Lesson Transcript

Hello everyone, welcome back to ItalianPod101.com.
My name is Desy.
Mi chiamo Desy.
And in this video, we're going to talk about personal pronouns.
I pronomi personali.
Of course, there are the subject pronouns which are the ones that you probably already know.
So the ones used to conjugate the verbs.
For example, io sono, io hai, tu, you, lui, he, lei, she, noi, we, voi, you all and loro or essi, they.
So io sono, tu sei, lui or lei è, noi siamo, voi siete, loro sono, for example.
And those are the subject pronouns.
They're not always explicit, meaning that they're not always said or written.
Because in Italia, depending on the form of the verb, you already know who we're talking about or who is doing the action.
For example, if I say sono stanca, you know that it's me who is tired.
Because if I say sei stanco, then it's you.
But I don't have to say io sono stanca in order for you to understand that I'm talking about me.
As much as I don't have to say tu when I say sei stanco, because sei only refers to tu.
So they don't always have to be said, right?
But when we talk about object pronouns, those need to be specified.
Also because they already are there to specify what we're talking about.
In fact, object pronouns have two groups, direct ones and undirect ones.
So object pronouns both replace an object, right?
The difference is that direct object pronouns answer the question what, who,
while indirect ones answer the question to what, to whom.
Let's dive into examples in order to clarify.
For direct object pronouns, io becomes me.
So for example, chiamami, call me.
In this case, when the pronoun comes after the verb, they become one thing only.
So one word, chiamami, call me.
Chiamacall, me, me in English as well, chiamami.
So io becomes me, because it answers the question, call who me, chiamami.
ti saluta mia mamma, my mother greets you, ti saluta mia mamma
So my mom, subject, mia mamma, saluta, greets, who, you, ti.
Tu becomes ti, ti saluta mia mamma.
è finita la pasta, we ran out of pasta, è finita la pasta, or la pasta è finita.
And then I say, okay, la compro io, la compro io.
So io compro, I buy, what, la pasta, la compro io.
In order not to repeat la pasta, I just say la, la compro io.
Because lei becomes la, lei becomes la, and lui becomes lo.
Be careful because when I say lui and lei, like in this example,
I'm not only talking about person, but also objects.
I nostri amici ci hanno invitato.
I nostri amici, subject, our friends, hanno invitato, invited, who, us, ci.
I nostri amici ci hanno invitato.
So noi becomes ci.
Noi vi abbiamo avvisato.
Noi, we, abbiamo avvisato, told, avvisare is basically to tell.
Noi abbiamo avvisato, voi, so you, but we just say noi vi abbiamo avvisato.
Vi answers the question who, so who did we tell that to, which in Italian doesn't have
the to before, that's why it's still direct.
Noi vi abbiamo avvisato.
So voi becomes we, while loro, depending if I'm referring to a female group or a male
group, if it's a female one, it's le, if it's a male group, it's li.
Li ho incontrati per caso al supermercato.
Io ho incontrato, who, them, li ho incontrati al supermercato.
I met them by chance, per caso, at the supermarket, al supermercato.
For example, the friends we were talking about before.
Li ho incontrati al supermercato.
I met them at the supermarket.
While, if I'm talking about le, hai comprato le mele?
Did you buy apples?
Si, le ho comprate al mercato.
Yes, le ho comprate al mercato.
Si, I bought them at the market.
Le ho comprate al mercato.
Position-wise, pronouns come before the verb, li ho comprati, for example, but not always.
As I showed before, sometimes it becomes all together, so one word with the verb, and that's
when we're using the imperative form.
Chiamami.
You call me, chiama, who, me, chiama, me.
Now it's time to check the indirect pronouns, indirect object pronouns.
They are kind of similar to the direct ones, just some of them change, so let's see them
together.
These ones answer the question, to whom or to what?
Il mio ragazzo mi ha regalato un orologio.
My boyfriend mi ha regalato, gifted, gave a present, to whom, to me, mi ha regalato un
orologio, a watch.
My boyfriend gifted me a watch.
My boyfriend gave me a watch.
Mi ha regalato, to whom, a me, that becomes me.
A me becomes me.
Just like a te, becomes ti.
Vorrei parlarti.
I'd like to talk to you.
Vorrei parlare a te.
Vorrei parlarti.
Lui, a lui, is gli, while lei, so a lei, is le.
Gli ho detto io di fare così.
It's me who told him to do so.
Gli ho detto io.
I told whom, to whom in Italian, a chi, a lui.
Gli ho detto io di fare così, to do so.
Same goes for her.
Le ho detto io di fare così.
È arrivata una strana lettera.
So a weird letter came in.
È arrivata una strana lettera.
To whom?
To us.
Ci è arrivata una strana lettera.
Vorremmo farvi visita domenica.
Vorremmo, we'd like to, pay a visit to you.
Farvi visita domenica, on Sunday.
Fare a voi.
To pay a visit to you all.
Farvi.
So voi becomes vi.
Vorremmo farvi visita domenica.
Loro, so when we say, for example, I bought them.
Ho comprato loro some flowers, dei fiori.
Ho comprato loro is what you should say in written Italian.
But when speaking, you can also say gli ho comprato.
Even though gli is for the singular form, recently,
and by recently I mean in the past decades,
we use gli in spoken language as well.
So those are all the pronouns that you need to know
in order to use subject and object ones,
and not only object but also direct and indirect ones,
which as we saw together are pretty similar.
The only one that actually changes is the third person singular.
So lo or la when it's direct becomes gli or le when it's indirect.
Also my final tip.
In the beginning I said that you don't have to say the subject
when you're talking because you know who is doing the action,
depending on the verb, right?
The only time when you need to do that is when the subject changes.
So don't leave it ambiguous.
Say the subject when it's changing inside the phrase,
or inside the story that you're telling,
because otherwise people may be confused.
So if I say io sono stanco and then I'm talking about you,
don't just say say, but add to,
even though we're supposed to assume that from the verb and the context.
As I know this may be a hard topic,
I advise you to click the link in the description,
download our PDF lessons,
and learn Italian in the fastest, most fun and easiest way possible.
And if you haven't done it yet,
you can sign up for your free lifetime account on ItalianPod101.com.
Thank you for watching.
I'll see you soon.
Bye bye.
Ciao ciao.
Take your very first lesson with us.
You'll start speaking in minutes and master real conversations.
Sign up for your free lifetime account.
Just click the link in the description.

Comments

Hide