Question 1

What exactly does altrui mean, and why does it come after ricchezza?

Accepted Answer

altrui is an indefinite possessive adjective that means 'other people's' or 'of others'. Unlike most possessives (such as mio or tuo), altrui is invariable, meaning it never changes its ending for gender or number. It also must strictly follow the noun it modifies, which is why we say la ricchezza altrui instead of putting it before the noun.

Question 2

Why is the pronoun la used before invidio when the object (la ricchezza) is already stated?

Accepted Answer

This is a common spoken Italian structure called right dislocation. The speaker uses the pronoun la as a placeholder to anticipate the actual object (la ricchezza altrui) which gets tagged on at the end of the sentence. It adds emotional emphasis, making it sound roughly like 'I really do not envy it, other people's wealth.'

Question 3

Does altrui ever take a definite article itself, the way we say il mio or la tua?

Accepted Answer

No, altrui never takes its own article. The article la in this sentence belongs entirely to the noun ricchezza. You simply use the normal article for the noun you are talking about and attach altrui to the end.

Question 4

Is it also correct to say la ricchezza degli altri instead of using altrui?

Accepted Answer

Yes, la ricchezza degli altri (the wealth of the others) is grammatically correct and means the exact same thing. However, altrui provides a much more elegant, concise way to express this concept and is highly common in native Italian, both in writing and expressive speech.

Non la invidio, la ricchezza altrui.

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