Breakdown of Li posso stampare io per te.
io
I
per
for / in order to / because of
te
you
potere
can, to be able to
li
them (masculine direct object)
stampare
to print
Questions & Answers about Li posso stampare io per te.
Why is Li at the very beginning of the sentence instead of attached to the verb?
Because this sentence uses a modal verb (posso) followed by an infinitive (stampare), you have two choices for where to put the object pronoun. You can place it before the conjugated verb (Li posso stampare) or attach it to the end of the infinitive by dropping its final -e (Posso stamparli). Both options are completely correct and mean the exact same thing!
What kind of objects does Li replace in this sentence?
If posso already means "I can", why is io included?
Normally, Italian drops the subject pronoun. Adding io here creates emphasis. It changes the feeling from a simple "I can print them" to "I'll be the one to print them" or "I can print them myself."
Why is the word io placed after the verbs instead of at the beginning?
When we use a subject pronoun for emphasis, it is very common to place it after the verb. You could grammatically say Io li posso stampare, but putting io after the main action (posso stampare) makes that "I'll do it" emphasis sound much more natural and conversational in Italian.
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