Breakdown of Purtroppo, l'udito del nonno si va affievolendo.
di
of, from
il nonno
the grandfather / the grandparents (plural)
purtroppo
unfortunately
andare
to be gradually (doing something)
Questions & Answers about Purtroppo, l'udito del nonno si va affievolendo.
How does va affievolendo differ from sta affievolendo?
Why is the reflexive pronoun si placed before va? Can it go anywhere else?
Yes! With continuous constructions like andare + gerund (or stare + gerund), you have two choices for pronoun placement. You can put it before the conjugated verb (si va affievolendo) or drop the final 'o' of the gerund and attach it directly to the end (va affievolendosi). Both are perfectly correct and mean the exact same thing.
Where does the si come from in the first place?
It comes from the infinitive affievolirsi (to grow weak or to fade). This is the pronominal (reflexive) form of affievolire (to weaken). Because the grandfather's hearing is weakening intrinsically rather than acting upon an outside object, it requires the reflexive pronoun.
Why is 'hearing' translated as l'udito here?