Breakdown of Non portarceli! Abbiamo bisogno della graffetta, non degli evidenziatori.
non
not
di
of, from
portare
to bring, to carry
ce li
them (masc.) to us
l'evidenziatore
the highlighter (m)
la graffetta
the paperclip
avere bisogno di
to need
Questions & Answers about Non portarceli! Abbiamo bisogno della graffetta, non degli evidenziatori.
How does the negative imperative work with the pronouns in portarceli?
To form the negative informal imperative (telling 'you' not to do something), Italian uses non + the infinitive verb. Here, the verb is portare. When attaching pronouns to an infinitive, you drop the final -e of the verb, giving us portar-. Then we add the two pronouns ce (to us) and li (them) to the end, forming portarceli.
Could I put the pronouns before the verb instead of attaching them to the end?
Yes! With the negative informal imperative, you have a choice. You can either attach them to the end of the infinitive (Non portarceli!) or place them before the verb (Non ce li portare!). Both are perfectly natural and mean the exact same thing.
Why is the pronoun for 'to us' ce instead of ci?
Why do we say della graffetta and degli evidenziatori instead of just la graffetta and gli evidenziatori?
This happens because of the expression avere bisogno di, which means 'to have need of' or 'to need'. You must keep the preposition di. When di meets the definite articles la and gli, they combine to form the words della and degli.
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