Breakdown of La ragazza prende i sandali e se li prova.
la ragazza
girl
e
and
prendere
to take
provare
to try
Questions & Answers about La ragazza prende i sandali e se li prova.
Why does it say se li prova instead of just li prova?
The verb being used here is the reflexive verb provarsi, which means "to try on" (clothing, shoes, etc.). If you just said li prova (using the non-reflexive verb provare), it would simply mean "she tries them" or "she tests them". The reflexive piece adds the necessary "on herself" meaning for trying on clothes.
I know the reflexive pronoun for "herself" is si. Why does it change to se here?
Whenever the reflexive pronoun si is combined with a direct object pronoun (like lo, la, li, or le), its vowel changes from i to e. Because she is trying on i sandali (them / li), the combination of si + li becomes se li.
Why are the pronouns se li separate words placed before the verb?
How would the end of the sentence change if she were trying on a t-shirt (la maglietta) instead of sandals?