In paragraph 4.1 we have already met personal pronouns as subjects of a sentence.
When these pronouns are used in other cases, they work in a different way according to which verbal tense is used.
At first sight they will probably appear complicated, but if you follow the page step by step they will turn out to be easier to learn than you might think.
The standard personal pronouns used as direct object are:
singular plural
1st person me me noi us
2nd person te you (singular) voi you (plural)
3rd person lui lei esso essa him her it (masculine) it (feminine) loro them
You will notice how only some of them change. There is a curious coincidence between the Italian and English form for the 1st singular person (me), although be sure to pronounce it "meh", with a "narrow" e sound (i.e. acute e, like "may" omitting the final "y").
But for each of these pronouns, Italian also has a parallel form, somewhat shorter than the previous one, which is used either as an individual word (not bound to the following word) or as a suffix (bound at the end of the word). I will therefore refer to these ones respectively as "short" forms or as suffixes, according to how they behave, while "full" forms will be the ones already mentioned (me, te, lui, etc.):
singular plural
1st person mi (for me) me ci (for noi) us
2nd person ti (for te) you (singular) vi (for voi) you (plural)
3rd person lo (for lui and esso) la (for lei and essa)
him, it her, it li (for loro) le (for loro) them (masculine) them (feminine) Notice how "short" forms (or suffixes) do no longer make a difference between masculine/feminine and neutre genders. As said in earlier paragraphs, Italian language is affected by this difference very little.
USE OF PERSONAL PRONOUNS AS DIRECT OBJECT At first, we shall focus the use of pronouns as direct objects.
INFINITIVE
As a general rule, infinitive tense uses the suffix pattern, dropping the last vowel of the verb: vedere = to see, to watch
vedermi = to see me vederci = to see us
vederti = to see you vedervi = to see you, plural vederlo = to see him
vederla = to see her
vederli = to see them (masculine) vederle = to see them (feminine) This same pattern is used with any other verb:
mangiare = to eat - mangiarlo = to eat it
salutare = to greet - salutarvi = to greet you (plural) notare = to notice - notarli = to notice them (masculine) capire = to understand - capirci = to understand us
It is also possible to use the other form, not as a suffix though, by simply placing the pronoun after the verb. This gives the pronoun a somewhat stronger emphasis:
vedere me = to see me vedere noi = to see us
vedere te = to see you vedere voi = to see you, plural vedere lui = to see him
vedere lei = to see her vedere loro = to see them
These expressions have a sense of "to see specifically me (or you, etc.), not somebody else". To summarize direct object pronouns used with the infinitive tense:
common form emphatic form
infinitive-suffix infinitive + pronoun
INDICATIVE TENSES
All indicative tenses require the pronoun to be used before the verb. mi vedo = I see myself (literally: I see me)
ti vedo = I see you lo vedo = I see him la vedo = I see her
vi vedo = I see you (plural) li vedo = I see them (masculine) le vedo = I see them (feminine)
The same pattern is valid with any person: mi vedi = you see me
ti vedono = they see you lo vediamo = we see him la vede = he/she sees her li vedono = they see them
ci vede = he/she sees us ci vedete = you see us (plural)
As for infinitive discussed above, also indicative tenses may use a full pronoun after the verb, but this will give specific emphasis to the pronoun:
mi vedi = you see me may also be turned into
vedi me (meaning you see me, not somebody else) ci vedete = you see us
may also be turned into vedete noi etc. etc.
In these cases, even more stress may be obtained by specifying the subject's own pronoun: mi vedi = you see me (no emphasis)
vedi me = you see me (strong emphasis on "me") tu vedi me = you see me (everything is emphasized)
It should be noticed that the "short" form of personal pronouns (mi, ti, etc.) is also used for reflexive forms, with a meaning of myself, yourself, etc.
Reflexive forms will be dealt with in paragraph 8.3, so for the time being we shall disregard this aspect, using "short" pronouns only as already explained above (i.e. me, you, him, etc.).
All patterns shown in the examples above (in present tense) may be used with any other indicative tense: ti vedevo = I saw you
lo vedrò = I'll see him la vidi = I saw her
mi hanno visto = they have seen me ti avevano visto = they had seen you etc. etc.
So, to summarize direct object pronouns for any indicative tense:
common form emphatic form
"short" pronoun + verb verb + "full" pronoun
GENDER AND NUMBER OF PAST PARTICIPLE
Discussing compound tenses in previous paragraphs, it had been stated that the Italian past participle (in the above case, visto) is gender- and number-insensitive when the auxiliary verb is avere, while it is gender- and number-sensitive when the auxiliary verb is essere (ar required by many intransitive verbs).
