Breakdown of Metti il cuscino nuovo sul divano, per favore.
su
on
mettere
to put
nuovo
new
il divano
the couch
il cuscino
the pillow
per favore
please
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Questions & Answers about Metti il cuscino nuovo sul divano, per favore.
Why is Metti used here, and what does it represent?
Metti is the second-person singular (tu) affirmative imperative of mettere (to put). In Italian, you drop the pronoun tu because the verb ending -i already tells you who you’re addressing. You use metti when casually asking one person to do something.
How would I make this request more formal (polite)?
For formal (Lei) imperative, you use the present-subjunctive form. Here it becomes:
Metta il cuscino nuovo sul divano, per favore.
That -a ending signals you’re speaking to someone you’d normally call Lei.
What is sul, and why is it written like that?
Sul is a contraction of the preposition su (on) + the definite article il (the). Because divano is masculine singular, su + il merges into sul, so sul divano means “on the couch.”
Why do we say il cuscino nuovo instead of un cuscino nuovo or il nuovo cuscino?
You use un (a) if you mean “any new cushion,” but il specifies “the new cushion” (the one you have in mind). As for adjective position, most descriptive adjectives normally follow the noun in Italian: cuscino nuovo. Placing the adjective before (il nuovo cuscino) can sound more poetic or add emphasis but is less common in everyday speech.
Why is there no subject pronoun in this sentence?
Italian often drops subject pronouns because the verb ending itself indicates the person (first, second, third) and number (singular, plural). In Metti, the ending -i clearly shows you’re telling tu to do something, so tu is omitted.
Is the comma before per favore necessary?
No, the comma is optional. It simply marks a slight pause:
• With comma: Metti il cuscino nuovo sul divano, per favore.
• Without comma: Metti il cuscino nuovo sul divano per favore.
Can per favore be moved to the beginning of the sentence?
Yes. You can soften your request by placing per favore at the start:
Per favore, metti il cuscino nuovo sul divano.
Italian word order is flexible for adverbial phrases like per favore, so both positions are fine.
Could I change the word order, for example Metti sul divano il cuscino nuovo?
Yes, you could. Italian allows some flexibility, especially with prepositional phrases. However, the most common, natural order is metti + direct object + location. Placing sul divano before il cuscino nuovo is grammatically correct but might slightly shift the emphasis onto the location.