I. Disjunctive personal pronouns

The disjunctive personal pronouns, so called because in many cases they are not used in connection with a verb, are listed below

 

Singular Plural
First Person me     me noi     us
Second Person te     you (familiar) voi     you (familiar)
Third Person lui     him

lei     her

esso    him, it

essa    her, it

Lei     you (polite)

      himself,herself,
itself (reflexive)

loro    them (m. and f.)

essi    them (m.)

esse    them (f.)

Loro    you (polite)

      themselves (reflexive)

The principal use of the disjunctive pronouns is as objects of prepositions. They are also used in place of conjunctive pronouns (direct and indirect objects of verbs) when greater emphasis, clarity, or contrast is desired or when a verb has two or more direct or indirect objects. A few other uses are also illustrated in the below exercises.


VOCABULARY A

alba
dawn
concezione (f.)
conception
creato (noun)
creation
gioia
joy
gioiello
jewel
*Medio Evo
Middle Ages
meraviglia
wonder
mondano
worldly
rimanga
remains, is left (3d. sing. pres. subj., rimanere)
 spuntare
to appear
 *storico
historian
 tredicesimo
thirteenth (cf. App. C)
 tuttora
still, even now
 Vangelo
Gospel

VOCABULARY B

*avere bisogno di
to need
*cercare
to look for, to search for, to seek
*da
by; from
po’ = poco
vieni
come (2d. sing. pres., venire)

VOCABULARY C

*atto
(adj.) apt, fit; able; (noun) act, action
*avvenimento
event
avvocato
lawyer
*badare
to pay attention to, to be careful of, to watch
*disegno
drawing, sketch
far forca
to play hookey
imbrogliare
to mix up, to confuse
*infatti
in fact, as a matter of fact, indeed
ordinatamente
tidily, in an orderly way
piacque
(it) pleased (3d. sing. past abs., piacere)
ritrasse
got, derived (3d. sing. past abs., ritrarre)
*segno
sign
*suono
sound
svogliatezza
indifference, laziness
toccare
to be someone’s job, to be up to someone
tracciare
to trace, to draw
trascuratezza
carelessness,
negligence
*vantarsi
to boast, to brag, to be proud

 VOCABULARY D

*affrettarsi
to hasten, to hurry
*appena
as soon as
convinzione
conviction, persuasion
diciottesimo
eighteenth (cf. App. C)
*esperienza
experience; experiment
incomposto
disorderly
lucidezza
lucidity
magno
great
*negare
to deny, to refuse
*potere (m. noun)
power
rana
frog
rivolgere
to turn
schietto
pure, genuine
*sforzarsi
to strive
sia pur
even if, be it
*talvolta
sometimes, at times
*tradurre
to translate

 

Last revised on January 30, 2017.

II. Irregular verbs

Learn the irregularities of venire (to come).

Present tense: vengo, vieni, viene, veniamo, venite, vengono

Past absolute: venni, venisti, venne, venimmo, veniste, vennero

Future: verrò, etc.

Past participle: venuto

Conjugated like venire are divenire (to become), intervenire (to intervene), svenire (to swoon), convenire (to suit, to be fitting; to meet, to gather; to agree), and avvenire (to happen). The latter is an impersonal verb, used only in the third person singular. The most common form of it is avvenne (it happened).

Reminder: venire is sometimes used as auxiliary in forming the passive voice.


VOCABULARY

*centinaia
hundreds
*conferenza
lecture
d’accordo
agreed upon
*dieci
ten
*durare
to last
insegnamento
teaching, education
soccorrere
to help, to assist
*tardi
late

 

Last revised on January 30, 2017.