Italian Pronoun NE

In one of my previous videos we have learned about the pronoun CI. If you need to review it you can click on the link below!

Italian Pronoun CI 

Today we are learning about the Italian pronoun NE.

If you need extra practice on these two pronouns I suggest that you watch my videos and you follow up with this grammar book:

• Amazon affiliation link (Italian version of the book) 
• Amazon affiliation link (English version of the book)

What is NE? NE is a pronoun. Unfortunately there isn’t a single equivalent in English… so we need to learn how to correctly use it in Italian. 

NE can have several meanings, but if there is something that I can say to help you remember this small word is that you can associate it to QUANTITIES and AMOUNTS. 

For example it can mean SOME and it can be used without a noun just like in English.

• Would you like some? — Ne vuoi?
• Would you like some pizza? - No I already have some - Vuoi della pizza? No, Ne ho già

Ne answers the question QUANTO (how much) 

Let’s look at an example:

• Gianna, quante mele ti do?
• Ne voglio 3!

 Let’s analyze this example.

 We are asking Gianna how many apples she wants us to give her: 

• Gianna, quante mele ti do? (Gianna, How many apples to you want me to give you?)
• Gianna answers, Ne voglio 3 (I want 3).

As you can see in this sentence you do not have the word apples… and we are asking for a quantity.

Ne is referring to the apples.

This example is referring to a definite quantity… the number 3 but you can also refer to an indefinite amount.

For example:

• Vuoi del pane? Sì ne prendo un po’

un po’ is not a number you do not know how much so it’s an indefinite amount

Or you could talk about no amount at all:

For example

• Quante biciclette hai? Non ne ho nessuna.
• How many bicycles do you have… I don’t have any… 

Nessuna is not a quantity… because it means NONE …. nothing… you don’t have any bicycles.

Be careful! This is important:

when you want to use TUTTI/A/I/E which means everything… so you are talking about the entire amount or quantity of something you will NOT use NE but you will use the direct pronoun LO, LA, LI, LE

Click here to review Italian Indirect Pronouns.

• Quante caramelle vuoi? Le voglio tutte!

Here you are saying that you want all the candy!

TUTTE means all -you are talking about the entire quantity!

So you will not use NE but you will use LE (le in this case is the pronoun that substitutes caramelle feminine plural)

If you wanted to say that you want one… you can say

• Ne voglio una

If you want to say that you want some you can say:

• Ne voglio un po’

Ok. Breathe… you can do it! I know NE is a mean little word!!!

Are you ready to take the quiz?

You can download the entire PDF of this lesson and keep it with you to study and review!

Click here to download it!

How does the exercise work?

You will see a sentence on the screen you will need to insert the NE and the verb correctly in the sentence.

Please notice that you will also need to conjugate the verb correctly! Stop the video if you need to think about the answer, write it down and then I will read the correct sentence for you!  

Here we go... the answers and the translation in English is in the video!

1. Marco vuoi della coca-cola? sì______ _________ un bicchiere!
2. Piera e Sandra compreranno i palloncini per la festa? Sì _______ ______ una dozzina.
3. Signora Bianchi, vuole altro te’? sì, ______  ______ ancora, grazie!
4. Papà legge tanti libri? Sì, _____ _____ due o tre al mese.
5. Avete una zia che vive in America? No, in realtà _____ _______ due.

How did it go?

Let me know in the comments!

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