Question 1

Why do we say di squisiti and di orrendi instead of just squisiti and orrendi?

Accepted Answer

When you use the partitive ne to mean 'some of them' and describe that subset with an adjective, Italian requires the preposition di before the adjective. With ne, you must say ne ho mangiati di squisiti.

Question 2

Why does the past participle mangiati end in -i? Doesn't the past participle with avere usually end in -o?

Accepted Answer

Normally, yes! However, when the partitive ne acts as a direct object, the past participle must agree in gender and number with the noun ne replaces. Here, ne replaces dolci (masculine plural), so mangiato changes to mangiati.

Question 3

Is the second di before orrendi strictly necessary?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The sentence implies ma ne ho mangiati anche di orrendi. Even though we drop the verb phrase to avoid repetition, we must keep di to show that orrendi is still modifying the unseen ne. It tells us we are still talking about a subset of the desserts.

Question 4

Could I express the second half of the sentence without using ne at all?

Accepted Answer

You could say ho mangiato dolci squisiti, ma anche orrendi, but it loses a bit of nuance. Using ne specifically anchors your statement to the molti dolci mentioned in the first half, emphasizing that out of that specific group you tasted, some were delicious and some were awful.

Ho assaggiato molti dolci; ne ho mangiati di squisiti, ma anche di orrendi.

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