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Non dargliela, questa puntina è rotta!

Non dargliela, questa puntina è rotta!
Do not give it to him, this thumbtack is broken!
From Lesson 271:Negative imperative with dual clitics (non darmelo!)·Italian

Questions & Answers about Non dargliela, questa puntina è rotta!

Why is the verb an infinitive (dare) here instead of a normal command form?
Because this is a negative command for the informal pronoun tu. In Italian, you tell someone not to do something by using non followed by the full infinitive of the verb.
Why are the pronouns attached to the end of dargliela, and could they go before the verb?
Yes, they can go before the verb! For the negative tu imperative, you have two choices. You can attach the combined pronouns to the end of the infinitive, dropping the final e to make non dargliela, or you can place them before the verb to make non gliela dare. Both mean exactly the same thing.
How exactly does gliela break down into two pronouns?
It combines the indirect object pronoun gli (to him) and the direct object pronoun la (it). Whenever gli combines with a direct object pronoun like lo, la, li, or le, it changes to glie- and merges with the second pronoun to form a single word.
Why does the sentence use the feminine forms la and rotta?
Both of these words refer back to questa puntina (this thumbtack), which is a feminine singular noun. The pronoun la replaces the noun in the first half of the sentence, and the past participle rotta acts as an adjective describing it in the second half, so both must match its feminine gender.

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