Breakdown of Abbiamo riscritto il verbale della riunione.
avere
to have
di
of, from
la riunione
meeting
il verbale
the minutes
riscrivere
to rewrite
Questions & Answers about Abbiamo riscritto il verbale della riunione.
How does the prefix ri- affect irregular past participles like scritto?
When you add the iterative prefix ri- (meaning "again") to a verb, the new verb follows the exact same conjugation rules as the original base verb. Since the past participle of scrivere is the irregular scritto, riscrivere (to rewrite) simply becomes riscritto.
Why does verbale mean "minutes" here? Isn't it an adjective meaning "verbal"?
Verbale is a bit of a false friend! While it can be an adjective for "verbal", as a masculine noun (il verbale) it means "the minutes" of a meeting, an "official report", or even a "police fine". It refers to an official written record of what was said or done.
Does the word riunione also use the ri- prefix we are studying?
Yes, historically it comes from the verb riunire (ri- + unire, to reunite or bring together). However, its iterative meaning has faded over time, and riunione has become the standard, everyday noun for any "meeting" or "gathering", regardless of whether people are coming together "again" or for the very first time.
Just as a refresher, why do we use della instead of just di before riunione?
Italian generally requires definite articles before specific nouns. Because we are talking about the minutes of the specific meeting, we must combine the preposition di (of) with the feminine singular definite article la (the) to form the articulated preposition della.
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