Breakdown of Prima di sgomberare il salotto, vorrei sistemare i libri e tirarli fuori.
e
and
il libro
book
il salotto
the living room
volere
to want
li
them (masculine direct object)
sistemare
to tidy up
prima di
before (doing something) / before (a noun / point in time)
fuori
outside
tirare
to pull
sgomberare
to clear out
Questions & Answers about Prima di sgomberare il salotto, vorrei sistemare i libri e tirarli fuori.
Why is the pronoun li placed in the middle of tirarli fuori?
This is a strict rule for Italian phrasal verbs. When a pronoun attaches to an infinitive, it replaces the final -e of the verb, forming tirarli (to pull them). Because tirare fuori is a phrasal verb made of a verb plus a locative adverb, the adverb fuori must come after the attached pronoun. You cannot say tirare fuori li or attach the pronoun to the adverb.
Could I use a verb like uscire (to go out) to mean 'take them out'?
No, uscire is intransitive in standard Italian, meaning it cannot take a direct object like li (them). To express the action of physically taking or pulling something out of a space, you must use the phrasal verb tirare fuori.
Why is sgomberare in the infinitive here instead of conjugated to mean 'I clear out'?
Because the person doing the clearing is the same as the person doing the organizing (I). In Italian, when the subjects match across both clauses, you use prima di followed by the infinitive (sgomberare). If the subjects were different, like 'Before he clears out', you would have to use prima che plus a conjugated verb in the subjunctive mood.
What exactly does sistemare mean here compared to sgomberare?
Sgomberare means to completely empty or clear a space of its contents. Sistemare means to organize, tidy, or arrange. The speaker is saying they want to put the books in order and remove them before tackling the big job of completely emptying the living room.
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