Object Pronouns (I pronomi oggetti)
Practice:Object Pronouns
Before getting into the various types of pronouns that exist in Italian, it's helpful to review what the grammatical term means. A pronoun is a part of speech that takes the place of a noun.
Did you take the dog to the vet? No, I haven’t taken him yet.
Him is the pronoun that takes the place of the noun, dog, because its identity has already been stated. In Italian, just like in English, there is a difference between the subject and object pronouns. A subject pronoun is the pronoun that commands or carries out the action, whereas an object pronoun receives the action. In the second sentence above, I is the subject pronoun (carrying out the action), and him is the object pronoun (the person, object, or in this case, animal, receiving the action).
Subject Pronouns
In Italian, you learned the subject pronouns when you learned how to conjugate your first verb:
| io | I |
| tu | you |
| lui/lei | he/she |
| Lei | you (formal) |
| noi | we |
| voi | you all |
| loro | they |
| Loro | you all (formal) |
These pronouns are omitted in many Italian sentences, because the subject of the verb (the person who carries out the action) is identified by the ending of the verb itself. (e.g. mangio = I eat, mangi = you eat, etc.). The subject pronouns are used, however, for emphasis:
| Mio marito mangia la carne, ma io sono vegetariana. |
| My husband eats meat, but I am a vegetarian. |
Object Pronouns
The object pronouns must always be used in Italian. Below is a chart for the Direct Object pronouns (Pronomi di complemento oggetto diretto) and Indirect Object Pronouns (Pronomi di complemento oggetto indiretto). Following, we will discuss how these two classes of pronouns are used and how you distinguish one class of object pronouns from the other.
Forms
| Direct Object Pronouns | Indirect Object Pronouns | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| mi me |
ci us |
mi to me |
ci to us |
| ti you |
vi you |
ti to you |
vi to you |
| lo/la him/her |
li/le them |
gli/le to him/her |
gli/...loro to them |
| La you formal |
Li/Le you pl. formal |
Le to you formal |
Gli to you pl. formal |
Position
The main thing about Italian object pronouns that is confusing for English speakers is their position in the sentence. Whereas in English, the object pronoun goes after the verb (E.g. I called him.), in Italian, it goes before the verb (Lo ho chiamato.) The exception to this placement rule is when there are two attached verbs. (Devo chiamare Marco). In this case, the pronoun is attached to the infinitive of the second verb, after dropping the final –e (Devo chiamarlo).
Direct vs. Indirect Object Pronouns
So, you may be wondering: what is the difference between direct and indirect objects? How do you know which nouns to substitute with a direct object pronoun and which nouns to substitute with an indirect object pronoun. Most commonly, indirect objects occur in a sentence in which there are two objects, e.g. I lent my Italian book to my friend. In a sentence such as this, the person is the indirect object, the entity toward which an action upon an object is directed. In this case the action (lending) is carried out upon a book (direct object), directed toward my friend (indirect object). A good way to identify the indirect object (noun) in an Italian sentence is by the placement of the preposition a right before it: Ho prestato il mio libro d’italiano al mio amico (in this case al represents the contraction between a and il).
Elision
You will often notice that especially with the passato prossimo, elision occurs between some of the direct object pronouns. This means that when the pronouns lo or la occur before a verb beginning with a silent letter and sound (ho, hai, ha, etc.), you may contract it by dropping the vowel and replacing it with an apostrophe. For example:
| pronoun without elision | pronoun with elision |
|---|---|
| Lo ho visto. | L'ho visto. |
| La ho invitata. | L'ho invitata. |
| Ce la abbiamo. | Ce l'abbiamo. |
you can only elide with lo and la, never with the plural direct object pronouns (le, li, etc.).
Direct Object Pronouns in Passato Prossimo
When you use the passato prossimo with the direct object pronouns, you must have agreement between the pronoun and the ending of the past participle. For example:
| question | answer |
|---|---|
| Hai preparato gli spaghetti? (masculine plural noun) |
Si', li ho preparati. (masculine plural pronoun) (masculine plural ending of verb) |
| Chi ha fatto la torta? (feminine singular noun) |
Marianna l' ha fatta. (feminine singular pronoun) (feminine singular ending of verb) |
Double Object Pronouns
When you have the need to use a direct object pronoun and an indirect object pronoun in the same sentence, you may need to use a double object pronoun. This is simply a new combination of the two pronouns, with the indirect object pronoun always coming first. As with most contractions, spelling changes are often involved, for example: mi + lo = me lo; gli + la = gliela; le + li = glieli, etc. Study the chart below, which illustrates the combinations of the indirect object pronouns (left column) and the direct object pronouns (top row).
| lo | la | li | le | ne | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| mi | me lo | me la | me li | me le | me ne |
| ti | te lo | te la | te li | te le | te ne |
| gli | glielo | gliela | glieli | gliele | gliene |
| le/Le | glielo | gliela | glieli | gliele | gliene |
| ci | ce lo | ce la | ce li | ce le | ce ne |
| vi | ve lo | ve la | ve li | ve le | ve ne |
| gli | glielo | gliela | glieli | gliele | gliene |