Learn Italian: I materiali, li differenziamo meglio adesso. - The materials, we sort them better now.

I materiali, li differenziamo meglio adesso.

The materials, we sort them better now.

Breakdown of I materiali, li differenziamo meglio adesso.

them (masculine direct object)

il materiale

the material

Questions & Answers about I materiali, li differenziamo meglio adesso.

Why do we need the pronoun li if we just said I materiali?

This is the core of left dislocation. To emphasize what we are talking about, we moved the direct object (I materiali) to the beginning of the sentence. When you do this in Italian, you have to include a matching pronoun right before the verb to link it back. Since materiali is masculine plural, we use li.

Is it grammatically correct to just say Differenziamo meglio i materiali adesso?

Yes, absolutely! That is the standard, neutral word order. Moving I materiali to the front and adding the pronoun li simply shifts the focus of the conversation, making it sound more like, 'As for the materials, we sort them better now.'

Why does differenziare mean 'to sort' instead of 'to differentiate'?

It means both! However, in everyday Italian, differenziare is the specific verb used for sorting trash and recycling (from the phrase raccolta differenziata, meaning 'separated collection').

Why is the word for 'better' here meglio instead of migliori?

Meglio is an adverb meaning 'better' (the comparative of bene, meaning 'well'). It describes how we sort (the verb). If you wanted to describe the materials themselves as 'better' (an adjective), you would use the plural adjective migliori, as in materiali migliori.