Mi ha colpito il tuo gesto gentile.

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Breakdown of Mi ha colpito il tuo gesto gentile.

• mi: me
• tuo: your
• il gesto: the gesture

Questions & Answers about Mi ha colpito il tuo gesto gentile.

Why is mi at the very beginning of the sentence?

In Italian, unstressed clitic pronouns (like mi) normally precede a finite verb. Here mi means ‘me’ (the person who is struck/touched). Since colpire is in the passato prossimo, the pronoun mi goes before the auxiliary ha:
mi + ha + colpito.

Is mi here a direct object pronoun or an indirect object pronoun?

In this sentence mi is a direct object pronoun. The verb colpire (‘to strike, to affect’) is transitive, so the thing struck (in this case you, “me”) is its direct object. Although mi looks like “to me,” it behaves like an accusative (direct) pronoun with colpire.

What tense is ha colpito, and how is it formed?

Ha colpito is the passato prossimo (present perfect) of colpire. It’s built with the auxiliary verb avere (here ha) + the past participle colpito.

Why does colpito end in -o? If the speaker is female, shouldn’t it be colpita?