Learn Italian: Ho messo in ordine i libri e i quaderni. - I put the books and the notebooks in order.

Ho messo in ordine i libri e i quaderni.

I put the books and the notebooks in order.

Breakdown of Ho messo in ordine i libri e i quaderni.

to tidy up, to put in order

Questions & Answers about Ho messo in ordine i libri e i quaderni.

Why is the past tense ho messo? Shouldn't the past participle of an -ere verb end in -uto?

Mettere (to put) is an irregular verb. Instead of following the regular pattern to become "mettuto", its past participle is messo. So, "I put" or "I have put" is ho messo.

Is mettere in ordine a set phrase?

Yes! While it literally translates to "to put in order," Italians frequently use mettere in ordine to simply mean "to tidy up" or "to organize a space."

Since this lesson covers the present progressive, how would I change this sentence to say "I am putting the books in order"?

You would use the present tense of stare (to stay/to be) plus the gerund of mettere. Since mettere ends in -ere, its gerund ends in -endo. So, "I am putting in order" becomes Sto mettendo in ordine.

Why do we repeat the word i in i libri e i quaderni?

In Italian, you generally must repeat the definite article before every noun in a list, even if the nouns share the same gender and number. In English, we can take a shortcut and say "the books and notebooks," but Italian requires i libri e i quaderni.