Have you ever noticed that Italians use a little pronoun even after they have already mentioned the noun in a sentence? Have you ever thought it was either bad grammar or just a regional habit? Or maybe you never even noticed an "extra" object was there (easy to do if you aren't following along with the transcript).

I certainly thought these seemingly extra pronouns were a kind of clutter, little words people would just add through habit. 🔎 But then I took a closer look. I discovered that they are not clutter at all. They are connectors.

In conversation, Italians often put the object first and refer back to it with a pronoun. These little pronouns aren't thrown into a sentence at random. They appear because the speaker has changed the usual order of the sentence.

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Let's look at an example from the popular series La compagnia del cigno, where Maestro Marioni is being hard on a new violinist in his conservatory orchestra. Note the position of the object (le note) in this straightforward word order. The object comes after the verb — standard. 

Dovresti sapere le note a memoria, no (you should know the notes by heart, right)?

 

But Maestro Marioni puts the object first, a very common practice:

Le note le dovresti sapere a memoria, no (you should know the notes by heart, right)?

When the object (in this case le note — the notes) gets moved away from its usual position after the verb, an object pronoun referring to the object is used to keep the connection clear. It's kind of like an echo. It's a reminder of the object that's already part of the sentence.

(In the video, you may hear Maestro Marioni hesitate: "Le, le note..." This first le is just a false start, something we often do in spontaneous speech.)

Sei rigido. E poi non guardare lo spartito, no? Le, le note le dovresti sapere a memoria, no?

You're stiff. And then, don't look at the score, OK? The, the notes, you should know them by heart, no?

Captions 50-52, La compagnia del cigno S1 EP4 La scelta di Barbara - Part 3

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➡️ Here's what we're talking about:

• What is it? An object pronoun.

• What is happening? The object and the verb are separated because the speaker has changed the usual word order.

• Why is the pronoun there? It helps maintain the connection and keeps the listener oriented.

• How can we think of it? Like an echo.

In the following example, a fisherman is talking about his world, the sea. He doesn't use the usual word order, subject - verb - object. He starts with the object, il mare (the sea). Since the object is no longer in its usual place, the speaker quite naturally echoes that object with a pronoun that represents it. We could say it's a way of orienting the listener. 

Eh, il mare tu lo scegli come unica fidanzata, poi te la sposi e ci resti tutta la vita.

Uh, you choose the sea like a sole girlfriend, then you marry her and you stay your whole life.

Captions 65-66, Dottor Pitrè e le sue storie - Part 2

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He could have said,

Tu scegli il mare come unica fidanzata... (you choose the sea like a sole girlfriend...)

But he chose to begin with the word that came to mind first: il mare (the sea).

This is normal practice in Italian. And now that you know it's normal, you will start hearing and seeing it more and more often. 

This next example is a slightly more complex sentence. Author Valeria Parrella could have said, using the usual word order:

... non puoi fare una fotografia (...you can't take a photograph). 

She switched the word order around quite a bit. In the second half of the sentence, she did put the subject first (tu), but she followed it with the object (una fotografia), not the verb. So the pronoun la is a kind of grammatical signpost that helps you navigate a sentence whose word order has taken a different route.

Se non ci metti la luce tu una fotografia non la puoi proprio fare.

If you don't add light to it, you really can't take a photograph.

Captions 20-21, Romanzo Italiano Campania - Part 6

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In this next example, we see 2 instances of the "echo" pronoun. Note that in the second instance, the echo pronoun comes before the actual object!

E il peperoncino come lo usi te [tu]? -Quasi dappertutto lo uso il peperoncino.

And how do you use hot peppers? -I use hot peppers just about everywhere.

Caption 32, In cucina con Antonino Episodio 3 - La mamma

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What have we learned in this lesson? In a nutshell:

Italian word order can be much more flexible than what we are used to in English, but it is not a free-for-all. You can put words in a different order, but at the same time, you use little grammatical signals to guide the listener through the sentence. In this case, that signal is an object pronoun.

Thanks for reading this lesson. We hope you have learned something, or maybe just understood something in a new way. Write to us at [email protected]. We love to hear from you... and a human will reply!

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The verb stufare means "to stew," so it's a cooking verb. You cook something for a long time. In English we use "to stew" figuratively — "to fret" — but Italians use it a bit differently, to mean "to get fed up." What inspired this lesson was the first line in this week's segment of L'Oriana. 

Sono stufa di intervistare attori e registi, non ne posso più.

I'm tired of interviewing actors and directors, I can't take it anymore.

Caption 1, L'Oriana film - Part 3

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Ma se fosse stato... -Se, se, Manara, sono stufo delle sue giustificazioni!

But if that had happened... -If, if, Manara. I'm sick of your justifications!

Caption 7, Il Commissario Manara S2EP1 - Matrimonio con delitto - Part 15

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Fabrizio, basta. Basta. Sono stufa delle tue promesse.

Fabrizio, that's enough. Enough. I'm sick of your promises.

Captions 67-68, Il Commissario Manara S2EP9 - L'amica ritrovata - Part 5

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You will often see the expression Basta! (enough) close by stufo, as in the previous example— they go hand in hand. The adjective stufo is used when you have already had it, you are fed up, you are already tired of something. 

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Stufo is an adjective that comes up a lot in arguments. Can you think of some verbs to use with it? 

Sono stufa di lavare i piatti tutte le sere (I'm sick of doing the dishes every night).
Sono stufo di...[pick a verb].

Sono stufo di camminare. Prendiamo un taxi (I'm tired of walking. Let's take a taxi).

Sono stufo di discutere con te. Parliamo di altro (I'm tired of arguing with you. Let's talk about something else).

Sei stufo, o vuoi fare un altro giro (are you tired of this, or do you want to do another round)?

 

The verb stufare

Sì. -Ma io mi sono stufato.

Yes. -But I've had enough.

Caption 18, Sposami EP 2 - Part 21

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As you can see, it's common for the verb form, used reflexively, to stand alone, but we can also use it as we did the adjective form, with a verb. 

Mi sono stufata di camminare (I'm tired of walking).

Let's keep in mind that we have to pay attention to who is speaking. The ending of the participle will change according to gender and number.

Two girls are hiking but are offered a ride:

Menomale. Ci eravamo stufate di camminare (Good thing, We had gotten tired of walking).

But stufarsi can also be used in the present tense. For example, a guy with bad knees loves to run but can't, so he has to walk. He might say:

Meglio camminare, ma mi stufo subito (It's better to walk but I get bored right away). Preferisco correre (I like running better).

And finally, we can use the verb non-reflexively when someone is making someone else tire of something or someone. 

A me m'hai stufato con sta storia, hai capito? Eh.

You've tired me out/bored me with this story, you understand? Huh.

Caption 35, Un medico in famiglia Stagione 1 EP2 - Il mistero di Cetinka - Part 12

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Let's also remember that la stufa is a heater. In earlier times and even now in some places, it was also the stove or oven, used both for heating and cooking food and for heating the living space. The double meaning is essential to understanding the lame joke someone makes in Medico in Famiglia.

In una casa dove vive l'anziano non servono i riscaldamenti perché l'anziano stufa!

In a house where an elderly person lives there's no need for heating because the elderly person makes others tired of him.

Captions 91-92, Un medico in famiglia Stagione 1 EP2 - Il mistero di Cetinka - Part 6

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Practice: We don't want to promote feeling negative about things, but as you go about your day, you can pretend to be tired of something, and practice saying Sono stufo/a di... or quite simply, Basta, mi sono stufata/a. For "extra credit," try following it up with what you would like to do as an alternative.