Breakdown of Ci siamo commossi prima di ricongiungerci con le nostre famiglie.
essere
to be
la famiglia
the family
nostro
our
con
with
prima di
before (doing something) / before (a noun / point in time)
commuoversi
to get emotional, to be moved
ricongiungersi
to reunite
Questions & Answers about Ci siamo commossi prima di ricongiungerci con le nostre famiglie.
Could we use "tornare a" here to express repetition, as taught in this lesson?
Yes, you could say prima di tornare a congiungerci. The structure tornare a + infinitive is perfect for expressing that an action happens again. However, Italian is full of verbs that already have the ri- prefix (meaning "re-"), such as ricongiungere. Because ricongiungere is the standard, common word for "to reunite," it sounds slightly more natural here than the two-verb phrase, even though both mean exactly the same thing.
How does the verb "commuoversi" form its past participle "commossi"?
Commuoversi (to get emotional or be moved) is built on the root verb muovere (to move). Since the irregular past participle of muovere is mosso, the past participle of commuoversi becomes commosso. Because reflexive verbs always take the auxiliary essere in the passato prossimo, the ending changes to -i to agree with the plural "we" subject (ci siamo commossi).
Why do we use "prima di" + infinitive here instead of "prima che"?
When the subject of both actions is exactly the same (here, "we" got emotional and "we" reunited), Italian requires prima di followed by the infinitive. You only use prima che (which would require a subjunctive verb) when the subjects are different, such as in "We got emotional before they arrived" (prima che arrivassero).
How do we attach the reflexive pronoun "ci" to the infinitive "ricongiungere"?
When attaching a pronoun to an infinitive in Italian, you drop the final -e of the verb. So, ricongiungere + ci becomes ricongiungerci. Because this is a reflexive action done by "us", the pronoun must match the "we" subject of the main clause.
Why does "famiglie" keep the definite article in "le nostre famiglie"? I thought family members dropped the article with possessives.
The rule about dropping the definite article only applies to singular, unmodified family members (like mia madre or nostro fratello). As soon as the family noun is plural, the article is strictly required again. Therefore, it must be le nostre famiglie.
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