WTI Magazine #58    2015 April, 17
Author : Manuela Bianchi for learnitalygroup.com      Translation by:

Today we continue to explore the pronominal forms of the Italian language. Let's focus on personal pronouns: as we will see, they can have function either as a subject or as a complement. In the first case, the subject expressed by the various singular and plural forms – io (I), tu (you), egli/lui (he), ella/lei (she), esso o essa (it), noi (we), voi (you), essi/loro (they) - in Italian is often implied, while we know that in languages like English and French it must be expressed.

The use of these subject pronouns becomes necessary just to avoid ambiguity as in the cases where the same verb form can be used for more than one person: a phrase like "è necessario che arrivi presto" does not specify the subject which should arrive soon, because the subjunctive form "arrivi" is valid either for the first and for the second and for third person singular: "è necessario che io/tu/egli/ella arrivi presto" (I/you/he/she need to arrive soon). Therefore, it is necessary to express the subject.

Similarly, we have to specify the subject pronoun when we have a sequence of sentences with different subjects, such as "io cucino e tu prepari la tavola" (I cook while you prepare the table); or when with emphatic function we want to emphasize the role of the subject, for example to reinforce the message when we could say "IO non ci credo" (I do not believe it).

Regarding the complement personal pronouns, unlike English the Italian language has two sets of forms: atonic and tonic. The first lean to the verb in the pronunciation: when they precede the verb they are called proclitic - eg. "Ti dico che è vero" (I'm telling you it's true); when they follow the verb and are joined to it, they are called enclitic - eg. "guardami" (look at me), "vedendoli" (seeing them), "incontrarla" (meeting her). An Anglophone will definitely notice that the 7 English pronouns (me, you, him, her, it, us, them), can be translated into Italian with the many tonic ("me, te, lui, lei, esso, essa , sé, noi, voi, loro, essi, esse") and atonic forms ("mi, ti, lo, la, gli, le, ne, si, ci, vi, li, le, ne, loro").

But there's more: in Italian the atonic forms can also precede the verb, while in English the complement personal pronoun always follows the preposition or the verb from which depends. An example: "La amo" > "I love her".

Finally, we must know that the atonic forms "mi, ti, ci, si, vi", when used in pairs with "lo, la, li, le" will change the final -i in -e: for example "me lo", "me la", "me li", "me ne", "te lo", "se ne", "ve la" etc. It is true, on this topic out students need a little exercise!

Subjunctive or indicative?
If we were to rank the major mistakes made by the Italians while talking Italian, the first place would definitely be won by the use of indicative where they should use the subjunctive. For example: in a phrase like "a condizione che mi danno il permesso" (as long as they give me permission), the verb "danno" (to give) in indicative form is wrong, because the phrases introduced by "as long as" should always be followed by the subjunctive (the correct phrase would be " a condizione che mi diano il permesso".

The rule is clear: in the explicit propositions introduced by "qualora" (if), "purché" (provided that), "a condizione che" (as long as), "ammesso che" (supposing/admitted that), "a patto che" (on condition that), "nel caso che" (in case that) ... we always use the subjunctive, because the condition is indicated as possible or unreal, while only in the main sentence indicative (or conditional) can be used ... "ammesso che sia d'accordo io, non è d'accordo tuo padre" (supposing that I would agree, your father doesn't) or "ammesso che sia d'accordo io, non sarebbe d'accordo tuo padre" (supposing that I would agree, your father wouldn't).

So, let's remember that subjunctive is the form of the doubt, of the possibility, and those who use it are making hypothesis, for example "credo che sia esatto" (I think it's accurate). Nowadays though, as previously said, above all in the spoken language, it is often but still wrongly replaced by the indicative. This is wrong because the subjunctive allows to distinguish what is possible, imaginable, desirable, from what is real, granted and certain.