Breakdown of Non ho mai mangiato ciliegie così buone.
non
not
buono
good
avere
to have
mangiare
to eat
così
so, like this
mai
ever / never
la ciliegia
the cherry
Questions & Answers about Non ho mai mangiato ciliegie così buone.
Why is the plural of cherry spelled ciliegie with an 'i' instead of ciliege?
The singular noun is ciliegia. The rule for feminine nouns ending in unstressed -cia and -gia depends on the letter that comes right before it. If the letter before is a vowel (like the 'e' in ciliegia), the 'i' is kept in the plural. If it is a consonant (like in pioggia -> piogge), the 'i' is dropped.
Ciliegie is feminine plural, so why is the past participle mangiato instead of mangiate?
In Italian, when a verb uses the auxiliary avere (like ho here), the past participle usually stays in its default -o form. It would only change to match the object if you used a direct object pronoun before the verb, like le ho mangiate (I have eaten them).
The English translation says "such good cherries", but isn't così the word for "so"?
Why is mai placed directly between ho and mangiato?
When using common adverbs of time like mai (never), sempre (always), or ancora (yet) with a compound tense, they are typically sandwiched right between the auxiliary verb (ho) and the past participle (mangiato). Just remember to keep the non before the auxiliary verb to complete the double negative.
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