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Vocabulary Speed-Dates

i carabinieri, ci hanno superati, abbiamo fermato, chiusa, delusa, perciò, mi sono addormentata, ancora

— i carabinieri – the police {These are the officers that are a part of the army}

— ci hanno superati {from the verb superare – to pass} they passed us

— abbiamo fermato {from the verb fermare – to stop} we stopped

— chiusa {usually chiuso} – closed

— delusa – {usually deluso} disappointed

— perciò – therefore

— mi sono addormentata {from the verb addormentarsi} – to put oneself to sleep

— ancora – still

Key phrases

per paura, per farli passare

— Per paura – because of fear, for fear

— Per farli passare – In order to let them pass

Grammar Bombs

You heard one in this sentence: Poi i carabinieri ci hanno superati e, per paura, abbiamo fermato la macchina per farli passare.

— “Ci hanno superati” – They passed us.

— “Ci” means “us.”

— “Hanno superati” means “they passed.”

The “us” part of the sentence often goes before the verb and that’s a really common way to structure Italian sentences.

In this case, it’s an indirect object pronoun, and these types of sentences answer the question “to what?” or “to whom?”

So in this case if you ask “to whom?” You would answer “to us.”

— mi – me

— ti – you

— gli – him

— le – her

— ci – us

— vi – you all

— gli or loro – they (gli is used far more often, but loro is grammatically correct. With loro, you have to put it after the conjugated verb)

Your task

Create a couple of sentences on your own using indirect object pronouns.

Like – My told me that I am pretty or They told us to go to the store.

The word for pretty is simply “bella” and for store is “negozio.”

Resources mentioned

The Grand Difference Between Indirect and Object Pronouns (& yes you have to know them)

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