Learn Italian: L'ombrello è pesante. Non lo prendo. - The umbrella is heavy. I do not take it.

L'ombrello è pesante. Non lo prendo.

The umbrella is heavy. I do not take it.

Breakdown of L'ombrello è pesante. Non lo prendo.

Questions & Answers about L'ombrello è pesante. Non lo prendo.

Why is the word order lo prendo and not prendo lo?

In Italian, direct object pronouns like lo (it/him) usually go immediately before the conjugated verb. So while in English we say "I take it", in Italian you literally say "it I take" (lo prendo).

How do we know to use lo to mean "it" here?

Lo is the masculine singular pronoun for "it". We use it here because it replaces l'ombrello (the umbrella), which is a masculine noun. If the object were a feminine noun, like la borsa (the bag), you would use la instead: non la prendo.

Why does non come before lo?

When you make a sentence negative, the word non always goes before the pronoun and the verb. The pronoun and verb stay attached as a pair, so non goes right at the front: non lo prendo.

Since ombrello is masculine, why doesn't the adjective end in -o (pesanto)?

Pesante belongs to a group of adjectives that end in -e in the singular. These adjectives use the exact same ending for both masculine and feminine nouns. They only change their ending to -i in the plural, so if you had multiple umbrellas it would be gli ombrelli sono pesanti.