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Io strappo le erbacce e le ammucchio con il rastrello.

Io strappo le erbacce e le ammucchio con il rastrello.
I pull out the weeds and pile them up with the rake.
From Lesson 347:Gradual actions (man mano che)·Italian

Questions & Answers about Io strappo le erbacce e le ammucchio con il rastrello.

Why is the word for weeds erbacce?
Erbacce is formed by taking erba (grass or herb) and adding the pejorative suffix -accia (plural -acce). So, "bad grass" translates perfectly to "weeds". Recognizing these suffixes is very helpful for a B2 learner to understand vocabulary without a dictionary.
Doesn't strappare usually mean to tear or rip?
It does! But in the context of plants and gardening, strappare means to uproot, yank, or pull out forcefully. While you might also see the more formal verb estirpare used for weeding, strappare is very natural in everyday speech.
What does the le in le ammucchio refer to?
It is the feminine plural direct object pronoun referring back to le erbacce. Instead of repeating the noun, Italian uses the pronoun to say "I pile them up".
Is the verb ammucchiare (to pile up) built from another word?
Yes, it comes from the noun mucchio, which means a pile or a heap. Adding the a- prefix and -are ending is a very common way Italian transforms a noun into a verb.

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