Breakdown of I membri sospettosi agiscono per invidia contro di voi.
voi
you (plural)
per
for / in order to / because of
il membro
the member
agire
to act
contro
against (in opposition to)
di
(linking a preposition to a following personal pronoun)
sospettoso
suspicious
l'invidia
the envy (f)
Questions & Answers about I membri sospettosi agiscono per invidia contro di voi.
Why is it contro di voi instead of just contro voi?
In Italian, certain prepositions like contro (against), senza (without), dopo (after), sopra (above), and sotto (under) require the preposition di when they are directly followed by a personal pronoun (like me, te, lui, noi, voi, loro). Because of this rule, you must say contro di voi. If it were a regular noun instead of a pronoun, you would drop the di, as in contro il muro (against the wall).
Why do we use per in per invidia to mean 'out of envy'?
The preposition per is frequently used in Italian to express the cause, motive, or reason for an action. While English uses 'out of' or 'from' for emotions driving an action, Italian uses per. Other common examples include piangere per la gioia (to cry out of joy) or tremare per il freddo (to shiver from the cold).
Does sospettosi mean the members are suspicious of others, or that they look suspicious?
It means they feel suspicious of others. The adjective sospettoso describes a person who harbors suspicions, is paranoid, or is distrustful. If you want to say that someone or something looks suspicious and arouses suspicion in others, you would use the adjective sospetto, as in un pacco sospetto (a suspicious package).
I see agiscono comes from agire (to act). Why does it have -isc- added to it?
Agire is one of the many regular -ire verbs that take the -isc- insert in all singular forms and the third-person plural of the present tense. Just as capire becomes capiscono, agire becomes agiscono. Remember that the first and second person plural forms never take this insert, so it remains noi agiamo and voi agite.
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