Ne prendo un altro.

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Breakdown of Ne prendo un altro.

• prendere: to take
• ne: of them
• un altro: another one

Questions & Answers about Ne prendo un altro.

What does ne stand for in Ne prendo un altro?

Ne is a partitive clitic pronoun that replaces di + noun or expresses “of it/them.” In this sentence it means “of those/items we’re talking about,” so literally “I’m taking another one of them.”

Why do we place ne before the verb prendo and not after?

Clitic pronouns in Italian are normally placed before conjugated verbs in simple tenses. Therefore ne comes right before prendo, giving Ne prendo... rather than Prendo ne....

Why is there an indefinite article un before altro? Could we say Ne prendo altro?

When altro acts as an indefinite pronoun meaning “another one,” it requires an article. So you need un altro (masc. sing.) or un’altra (fem. sing.). Omitting un (as in Ne prendo altro) would be ungrammatical.

What determines the form of altro and how would the sentence change if the implied noun is feminine?

Altro agrees in gender and number with the noun it replaces. Here it’s masculine singular (un altro) because we assume a masculine noun. If you wanted “another (feminine item),” you’d say Ne prendo un’altra.