Breakdown of Partiamo ora, ma loro finiscono la cena.
ma
but
loro
they
ora
now
partire
to leave
finire
to finish
la cena
the dinner
Questions & Answers about Partiamo ora, ma loro finiscono la cena.
Why does the verb finire become finiscono instead of "finono"?
Partiamo is from partire, which is also an -ire verb. Why doesn't it have the -isc- extra letters?
There are two reasons! First, partire (to leave) is a regular -ire verb, meaning it never uses the -isc- pattern. Second, even for verbs like finire that do use -isc-, we never add those extra letters for the "we" (noi) or "you all" (voi) forms. So even if this sentence said "we finish", it would simply be finiamo.
Why is the pronoun loro (they) used here, but "we" (noi) is left out before partiamo?
In Italian, subject pronouns like "we" (noi) or "they" (loro) are usually dropped because the verb ending already tells you exactly who is doing the action. However, Italians keep the pronoun when they want to show emphasis or contrast. Here, loro is used to emphasize the difference in actions: we are leaving, but they are staying.
Why is there a la in front of cena? In English we just say "finishing dinner".
Italian uses definite articles (like il or la for "the") much more often than English does. When talking about general concepts, categories, or specific meals like breakfast, lunch, or dinner (cena), Italian almost always includes the article.
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