Learn Italian: Ho comprato molte etichette e ne ho scritte dieci. - I bought many labels and I wrote ten of them.

Ho comprato molte etichette e ne ho scritte dieci.

I bought many labels and I wrote ten of them.

Breakdown of Ho comprato molte etichette e ne ho scritte dieci.

Questions & Answers about Ho comprato molte etichette e ne ho scritte dieci.

Why does the second verb end in -e (scritte) instead of -o (scritto)?

This is because of the pronoun ne. When you use ne to talk about a quantity in the past tense, the past participle has to agree with the noun ne replaces. Since ne stands for etichette (feminine plural), scritto changes to match it and becomes scritte.

Why doesn't comprato also change to comprate to match etichette?

When using the helper verb avere, the past participle usually stays in its default -o form. It only changes to match the object if you put a pronoun like le or ne before the verb. Since the noun phrase molte etichette comes after the verb ho comprato, the ending doesn't change.

What exactly does ne mean here, and could I just leave it out?

In this sentence, ne means 'of them' (of the labels). You cannot leave it out. In English, we can just say 'I wrote ten', but in Italian, if you state a quantity of a noun you just mentioned, you must include ne before the verb.

Why is dieci placed at the very end of the sentence?