Breakdown of Si sono fatti riparare le suole degli stivali dal calzolaio.
lo stivale
the boot
di
of, from
riparare
to repair
da
by (agent of a passive verb)
farsi
to have something done (to oneself)
la suola
the sole
il calzolaio
the cobbler, the shoemaker
Questions & Answers about Si sono fatti riparare le suole degli stivali dal calzolaio.
Why does this sentence use sono instead of hanno with the verb fare?
Why does the past participle end in -i (fatti)? Shouldn't it agree with the feminine plural object le suole?
In the reflexive causative construction, the past participle of fare agrees with the subject of the sentence, not the direct object of the action. Because the implied subject 'they' is treated as masculine plural here, fatto becomes fatti. If the subject were a group of women, it would be si sono fatte riparare.
Why is dal used here to mean 'by the'?
When you use a causative construction like far riparare (to have repaired), the person who actually performs the physical action is introduced by the preposition da (by). Here, da combines with the definite article il to become dal calzolaio.
Why is it degli stivali instead of just di stivali?
In Italian, you generally need the definite article before the noun. To say 'of the boots', you combine the preposition di with the definite article. Because stivali is masculine plural and starts with 's' plus a consonant, it takes the article gli. Di + gli merges to form degli.
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