Breakdown of L'ammiratore timido scrive molte lettere e gliele manda.
e
and
la lettera
the letter
molto
a lot of / much
scrivere
to write
Questions & Answers about L'ammiratore timido scrive molte lettere e gliele manda.
How do we get the combined pronoun gliele in this sentence?
It combines the indirect object "to her" with the direct object "them". "Them" refers to molte lettere (feminine plural), so we use the pronoun le. "To her" is normally le, but whenever we combine gli (to him) or le (to her) with another pronoun, the first part transforms into glie-. Therefore, le + le becomes the single fused word gliele.
Because it uses glie-, could gliele manda also mean "sends them to him"?
Yes, exactly! In combined pronouns, the prefix glie- is a catch-all. It is used for "to him", "to her", and even "to them". Out of context, gliele manda could mean "sends them to him", "sends them to her", or "sends them to them". We only know it means "to her" here because of the English translation.
Why is the pronoun gliele placed before the verb manda?
Why is it molte lettere instead of molto lettere? Doesn't molto stay the same?