Question 1

Why does this sentence use ci si instead of the normal impersonal si for "one"?

Accepted Answer

The verb being used is the reflexive comportarsi (to behave). Normally, to make a verb impersonal, you add si, which would create the awkward double pronoun si si è comportati. To avoid this repetition, Italian changes the first pronoun to ci, resulting in ci si.

Question 2

If "one" is a singular concept, why does the past participle comportati end in the plural -i?

Accepted Answer

This is a strict rule for the impersonal form in compound tenses. Whenever a verb takes essere as its auxiliary (which all reflexive verbs with ci si do), the past participle must take the masculine plural ending -i. If it were a known all-female group being talked about, it would be -e.

Question 3

Since the past participle comportati is plural, shouldn't the auxiliary verb be the plural sono instead of the singular è?

Accepted Answer

No, the conjugated auxiliary verb must remain in the third-person singular (here, è) because the impersonal subject itself functions grammatically as singular. The mismatched plural participle is simply a unique quirk of how impersonal structures work with essere in Italian.

Question 4

How does the phrase per rispetto dei monaci translate to "out of respect for the monks"?

Accepted Answer

In Italian, doing something "out of" an emotion or motivation is typically expressed with the preposition per followed directly by the noun without an article, creating the set phrase per rispetto. The English "for the monks" acts as a specification of who receives the respect, so Italian uses di combined with the definite article i to form the articulated preposition dei.

Nel monastero ci si è comportati bene per rispetto dei monaci.

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