Word
L'auto è vecchia, perciò la inizio a riverniciare.
Meaning
The car is old, therefore I am starting to repaint it.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of L'auto è vecchia, perciò la inizio a riverniciare.
essere
to be
vecchio
old
iniziare
to start
la
her/it (direct object)
Questions & Answers about L'auto è vecchia, perciò la inizio a riverniciare.
Why is la placed before inizio instead of at the end of the sentence?
With aspectual verbs like iniziare a (to start to), object pronouns can do something called clitic climbing. This means the pronoun la can either go before the conjugated verb (la inizio a riverniciare) or attach to the end of the infinitive (inizio a riverniciarla). Both are entirely correct and mean the same thing.
Does iniziare always need the preposition a before another verb?
Yes. When iniziare is followed by an infinitive verb, it must be connected with the preposition a. The structure is always iniziare a + [infinitive].
I notice la is used for 'it'. Why not lo since auto ends in an 'o'?
Even though auto ends in 'o', it is actually a feminine noun because it is an abbreviation of the feminine word automobile. Therefore, you must use the feminine singular direct object pronoun la to refer back to it.
Can I use quindi instead of perciò?
Perciò means 'therefore' or 'for this reason'. You could absolutely substitute it with quindi or dunque here; they are interchangeable conjunctions used to introduce a consequence.