?” -“Yes, I’d like two spoons (of it).” |
| We also use ne to replace noun phrases introduced by the preposition di, with specific verbs. Here are some examples: |
| Parlare di, meaning “to talk about.” Let’s see a sample sentence. You can say: |
| Domani parleremo del problema, meaning “Tomorrow we’ll talk about the problem.” |
| If it’s clear what you’re going to talk about, you can use ne and say Domani ne parleremo. This means “We’ll talk about it tomorrow.” |
| In this case, ne replaces the phrase del problema. |
| Another similar case is accorgersi di, meaning “to notice.” You can either say: |
| Non mi sono accorto di questo errore. |
| “I didn’t notice this mistake.” |
| Or, if it’s clear what you’re talking about, you can say: |
| Non me ne sono accorto. |
| “I didn’t notice it.” |
| Now let’s see where to put this little word in a sentence. |
| Usually, we position ne before the conjugated verb. For example... |
| Ne vuoi ancora? |
| “Would you like more (of it)?” |
| In negative statements, it’s always between the negation non and the verb. |
| -Vuoi un altro bicchiere di spumante? -No, non ne voglio. |
| -“Do you want another glass of sparkling wine?” -“No, I don’t want (any).” |
| In addition, we can attach it to an infinitive or a gerund. |
| Non voglio più berne, grazie. |
| “I don’t want to drink anymore, thank you.” |
| Here we’ve put together the infinitive Bere and ne, making berne. |
| Here’s an example with the gerund: |
| Avendone bevuto troppo, ora non si sente bene. |
| “Having drunk too much (of that), now he doesn’t feel well.” |
Outro |
| There are several rules, so at first try memorizing and actually using a few expressions with ne. You’ll eventually get the hang of it. |
| Start with these three: |
| Che ne pensi? “What do you think about it?” |
| Non ce n'è più. “There’s no more of it.” |
| Ne vuoi? “Do you want some?” |
| They’re pretty simple, right? |
| If you have any more questions, please leave a comment below! |
| A presto! “See you soon!” |
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