A direct object is a person or a thing that receives the action directly (without a
preposition in front of it) from the verb. It answers the question whom? Or what?
Marco brings the ball. What does Marco Bring? The ball is direct object.
He sees his friend. Whom does he see? His friend is direct object.
Direct -object pronouns, pronomi di oggetto diretto o pronomi complemento diretto, are used to replace
direct-object nouns.
1. A direct- object pronoun debole (mi, ti, lo, la, ci, vi, li, le ) immediately precedes a conjugated verb,
even if the sentence is a negative .
2. A Direct- object pronoun forte (me, te, lui,lei, noi, voi, loro) is placed after the verb for emphasis
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3. Observe the following examples:
Esempi:
Marta: Chi (Who) mi accompagna in palestra, domani?
Mamma: Ti accompagno io.
Marta: Se tu accompagni me, chi ( who) accompagna Giovanni in piscina?
Mamma: Lo accompagna papa or Io accompagno te e papa accompagna lui (Giovanni).
4. When dovere, potere and volere are followed by the infinitive the direct object pronoun is either
attached to the infinitive, which drops is final -e, or placed before the conjugated verb.
Esempi:
Vuoi mangiare questi pomodori?
Si, voglio mangiarli or Si li voglio mangiare
5. With the expression Ecco the direct object must follow it and should be written as one word with it.
Esempi:
Dov e la mia felpa? Eccola!
Marco, dove sei ? Eccomi!
Hai visto I miei occhiali? Eccoli.
6. Only the direct object pronouns lo and la may elide before verbs that begin with a vowel.
Esempi:
Aspetto mio fratello = l aspetto
Ordino la pizza = lordino
N.B. It is also possible to have: Aspetto mia sorella = laspetto / ordino il pane =
lordino
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I Pronomi Personali Indiretti
Before Keeping Going, remember that:
Indirect object noun is a noun that indirectly (through a preposition) receives the
action of the verb. It answers the question to whom? For whom?
In Italian, the preposition a (or per etc.) is always used before an indirect -object noun.
Abbiamo regalato un libro di cucina allo zio Giovanni.
Ho comprato un regalo per Maria
Indirect- object pronouns replace the indirect -object nouns. They are identical in form to direct -object
pronouns except for the third person form
1) Indirect -object pronouns forma debole (except loro) precede the conjugated verb.
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2) A Indirect- object pronoun forte (es. a me, per me, con me etc. a te, a lui, a lei, a noi, a voi, a loro)
may be placed either before or after the verb.
Marta: A me non piace , perche non amo stare nei luoghi affollati,
3) When dovere, potere and volere are followed by the infinitive the indirect object pronoun is either
attached to the infinitive, which drops is final -e, or placed before the conjugated verb.
Esempi:
Voglio parlare con Claudio domani = Voglio parlargli or Voglio parlare con lui domani
4) With the expression Ecco sometimes you may find an indirect object which must follow it and
should be written as separate word. Thats more common in formal expression, though.
Esempi:
Al supermercato;
5) The following is a list of verbs that take indirect object nouns and pronouns. The preposition these
verbs require is the preposition a (to).
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