When using personal pronouns as a direct object, though, also participles supported by verb avere require a match with gender and number of the pronoun.
Focus the following examples:
ho visto un treno = I have seen a train
ho visto quattro treni = I have seen four trains ho visto una farfalla = I have seen a butterfly ho visto tre farfalle = I have seen three butterflies ...BUT
lo ho visto = I have seen it (masculine in Italian) li ho visti = I have seen them (masculine) la ho vista = I have seen it (feminine in Italian) le ho viste = I have seen them (feminine)
In the first group of sentences, participle visto is in masculine singular form ("standard" form), gender- and number-insensitive because supported by auxiliary verb avere.
In the second group of sentences, the same participle becomes gender- and number-sensitive, because personal pronouns are used as objects.
Obviously, this rule applies to every other person: hai visto un amico = you have seen a friend lo hai visto = you have seen him
hanno visto una mostra = they have seen an exhibition
la hanno vista = they have seen it (neutre turns feminine in Italian) avevamo visto molte nuvole = we had seen many clouds
le avevamo viste = we had seen them (feminine)
avranno visto la televisione = they might have watched the TV la avranno vista = they might have watched it (feminine) ha visto molti film = he/she has seen many movies li ha visti = he/she has seen them (masculine) avevo visto le indicazioni = I had seen the notices le avevo viste = I had seen them (feminine)
PRONOUNS LO AND LA FOLLOWED BY INFLECTIONS OF VERB AVERE In the same way that definite articles la and lo are shortened (elision) by dropping their last vowel and taking an apostrophe when followed by a vowel (i.e. l'occhio, l'aria, l'edera, l'uovo, etc.), also pronouns spelled in the same way undergo the same elision when they are followed by inflections of verb avere (almost every inflection of this verb starts with a...). Also when verbal inflections start with ha..., the elision occurs because h is mute, considered as a mere graphic sign, simply to tell the verb from other similar words spelled without an h (see again paragraph 4.4 about this topic).
As a general rule:
• the change always occurs when la comes either before a... or ha...: la abbiamo = l'abbiamo
la hai = l'hai la hanno = l'hanno
• the change might occur when lo comes either before a... or ha..., but you may also leave things as they are (as a free choice):
lo avevate is correct, but also l'avevate is OK lo hai, but also l'hai
• no change occurs when any other personal pronoun (li, le, mi, ti, ci, vi) comes either before a... or before ha...
Therefore, some of the sentences given in the previous example (see above) need a slight "retouch": lo hai visto
is correct, but it can also be spelled (and pronounced) l'hai visto
la hanno vista
must be spelled (and pronounced) l'hanno vista
la avranno vista
must be spelled (and pronounced) l'avranno vista
Although it might appear complicated, as a final note to this page I would like to show a comparison between a transitive verb supported by auxiliary verb avere, and an intransitive verb supported by essere. The sample verbs will be vedere (to see, to watch), and tornare (to return, to come back).
As usual, focus the examples before the discussion: (egli / ella) ha visto
he/she has seen
(egli) è tornato he/it has come back
(ella) è tornata she has come back (essi / esse) hanno visto
they have seen (masc. and fem.)
(essi) sono tornati
they have come back (masc.)
(esse) sono tornate
they have come back (fem.) You can easily notice how the past participle visto is gender- and number-insensitive, because supported by verb avere (which is transitive).
Past participle tornato, instead, supported by verb essere, needs to match the gender and number of the sentence's subject.
Now let's see what happens to visto by using a personal pronoun as direct object (obviously we cannot give tornato a direct object, being this verb intransitive).
lo ha visto
he/she has seen him/it
l'ha vista ( = la ha vista after the elision) he/she has seen her
li ha visti
he has seen them (masc.)
le ha viste
he has seen them (fem.) Can you notice the big difference?
Now visto is no longer insensitive, though what it will match is the gender and number of the object (i.e. of the pronoun), not the subject's.
This is a very important concept, which should be focused and understood before going any further, to avoid getting mixed up with the two situations.
Summarizing once again, past participles supported by avere only become gender- and number-sensitive when the object is a personal pronoun: in this case they match the object (i.e. the same personal pronoun). In any other case they use the "standard" form (masculine singular).
The part participle of intransitive verbs requiring essere, instead, always has to match the subject's own gender and number. Since these verbs are intransitive, they will never have personal pronouns as direct object (nor any other direct object at all).