Hi! I was wondering what the protocol is about using subject pronouns (io, tu, lui etc.) because I see a lot of sentences where they are omitted and I was curious as to whether there is a general rule about when they are used or not used.

Risposte

Teresa_L

18 mar 2017

Italiano

We rarely use subject pronouns, there isn't a specific rule. They aren't necessary because you can understand the person thanks to the verb

UpstartCrowOfComedy

18 mar 2017

Inglese (Stati Uniti)

@Teresalavorante
I see! That makes sense, because each verb conjugation sounds so different (unlike with French, lol!)

Would you be more likely to use them in formal situations/when you aren't as familiar with someone then? Or is it really just up to the user?

SamSimo

18 mar 2017

Italiano

We don't have a fixed rule about subject pronouns, we sometimes specify them at the beginning of a conversation (even if it`s not necessary). In italian you can easily understand the pronoun we are referring to even if it`s implicit, because the verb changes upon the subject. That`s why most of the time there`s no need to repeat the pronoun at the beginning of each phrase (unlike English)

UpstartCrowOfComedy

18 mar 2017

Inglese (Stati Uniti)

@SamSimo Thank you so much! That's seems simultaneously sweet and simple, and yet confusing, because in English the sentence would make very little sense without the subject pronouns! It's funny though, because in the small amount of time I've been studying Italian, your grammar already makes so much more sense than English grammar (which is a nightmare😂)!

snl

18 mar 2017

Italiano

In some cases you need to use it, for example with the subjunctive, e.g. che io sia, che tu sia (here you need the pronoun, because the verb has the same form, so you need to avoid any ambiguities).

Or, for example, in a sentence like 'io suono il piano e lui suona la chitarra' you can maybe omit the first pronoun (io), but since you are making a comparison you say 'io' to emphasize the contrast. You can't omit the second pronoun(tu), because '...e suona la chitarra' would sound completely unnatural.

In a dialogue like 'dove vai?' 'vado a fare una passeggiata', if you say 'io vado...' it doesn't sound as good, because it's unnecessary.

Utente esperto

SamSimo

18 mar 2017

Italiano

@UpstartCrowOfComedy Seriously? I`ve never considered it from this perspective 😅 I`ve always thought that English is one of the most straightforward languages (I mean, I`ve always felt like in Italian we tend to complicate a lot more the way we formulate sentences and stuff, that`s probably why we cannot cope with the English vocabulary: same word= thousands of meanings depending on the context). If you think about it, your verb tenses are heaven compared to the Italian ones haha (from my point of view at least)

Teresa_L

18 mar 2017

Italiano

@UpstartCrowOfComedy It's just up to the user :)

UpstartCrowOfComedy

18 mar 2017

Inglese (Stati Uniti)

@SamSimo It's true that English does like to be specific! (not to the extent that I hear German is, but still pretty specific!) The verbs are something that I find slightly unusual, because in English we have ten verbs that mean one thing, and in Italian you have one verb that can mean ten things!
But I love how Italian is structured because a.) all your pronunciations are consistent (but in English the words 'though' 'through' and 'tough' sound nothing alike) and the past participles for verbs are consistent, and so are words going from single to plural! (Because in English it's one goose, two geese, but for the life of me I still don't know if it's one moose, two moose, or two mooses! And don't even start me on 'cactus' or 'octopus!')

What makes English verb tenses so nice, if you don't mind me asking? I'm always curious to know how other people view English!