Combined pronouns (me lo, te la)

Combining "it" and "to me"

When you say something like "you give it to me" or "I lend them to you", you use two pronouns together: an indirect object (to me, to you) and a direct object (it, them). In Italian, these merge into combined pronouns (pronomi combinati).

Two important rules apply:

1. The indirect object (mi, ti, gli, ci, vi) always comes before the direct object (lo, la, li, le).
2. The indirect pronouns mi, ti, ci, and vi change their ending vowel to e, becoming me, te, ce, and ve.

Like single pronouns, they usually go right before the conjugated verb. Let's look at me lo (it to me), replacing a masculine singular noun like il caricatore (the charger) or il trapano (the drill).

If the object being replaced is feminine, use la instead of lo. Here is how ti changes to te when combined with la.

The special case of glielo

When you want to say "it to him", "it to her", or "it to them", the indirect pronouns (gli or le) change to glie- and attach directly to the direct object pronoun, forming a single word.

• gli / le
  • lo = glielo
• gli / le
  • la = gliela
• gli / le
  • li = glieli
• gli / le
  • le = gliele

Plural combinations: ce li and ve le

The exact same vowel-changing rule applies to the plural indirect pronouns ci (to us) and vi (to you all). They become ce and ve.