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Scrivo una cartolina per te.

Scrivo una cartolina per te.
I write a postcard for you.
From Lesson 37:Pronouns after prepositions (me, te, lui)·Italian

Questions & Answers about Scrivo una cartolina per te.

Why do we use te here instead of tu or ti?
te is a stressed pronoun. In Italian, when a pronoun comes immediately after a preposition like per (for), you must use a special set of pronouns called stressed pronouns. You cannot use the subject pronoun tu or the unstressed pronoun ti after a preposition.
Where is the word for 'I' in this sentence?
The word for 'I' is io, but Italian usually drops it because the verb ending already tells you who is doing the action. The -o at the end of scrivo tells us that 'I' am the one writing.
Could I move per te to the beginning of the sentence?
You could say Per te scrivo una cartolina if you really wanted to emphasize that the postcard is for you and no one else. However, in a normal statement, prepositional phrases like per te go at the end of the sentence.
Why is the article una instead of un?
cartolina (postcard) is a feminine noun, which you can usually guess from its -a ending. Because it is feminine and starts with a normal consonant (c), it uses the feminine word for 'a', which is una.

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