Breakdown of Educare un adolescente è difficile, ma devi lasciarlo crescere.
essere
to be
un
a / an (masculine)
ma
but
difficile
difficult
lasciare
to leave (an object)
dovere
must
lo
him/it (direct object)
l'adolescente
teenager
crescere
to grow
educare
to raise / to educate
Questions & Answers about Educare un adolescente è difficile, ma devi lasciarlo crescere.
In lasciarlo crescere, why is the pronoun lo attached to lasciare and not crescere?
In the permissive construction (lasciare + infinitive), the person being allowed to do something is the direct object of lasciare. Since lasciare is in its infinitive form here after the modal verb devi, the pronoun lo (him) attaches to the end of it, dropping the final 'e' to become lasciarlo.
Could I put the pronoun lo somewhere else in the sentence?
The translation says 'Raising a teenager', but the Italian uses Educare. Why not use Crescere?
You could use crescere to mean 'to raise' (and it is used at the end of this sentence to mean 'to grow'), but educare is often preferred for parenting. It specifically refers to bringing someone up, teaching them manners, and guiding their behavior, which fits the context of raising an adolescent perfectly.
How would this sentence change if it were about raising a female teenager?
You would change two things. First, the indefinite article before adolescente gets an apostrophe, becoming un'adolescente because the noun is feminine and starts with a vowel. Second, the pronoun lo (him) becomes la (her), making the end of the sentence lasciarla crescere.
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