Breakdown of La dottoressa mi raccomanda di misurare la pressione.
la dottoressa
doctor (female)
mi
to me
di
to (linking a verb to a following infinitive)
misurare
to measure
Questions & Answers about La dottoressa mi raccomanda di misurare la pressione.
How does this sentence demonstrate the indirect speech structure?
In direct speech, the doctor would give a command using the imperative: Misura la pressione! (Check your blood pressure!). To report this as an indirect command, verbs of ordering or advising like raccomandare are followed by the preposition di and the infinitive verb. Here, that creates the structure di misurare.
Why do we use the indirect object pronoun mi here?
The verb raccomandare (to recommend or to advise) takes an indirect object for the person receiving the advice. The mi here means 'to me'. The sentence literally translates as 'The doctor recommends to me to measure the pressure'.
The English translation says 'check my blood pressure', but I don't see the words for 'my' or 'blood'. Why?
In a medical context, la pressione is universally understood as blood pressure. Additionally, Italian routinely uses definite articles like la instead of possessive adjectives like mia for body parts and health conditions when it is obvious who they belong to.