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Lesson Transcript

Intro

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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