Breakdown of Mia madre ci abbraccia nel parco.
la madre
the mother
il parco
the park
in
in / made of (material)
mio
my
ci
us (direct object)
abbracciare
to hug
nel
in the (in + il) / while / upon (doing something)
Questions & Answers about Mia madre ci abbraccia nel parco.
Why is ci placed before the verb instead of after it?
In English, we say "hugs us", putting the object after the verb. But in Italian, short direct object pronouns like ci (us), mi (me), and ti (you) go immediately before the conjugated verb. So the literal word order here is "My mother us hugs."
Why is there no la before mia madre? I thought possessives usually needed an article.
You usually do need the article, like in la mia macchina (my car). However, there is an exception for singular close family members. Words like madre, padre, sorella, or fratello drop the article when paired with a possessive pronoun. So it is just mia madre.
Where does the word nel come from?
Nel is what happens when you combine the preposition in (in) with the masculine singular "the" word, il. Instead of saying in il parco, Italian merges them into the single word nel.
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