Learn Italian: Hai imballato le cose fragili? - Did you pack the fragile things?

In the passato prossimo with the helping verb avere, the past participle (imballato) normally stays in its default -o form. It only changes to match the object if you put certain pronouns before the verb, like direct object pronouns or the partitive pronoun ne.

Since this lesson is about the pronoun ne, how would I answer 'Yes, I packed two of them'?

You would say 'Sì, ne ho imballate due.' Because you used ne to replace 'of the fragile things' (which is feminine plural) and specified a quantity, the past participle must agree with the items you are counting. Therefore, imballato changes to imballate.

Why does the adjective fragili end in -i when le cose is feminine plural?

The word fragile belongs to a group of adjectives that end in -e in the singular for both masculine and feminine nouns. When these adjectives become plural, their ending always changes to -i. So, la cosa fragile (the fragile thing) becomes le cose fragili (the fragile things).

Can I use imballare to talk about packing my suitcase for a holiday?