Learn Hardcore Italian: Ieri ho perso la calamita, ma ne ho trovata un’altra sotto il tavolo. - Yesterday I lost the magnet, but I found another one under the table.

Italian speakers normally use passato prossimo to describe completed actions in the recent past or with present relevance. Here, losing and finding the magnet both happened yesterday, so passato prossimo (ho perso, ho trovata) is the expected choice in everyday speech. Using passato remoto (perdetti, trovai) would sound literary or archaic in this context.

Why do we use the auxiliary avere with perdere instead of essere?

Perdere is a transitive verb (it takes a direct object: la calamita). In Italian, transitive verbs require avere in compound tenses. That’s why it’s ho perso and not sono perso.

What does ne mean in ne ho trovata un’altra?

Ne is a clitic pronoun that replaces di + noun or “some/of it.” Here, it refers back to the magnet (la calamita). So ne ho trovata un’altra literally means “I found another one of it,” i.e. “I found another magnet.”

Why is the past participle trovata feminine singular?

When a clitic pronoun (like ne) stands for a noun and precedes avere, the past participle agrees in gender and number with that pronoun. Since ne replaces la calamita (feminine singular), you get ne ho trovata.

Why is the indefinite article written un’altra with an apostrophe?

Un’altra comes from una altra. Before a vowel, una drops its final a and becomes un’. The word altra remains in the feminine form to match calamita, so you get un’altra (“another”).

Why is there no additional preposition before sotto il tavolo?

Sotto is a preposition that directly governs the article + noun (il tavolo). You simply say sotto il tavolo (“under the table”) without adding di or any other preposition.

Could I omit ne and still be correct?

You could say Ieri ho perso la calamita, ma ho trovato un’altra calamita sotto il tavolo, but repeating calamita sounds redundant. Using ne makes the sentence more natural and concise: ne ho trovata un’altra.