Learn Italian: Quanti pomodori compri? Ne compro dodici. - How many tomatoes are you buying? I am buying twelve.

Quanti pomodori compri? Ne compro dodici.

How many tomatoes are you buying? I am buying twelve.

Breakdown of Quanti pomodori compri? Ne compro dodici.

Questions & Answers about Quanti pomodori compri? Ne compro dodici.

What exactly does ne mean in the second sentence?

Ne replaces the phrase "of them" or "of the tomatoes". In English, we usually just say "I am buying twelve," but Italian requires you to refer back to the noun when stating a quantity. So, ne compro dodici literally translates to "I buy twelve of them."

Can I just drop ne and say compro dodici?

No, that would sound broken to an Italian speaker. Whenever you state a quantity (like a number, or words like "many" or "a few") but drop the noun itself, you must use the pronoun ne to fill in for that missing noun.

Why is the word for "how many" written as quanti instead of quanto?

The word quanto changes its ending to match the noun it describes. Because pomodori (tomatoes) is masculine and plural, quanto changes to its masculine plural form, quanti.

Why does ne come before the verb instead of after the number?

Ne is a pronoun, and in Italian, these types of short pronouns almost always go directly before the conjugated verb. That is why it is placed right in front of compro, rather than at the end of the sentence.