Learn Italian: Non la tocco, la proprietà altrui. - I do not touch it, other people's property.

Non la tocco, la proprietà altrui.

I do not touch it, other people's property.

Breakdown of Non la tocco, la proprietà altrui.

non

not

her/it (direct object)

Questions & Answers about Non la tocco, la proprietà altrui.

Why does altrui come after the noun, unlike most possessive adjectives?

Unlike possessives like mio or tuo, the indefinite possessive altrui (meaning "other people's" or "belonging to others") strictly follows the noun it modifies. You will always see it as la proprietà altrui, never l'altrui proprietà.

If we were talking about multiple properties, would altrui change its ending?

No, altrui is completely invariable. It never changes to match gender or number. Whether it is one property (la proprietà altrui) or many (le proprietà altrui), the word altrui stays exactly the same.

Why is there a la in Non la tocco if the object (la proprietà) is already in the sentence?

This is a classic conversational structure called right dislocation. The pronoun la (it) anticipates the actual object (la proprietà altrui) placed at the end of the sentence. It adds emphasis and sounds very natural in spoken Italian, as if saying "I don't touch it, other people's property."

What is the purpose of the comma before la proprietà altrui?

The comma reflects a slight pause in speech. Because the sentence uses a dislocated structure where the object is pushed to the end as a clarification of the pronoun la, the comma separates the core statement from that tacked-on clarification.