Breakdown of Lascio uscire l'adolescente perché vuole l'indipendenza.
perché
because, why
uscire
to go out
lasciare
to leave (an object)
volere
to want
l'adolescente
the teenager (m/f)
l'indipendenza
the independence (f)
Questions & Answers about Lascio uscire l'adolescente perché vuole l'indipendenza.
Why are the verbs grouped together as lascio uscire l'adolescente instead of matching the English word order?
In Italian permissive constructions (lasciare + infinitive), the conjugated verb and the infinitive usually stick together. The person doing the action (l'adolescente) typically comes after the infinitive, unlike in English where we put the person right between the verbs ("I let the teenager go out").
The translation says "he wants independence", but how do we know l'adolescente is a boy here?
We actually don't know for sure just from this sentence! The word adolescente is used for both males and females. Because it starts with a vowel, both the masculine and feminine definite articles shrink to l'. You would need more context to know if it's a boy or a girl. (However, if you used the indefinite article, you could tell: un adolescente for a boy vs. un'adolescente for a girl).
Why doesn't the sentence say perché lui vuole for "because he wants"?
Italian frequently drops subject pronouns (like lui) because the verb conjugation already makes the subject clear. Here, vuole is the "he/she/it" form of volere. Since l'adolescente was the focus of the first half of the sentence, it is perfectly obvious who is doing the wanting without having to say lui.
Why is there an l' before indipendenza when the English translation just says "independence"?
In Italian, you almost always need a definite article (like il, la, or l') before abstract nouns when talking about them as a broad concept. Because of this rule, a general concept like "independence" becomes l'indipendenza, just like "love" becomes l'amore.
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