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ITALIAN GRAMMAR

1. Ne avevo quattro. I had four (of them).

Ne ho avuti molti. I have had many of them.

Another conjunctive pronoun is ne, of it, of them. It trans-
lates also some or any, whenever these words stand for some
of itj some of them, any of it, or any of them. It is often used
pleonastieally, and is never omitted when a numerical adjec-
tive or similar word stands after the verb without the noun.

When ne is used with a compound tense, the past parti-
ciple agrees with it as if it were a direct object form.

2. Note, from the table above, that:

(a) In the 1st and 2d persons, singular and plural, the same forms
are used for the three different functions, while only the 3d person
offers different forms.

(6) The 3d person, being the normal form of address in Italian,
renders also the English yout as follows:

Addressing one person: la
Addressing more than one

man, ormenandwomen: li
Addressing more than one

woman: le

3. M'ha veduto.
L'ho ttsato.

you

le

loro

loro

to you

si yourself
si yourselves
si yourselves

He has seen me,
I have used it.

Most of the conjunctive personal pronouns may drop the
final vowel and take an apostrophe, before a verb beginning
with a vowel. The elision, however, occurs more frequently
with mi, ti, si, and nearly always with 10, la.

4. Ci rispettiamo.

We respect ourselves,

respect one another.
We respect one another.

We

Ci risp«ttiamo Ftin Paltro.
plural reflexive pronouns are used also as reciprocal
pronouns. The sense is usually clear, but ambiguity can
be avoided by adding to the verb Tun Paltro, one another,
which emphasizes the reciprocal meaning.