Word
La sindaca non se l'è presa con la ministra.
Meaning
The mayor (f.) didn't take offense at the minister (f.).
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of La sindaca non se l'è presa con la ministra.
essere
to be
non
not
con
with
prendersela
to take offense
Questions & Answers about La sindaca non se l'è presa con la ministra.
I learned before that professions like "mayor" and "minister" just stay masculine even for women. Why do we see la sindaca and la ministra here?
Historically, titles like il sindaco and il ministro were used for both men and women (often as la sindaco or just using the masculine article). However, modern Italian strongly prefers fully feminized forms. Modifying the ending to create la sindaca and la ministra is now standard and highly recommended, though you might still occasionally encounter the older masculine forms in highly traditional contexts.
What exactly is going on with the verb phrase se l'è presa?
This comes from the pronominal verb prendersela, an idiom that means "to take offense" or "to get angry." It's built from prendere (to take) + si (reflexive pronoun) + la (a fixed object pronoun). In the perfect tense (passato prossimo), the si changes to se because it's followed by another pronoun (la). Then, the la drops its vowel before è, giving us se l'è presa.
Does the ending of presa match the feminine subject la sindaca? What if the subject were a man?