Breakdown of La signora ha comprato i sandali e le pantofole, e se li è portati a casa.
la casa
house
e
and
la signora
lady, madam, Mrs.
comprare
to buy
a
to / at
portare
to bring, to carry
se lo
it for himself/herself/themselves (se la, se li, se le)
il sandalo
sandal
la pantofola
slipper
Questions & Answers about La signora ha comprato i sandali e le pantofole, e se li è portati a casa.
Why does the sentence use se li instead of just li?
The verb here is actually portarsi, a reflexive form of portare. In Italian, using the reflexive adds the meaning of taking something 'for oneself' or 'with oneself'. When the third-person reflexive pronoun si is combined with the direct object pronoun li (them), the si changes to se, giving us the combined pronoun se li.
Why is the auxiliary verb è used for taking things instead of ha?
Why does the past participle portati end in -i if she bought both masculine and feminine items?
The pronoun li replaces both i sandali (masculine plural) and le pantofole (feminine plural). In Italian, when a group of nouns contains mixed genders, the masculine form takes over as the default. Therefore, the combined pronoun is the masculine plural li, and the past participle portati changes its ending to agree with it.
Why is it a casa instead of alla casa?
Just like in English we say 'going home' or 'at home' rather than 'to the home', Italian uses a fixed expression. You almost always use a casa without a definite article to mean 'home' or 'to home'.
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