Learn how to recognize an implied subject in Italian
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Intro |
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| Michael: Is it common to omit the subject in Italian sentences? |
| Ofelia: And why? |
| Michael: At ItalianPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Martina Moretti is in a bookstore with her friend, Sasha Lee. She points to a book and says, |
| "Do you see that book?" |
| Martina Moretti: Vedi quel libro? |
| Dialogue |
| Martina Moretti: Vedi quel libro? |
| Sasha Lee: È interessante? |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Martina Moretti: Vedi quel libro? |
| Michael: "Do you see that book?" |
| Sasha Lee: È interessante? |
| Michael: "Is it interesting?" |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: Omitting the subject or the pronoun is possible in so-called "null-subject languages." Null-subject languages are languages where omitting the subject, or the pronoun, doesn't affect the information conveyed by the sentence. You can observe this, for instance, in Romance and Slavic languages. Italian is also a null-subject language. |
| The verbs in Italian change according to person and number; therefore, even if you omit the subject or personal pronoun, you will still be able to understand who is the subject of the conversation. It is actually very common in spoken language, both in casual and formal situations. Let's have a look at some sentences where the subject can be omitted, starting with the main dialogue. |
| [Recall 1] |
| Michael: Do you remember how Martina Moretti says "Do you see that book?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Ofelia as Martina Moretti: Vedi quel libro? |
| Michael: This literally means "see that book?" but translates as "do you see that book?" |
| Michael: Italian verbs change their endings when we conjugate them depending on the tense and mood, and on the subject's person and number. In the case of some compound tenses, you should also watch out for the subject's gender, but, for this lesson, you don't need to worry about it. Let's go back to our sentence |
| Ofelia as Martina Moretti: Vedi quel libro? |
| Michael: The verb in this sentence is |
| Ofelia: [SLOW] vedi, [NORMAL] vedi |
| Michael: It is made of the stem |
| Ofelia: ved- |
| Michael: and the second-person singular ending, typical of the present tense |
| Ofelia: -i |
| Michael: Now, what would be the same sentence with the subject? |
| Ofelia: Tu vedi quel libro? |
| Michael: The basic meaning doesn't change, but since Italian is a null-subject language, if you mention the subject you'll end up emphasizing it. For example, in the case below, |
| Ofelia: Tu vedi quel libro? |
| Michael: the speaker wants to put the attention on the subject "you," in contrast to someone else. In this case, it could be someone that can't see the book. |
| [Recall 2] |
| Michael: Now, let's take a look at the second sentence from the dialogue |
| Do you remember how Sasha Lee says "Is it interesting?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Ofelia as Sasha Lee: È interessante? |
| Michael: This literally means "is interesting?" but translates as "is it interesting?" In this case, we understand what the subject is because of two elements. The first element is the verb |
| Ofelia: È |
| Michael: which is the third-person singular of the verb |
| Ofelia: essere |
| Michael: "to be" and means "is," and the second element is the context of the conversation. In fact, out of context, we wouldn't be easily able to understand who or what the subject is, even if we would still understand that it should be a third-person-singular such as "he," "she," or "it." So, even if grammatically clear, out of context, the subject of a sentence can be ambiguous and in such cases expressing the subject is just natural—for example, |
| Ofelia: È a Roma. |
| Michael: This literally means "is in Rome." It is grammatically correct in Italian, but out of context also for a native speaker it wouldn't be easy to say who is the subject, either a person, a monument, or an event. For example, |
| Ofelia: Sasha è a Roma. |
| Michael: In this sentence, out of context, expressing the subject sounds natural and doesn't emphasize the subject. |
| Michael: Now, let's see a couple of sentences where, unlike English, the subject is omitted and the meaning is not affected. The first example is a typical self-introduction sentence: |
| Ofelia: Sono Sasha Lee e sono di New York. [SLOW] Sono Sasha Lee e sono di New York. |
| Michael: This literally means "am Sasha Lee and am from New York," but translates as "I'm Sasha Lee and I'm from New York." The verb |
| Ofelia: sono |
| Michael: is a conjugated form of the verb "to be," and even if it can literally mean either "am" as in "I am," or "are" as in "they are," here it's clear that it's a first person speaking because of the proper noun "Sasha Lee." |
| What if the subject was expressed instead? |
| Ofelia: Io sono Sasha Lee e io sono di New York. |
| Michael: To a native speaker, this sentence sounds narcissistic and conceited because it expresses and repeats the subject "I," even if it's not necessary. |
| The next example sentence is |
| Ofelia: Arrivano domani. [SLOW] Arrivano domani. |
| Michael: This literally means "arrive tomorrow," but translates as "they arrive tomorrow." The verb |
| Ofelia: arrivano |
| Michael: has the typical third-person plural ending |
| Ofelia: -ano |
| Michael: so the subject is clearly "they." |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: In this lesson, you learned that, in Italian, the subject can usually be dropped without losing the meaning of the sentence for two main reasons: first, because we need to inflect the verbs according to the subject, and second, the context, which helps us clarify the meaning. |
| You also learned that, in some cases, omitting the object is not optional because expressing it would slightly change the meaning, putting emphasis on the subject. |
| Review |
| Michael: Let's review. Respond to the prompts by speaking aloud. Then, repeat after the native speaker focusing on pronunciation. |
| Do you remember how to say "Do you see that book?" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Ofelia as Martina Moretti: Vedi quel libro? |
| Michael: Listen again and repeat. |
| Ofelia as Martina Moretti: Vedi quel libro? |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Ofelia as Martina Moretti: Vedi quel libro? |
| Michael: And do you remember how to say "Is it interesting?" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Ofelia as Sasha Lee: È interessante? |
| Michael: Listen again and repeat. |
| Ofelia as Sasha Lee: È interessante? |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Ofelia as Sasha Lee: È interessante? |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Ofelia: A presto! |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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