Breakdown of Le bottiglie di plastica, le riutilizziamo spesso.
di
of, from
la plastica
the plastic
spesso
often
la bottiglia
the bottle
riutilizzare
to reuse
Questions & Answers about Le bottiglie di plastica, le riutilizziamo spesso.
Why do we say le twice in this sentence?
This is the core of the left dislocation structure. We move the direct object (Le bottiglie di plastica) to the front to establish it as the topic. When we do this, Italian grammar requires us to put a matching pronoun right before the verb to refer back to it. Here, the second le means 'them'.
Why not just say Riutilizziamo spesso le bottiglie di plastica?
You absolutely can! That is the standard, neutral word order. However, moving the object to the front is extremely common in conversational Italian. It shifts the emphasis, showing that the bottles are the established topic of conversation, and the new information is the fact that we reuse them.
Is the comma after plastica necessary?
Yes. In written Italian, when you pull the object to the front of the sentence like this, you generally use a comma to separate it from the main clause. This comma matches the slight pause a native speaker makes in speech.
Why do we use di plastica instead of an adjective for 'plastic'?
In Italian, when you want to state what an object is made of, you almost always use the preposition di (of) followed by the noun for the material. You cannot use 'plastic' as an adjective here, so it literally translates to 'bottles of plastic'.
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