ELONIO
Log inSign up

Se vuoi proibire tutto a un adolescente ribelle, la situazione peggiora.

Se vuoi proibire tutto a un adolescente ribelle, la situazione peggiora.
If you want to forbid everything to a rebellious teenager, the situation gets worse.
From Lesson 208:Letting someone do something (lasciare + infinito)·Italian

Questions & Answers about Se vuoi proibire tutto a un adolescente ribelle, la situazione peggiora.

How does the grammar of proibire (to forbid) differ from lasciare (to let) when adding another verb?
In this sentence, we see the pattern proibire qualcosa a qualcuno (to forbid something to someone). If you wanted to forbid someone from doing something, proibire requires the preposition di before the next infinitive verb (e.g., proibire a qualcuno di uscire). This contrasts with the permissive construction you are learning, where lasciare connects directly to an infinitive without any preposition (e.g., lasciarlo uscire - to let him go out).
Why use the single verb peggiora instead of translating "gets worse" word-for-word?
While English often uses "to get" or "to become" plus an adjective, Italian strongly prefers specific verbs to express a change of state. Peggiorare is a single verb meaning "to worsen" or "to get worse". A similar useful verb to remember is migliorare (to get better / to improve).
Why is there an a before un adolescente ribelle?
The verb proibire takes an indirect object for the person being restricted. While in English you can say "forbid a teenager everything", Italian always structures this as forbidding something to someone. Therefore, you must use the preposition a (a un adolescente).
Adolescente ends in "-e". Is it masculine or feminine here?
It can be both! Many Italian words for people that end in -e have the same form for both masculine and feminine. Here, we know it is masculine because it uses the masculine indefinite article un (used as a default for a generic teenager). If the sentence were about a specific female teenager, it would use the feminine article with an apostrophe: un'adolescente.

Learn Se vuoi proibire tutto a un adolescente ribelle, la situazione peggiora and more in Italian

All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.

  • ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
  • ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
  • ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free
Start learning Italian →