Te l’ho detto, non c’è problema – I pronomi combinati (B1)
Ti lascio Romeo per il fine settimana!
Combined pronouns
- Corso d'italiano b1.1, Grammatica
Review of direct and indirect pronouns
Direct pronouns - Who? What?
Direct pronouns (accusative) answer the question Who? What? (Chi? Cosa?). They are basically in front of the verb. The direct pronouns that interest us here are the 3rd person singular and plural pronouns: lo, la, li, le.
Let’s look at the sentence Luisa compra un libro, Luisa buys a book, where un libro is replaced by a direct pronoun:
| Luisa | compra | un libro |
| Luisa | buys | a book |
| Luisa | lo | compra |
| Luisa | it | buys |
Indirect pronouns - to whom?
Indirect pronouns (dative) answer the question To whom? (A chi?). They are also basically before the verb. The indirect pronouns are: mi, ti, gli / le, ci, vi, gli.
Let’s look at the sentence Luisa regala un libro a Mario, Luisa gives a book to Mario, where a Mario is replaced by an indirect pronoun:
| Luisa | regala | un libro | a Mario |
| Luisa | gives | a book | to Mario |
| Luisa | gli | regala | un libro |
| Luisa | to him | gives | a book |
PRONOMI COMBINATI
Combined pronouns come into play when direct and indirect pronouns occur together, e.g., in the sentence Luisa regala un libro a Mario, we want to replace both “un libro” and “a Mario” with pronouns. Combined pronouns are also basically located before the verb:
| Luisa | regala | un libro | a Mario |
| Luisa | gives | a book | to Mario |
| Luisa | glielo |
regala | |
| gli + lo | |||
| Luisa | to him it | gives |
The pronouns gli and lo are combined into glielo by simply inserting an “e” between the two pronouns.
Table of combined pronouns
Not all combined pronouns are formed like glielo. Look at the table:
| direct ⇾ indirect ↓ |
lo | la | li | le | |
| mi | ME LO | ME LA | ME LI | ME LE | |
| ti | TE LO | TE LA | TE LI | TE LE | |
| gli, le | GLIELO | GLIELA | GLIELI | GLIELE | |
| ci | CE LO | CE LA | CE LI | CE LE | |
| vi | VE LO | VE LA | VE LI | VE LE | |
| gli | GLIELO | GLIELA | GLIELI | GLIELE |
Rules about the combined pronouns
Here are the main rules you should definitely remember to form the combined pronouns:
- The order: first the indirect, then the direct pronouns: me lo and not
lo me. - The two pronouns are written separately (me lo), except for the 3rd person, which is written together (glielo).
- The i of the first pronoun becomes an e: mi > me, ti > te, ci > ce, vi > ve.
- Gli in its turn adds the e: glie.
- With the third person there is no difference between singular/plural or masculine/feminine, it is always glie-.
Examples:
| Mi mandi le foto della festa? – Certo, te le mando subito. | Will you send me the photos of the party? – Sure, I’ll send them to you right away. |
| Ti ho prestato la mia bici due mesi fa. Quando me la restituisci? | I lent you my bike two months ago. When are you going to give it back to me? |
| Ho comprato dei fiori per mia moglie. Glieli do stasera. | I bought flowers for my wife. I’ll give them to her tonight. |
| Non ho il numero di tuo fratello. Me lo dai, per favore? | I don’t have your brother’s number. Will you give it to me, please? |
| Hai detto a Marina della riunione? No, glielo* dico più tardi. | Did you tell Marina about the meeting? No, I’ll tell her later. |
| I miei figli hanno dimenticato le chiavi, gliele porto. | My kids forgot the keys, I’ll bring them to them. |
| Regali a Mario un maglione? – No, gliel’ho** già regalato l’anno scorso. | Will you give Mario a sweater? – No, I already gave it to him last year…. |
*In this case, the pronoun refers to something generic (I’ll say “it”), which is why we use lo.
**Lo and la, also when combined (glielo, te lo, etc.) are apostrophized with the passato prossimo. See our lesson for a review.
Combined pronouns with NE
Besides lo, la, li, le, you can also combine pronouns with ne. We always need ne when we are talking about a quantity (uno, due, un chilo, tanti, pochi, alcuni,…).
| ne | ||
| mi | ME NE | |
| ti | TE NE | |
| gli, le | GLIENE | |
| ci | CE NE | |
| vi | VE NE | |
| gli | GLIENE |
Examples:
| Ho prestato dei libri a Mario. Gliene ho prestati due. | I lent books to Mario. I lent him two. |
| Ho fatto molti biscotti, te ne posso dare alcuni. | I have baked many cookies, I can give you some. |
| Quante caramelle hai dato a Maria? – Gliene ho date solo tre, non preoccuparti! | How many candies did you give Maria? – I only gave her three, don’t worry! |
| Signora, quanti pomodori vuole? – Me ne dia mezzo chilo, per favore. | Lady, how many tomatoes would you like? – Give me half a kilo, please. |
Esercizi
Leggi il fumetto con il gatto Romeo
More about pronouns
Passato prossimo con LO, LA, LI, LE e NE
With these pronouns, the ending of the passato prossimo is aligned.
List of verbs with direct and indirect pronouns
List of verbs with direct and indirect object
Master the pronouns!
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