{"id":1593,"date":"2012-02-29T20:07:13","date_gmt":"2012-02-29T20:07:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/?p=1593"},"modified":"2012-02-29T20:07:13","modified_gmt":"2012-02-29T20:07:13","slug":"si-impersonale-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/si-impersonale-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Si Impersonale – Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few days ago I wrote about the impersonal pronoun \u2018si\u2019<\/strong>: Si Impersonale – part 1<\/font><\/a><\/p>\n

Today I\u2019ll continue by looking at some other aspects of the si impersonale.<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. Verbi Riflessivi <\/strong>(Reflexive Verbs)<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s see how the si impersonale<\/strong> is used with reflexive verbs. Take for example the reflexive verb riposarsi<\/strong> (to rest oneself<\/em><\/font>): mi riposo<\/strong> (I rest myself<\/font><\/em>), lui\/lei si riposa<\/strong> (he or she rests himself\/herself<\/font><\/em>), noi ci riposiamo<\/strong> (we rest ourselves<\/font><\/em>) etc. Now, when we use a reflexive verb in the impersonal form, we have to make a small modification in order to avoid repeating \u2018si\u2019<\/strong>, therefore, instead of saying \u2018si si riposa\u2019<\/strong><\/em> <\/strong>(one rests oneself – <\/font><\/em>reflexive pronoun + impersonal pronoun) we change the first \u2018si\u2019<\/strong> to a \u2018\u00e7i\u2019<\/strong> to make ci si<\/em> riposa <\/strong>(one rests oneself<\/font><\/em>), e.g. la domenica ci si riposa <\/strong>(one rests oneself<\/font> <\/em>on Sundays). Follow the same rule for all reflexive verbs, e.g. ci si veste<\/strong> (one dresses oneself<\/font><\/em>), ci si alza<\/strong> (one gets oneself<\/em><\/font> up) etc.<\/p>\n

2. Accordo del participio passato <\/strong>(Agreement with the past participle)<\/p>\n

As I explained in part 1 of this blog, the passato prossimo<\/strong> (present perfect) <\/strong>is always built with the verb essere<\/strong>, even with transitive verbs that would normally have the verb avere<\/strong>. If you need to revise the difference between transitive and intransitive verbs, you\u2019ll find my blog on the topic here: <\/font>Transitive and Intransitive Verbs<\/font><\/a>. However, there are several possibilities for the ending of the participio passato <\/strong>(past participle). Let\u2019s have a look at them: <\/p>\n

a. If the verb is transitive and is not followed by a direct object, the past participle<\/font> ends in o<\/strong><\/font>, e.g. dopo che si \u00e8<\/font> studiato<\/font>, ci si pu\u00f2 rilassare <\/strong>(after one has studied, one can relax).<\/font><\/p>\n

b. When the transitive verb is followed by a direct object, the past participle agrees with the object, i.e. the ending changes from masculine to feminine, and from singular to plural, e.g.:<\/p>\n

dopo che si \u00e8<\/font> messa<\/font> l\u2019acqua<\/font> nella pentola<\/strong> (fem.singular<\/em> – after you\u2019ve put the water in the saucepan);<\/p>\n

dopo che si sono<\/font> messe<\/font> le patate<\/font> nella pentola <\/strong>(fem.plural<\/em> – after you\u2019ve put the potatoes in the saucepan);<\/p>\n

dopo che si \u00e8<\/font> messo<\/font> il riso<\/font> nella pentola<\/strong> (masc.singular.<\/em> – after you\u2019ve put the rice in the saucepan);<\/p>\n

dopo che si sono<\/font> messi<\/font> gli spaghetti<\/font> nella pentola<\/strong> (masc.plural<\/em> – after you\u2019ve put the spaghetti in the saucepan).<\/p>\n

c. In reflexive verbs, the past participle<\/font> is normally masculine plural, e.g. una volta che ci si \u00e8<\/font> riposati<\/font>, si pu\u00f2 continuare il viaggio <\/strong>(once one has rested, one can carry on with the journey). <\/p>\n

d. With intransitive verbs such as andare <\/strong>(to go), which would normally use the verb essere<\/strong> in the passato prossimo, the impersonal form has the past participle<\/font> in the masculine plural, e.g. una volta che si \u00e8 andat<\/font>i <\/font>via, non bisogna ritornare <\/strong>(once you\u2019ve gone away, you don\u2019t need to come back).<\/p>\n

e. With intransitive verbs such as camminare<\/strong> (to walk), which would normally use the verb avere<\/strong> in the passato prossimo<\/font>, the impersonal form has the past participle<\/font> in the masculine singular, e.g. fanno male le gambe dopo che si \u00e8<\/font> camminato<\/font> molto in montagna <\/strong>(your legs hurt after you\u2019ve walked in the mountains for a long time).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

OK, I\u2019d intended to finish off this post by mentioning how the si impersonale<\/strong> is affected by other personal pronouns, together with a couple of curiosities linked to this construction. But the more I think about it, the more complicated it becomes … so there will be a Part 3!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few days ago I wrote about the impersonal pronoun \u2018si\u2019: Si Impersonale – part 1 Today I\u2019ll continue by looking at some other aspects of the si impersonale. 1. Verbi Riflessivi (Reflexive Verbs) Let\u2019s see how the si impersonale is used with reflexive verbs. Take for example the reflexive verb riposarsi (to rest oneself)…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[128761,128760,128759],"class_list":["post-1593","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-grammar","tag-italian-impersonal-form","tag-italian-si-impersonale","tag-si-impersonale"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1593"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1593\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1609,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1593\/revisions\/1609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}