Breakdown of Il cruscotto è tutto rotto; lo inizio a smontare.
essere
to be
rotto
broken
iniziare
to start
tutto
everything
lo
him/it (direct object)
a
(linking a verb to a following infinitive)
smontare
to take apart / to dismantle (machinery, furniture)
il cruscotto
the dashboard
Questions & Answers about Il cruscotto è tutto rotto; lo inizio a smontare.
Why is lo placed before inizio instead of attached to smontare?
This is an example of clitic climbing. With aspectual verbs like iniziare a (to start to), you can place the object pronoun before the conjugated verb (lo inizio a smontare) or attach it to the end of the infinitive (inizio a smontarlo). Both are grammatically correct and mean exactly the same thing.
Could I attach the pronoun to the infinitive and say inizio a smontarlo instead?
Yes, absolutely! The placement of the pronoun with aspectual verbs is a matter of style and rhythm. Moving the pronoun to the front is very common in spoken Italian, but attaching it to the infinitive is just as valid and means the exact same thing.
Why do we need the preposition a between inizio and smontare?
When the verb iniziare is followed by an infinitive, it always requires the preposition a. Aspectual verbs link to infinitives in different ways; for instance, cominciare and continuare also take a, but finire requires the preposition di.
In tutto rotto, is tutto acting as an adverb meaning completely?
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