Word
Non prestargliela! Perde spesso la calcolatrice.
Meaning
Do not lend it to her! She often loses the calculator.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Non prestargliela! Perde spesso la calcolatrice.
non
not
spesso
often
prestare
to lend
perdere
to lose, to miss
Questions & Answers about Non prestargliela! Perde spesso la calcolatrice.
Why is gliela attached to the end of prestar, and can I put it somewhere else?
Yes! For the negative informal imperative (telling a friend not to do something), you use non + the infinitive verb. When using an infinitive, you can drop the final -e and attach the pronouns to the end, making prestargliela. However, in this specific negative command, you are also allowed to put the pronouns before the verb: Non gliela prestare! Both are perfectly correct and very common.
The translation says "to her", but isn't the pronoun for "to her" normally le?
Yes, on its own, "to her" is le. But when you combine le (to her) or gli (to him) with a direct object pronoun like la (it), they both change to glie- to make pronunciation easier. They then combine into a single word. So, gliela can mean "it to him" or "it to her" depending on the context.
Why do we use -la at the end of prestargliela?
Why is spesso placed after perde?