6.10 ‘Locative’ ci and vi ‘(t)here’
6.13 The functions of ne and restrictions on its use
Ne is a pronoun which may stand for prepositional phrases consisting of di + noun. (For the many uses of the preposition di, see 10.1; 11.5; also 10.10 for differences between ne and possessive adjectives.)
Solo io ho la chiave della porta. ‘Only I have the key to the door.’
Solo io ne ho la chiave. ‘Only I have the key to it.’
Sono contento del tuo lavoro. ‘I’m happy with your work.’
Ne sono contento. ‘I’m happy with it.’
Conosco il segreto di Roberto. ‘I know R’s secret.’
Ne conosco il segreto. ‘I know his secret.’
Ti parlerò domani dei miei problemi. ‘I’ll tell you about my problems tomorrow.’
Te ne parlerò domani. ‘I’ll tell you about them tomorrow.’
Ammiro l’intelligenza di Marco. ‘I admire M’s intelligence.’
Ne ammiro l’intelligenza. ‘I admire his intelligence.’
Conosco un sacco di ragazze. ‘I know loads of girls.’
Ne conosco un sacco. ‘I know loads (of them).’
Hanno scritto migliaia di parole. ‘They wrote thousands of words.’
Ne hanno scritte migliaia. ‘They wrote thousands (of them).’
Non m’importa di quello che lui pensa. ‘I don’t care about what he thinks.’
Non me ne importa. ‘I don’t care about it.’
etc.
Ne can be equivalent to English ‘some’ or ‘any’, standing for partitive noun phrases (for these see 4.20):
Ho bevuto del vino. ‘I’ve drunk some wine.’
Ne ho bevuto. ‘I’ve drunk some.’
Ho bevuto vino. ‘I’ve drunk wine.’
Ne ho bevuto. ‘I’ve drunk some.’
Prendi degli spaghetti! ‘Take some spaghetti!’
Prendine! ‘Take some!’
Ho amici a Perugia. ‘I’ve friends in Perugia.’
Ne ho a Perugia. ‘I have some in Perugia.’
Volevo comprare una bicicletta, ma non ne ‘I wanted to buy a bicycle but they
avevano in vendita. didn’t have any for sale.’
Ne corresponds to nouns preceded by a quantifier (e.g., by poco, molto, altro, diversi, vari, alcuno, nessuno, uno, numerals, etc.). The equivalent English con-struction uses ‘of him/her/it/them’, but whereas in English the phrases ‘of them’, ‘of it’, etc., are only optional, in Italian, numerals and other quantifiers cannot stand on their own: they must be accompanied by ne.
Troverai diversi libri. ‘You’ll find several books.’
Ne troverai diversi. ‘You’ll find several (of them).’
Non conosco nessuno spagnolo. ‘I don’t know any Spaniard.’
Non ne conosco nessuno. ‘I don’t know any (of them).’
Ci sono tre problemi. ‘There are three problems.’
Ce ne sono tre. ‘There are three (of them).’
Arrivano poche lettere da Parigi. ‘Few letters get here from Paris.’
Ne arrivano poche da Parigi. ‘Few (of them) get here from Paris.’
Misura settanta centimetri. ‘It measures 70 cm.’
Ne misura settanta. ‘It measures 70.’
Vogliono costruire una capanna anche ‘They want to build a shed behind the
dietro la casa. house too.’
Ne vogliono costruire una anche dietro la ‘They want to build one behind the
casa. house too.’
Devo comprarmi una macchina ancora ‘I must buy an even more spacious car.’
più spaziosa.
Devo comprarmene una ancora più spaziosa. ‘I must buy an even more spacious one.’
Use of ne 107
Note from the last two examples that ne with uno/una often corresponds to English pronominal ‘one’, or ‘a . . . one’.
When quantifier + noun is preceded by a preposition (other than di and some uses of da mentioned below), ne cannot be used:
Ci fermavamo davanti a molti negozi. ‘We stopped in front of many shops.’
Ci fermavamo davanti a molti di essi. ‘We stopped in front of many of them.’
Ti puoi concentrare su alcuni problemi, ma ‘You can concentrate on some problems,
non su tutti. but not all of them.’
Ti puoi concentrare su alcuni, ma non ‘You can concentrate on some, but not
su tutti. all of them.’
We see in 4.20 that partitive noun phrases, as in Ho dei libri vecchi or Ho libri vecchi, can be substituted by ne. But it is also possible for ne to substitute the noun (e.g., libri) but not the adjective (in this case, vecchi). In effect, the adjective then modifies ne, and the result is a pronominal phrase usually equivalent to English
‘I’ve got some old ones’, etc. In such cases, the Italian adjective must then be preceded by di:
L’America ha delle spese enormi. ‘America has enormous expenses.’
L’America ne ha di enormi. ‘America has enormous ones.’
Non avevo mai visto degli animaletti ‘I’d never seen such curious little
così curiosi. animals.’
Non ne avevo mai visti di così curiosi. ‘I’d never seen such curious ones.’
If the adjective is preceded by alcuni, then di may be omitted:
Voglio alcune rose in fiore, altre in boccio. ‘I want some roses in flower, others in bud.’
Ne voglio alcune belle in fiore, altre solo ‘I want some beautiful ones in flower,
in boccio. others just in bud’.
There are restrictions on the use of ne when this pronoun represents all or part of a subject noun phrase. Ne is acceptable when it represents a noun phrase which is the subject of a verb (in any tense) whose auxiliary is (14.20) essere (this includes passive verbs; for reflexives, however, see below),2but many speakers do not find it acceptable with a verb (in any tense) whose auxiliary is avere.
Subject ne with verbs that take auxiliary essere:
Verranno tre avvocati. ‘Three lawyers will come.’
Ne verranno tre. ‘Three [of them] will come.’
Si iscriveranno migliaia di studenti. ‘Thousands of students will enrol.’
Se ne iscriveranno migliaia. ‘Thousands [of them] will enrol.’
Apparvero molte cicogne. ‘Many storks appeared.’
Ne apparvero molte. ‘Many [of them] appeared.’
È stato ucciso il padre di Paolo. ‘P’s father has been killed.’
Ne è stato ucciso il padre. ‘His father has been killed.’
Non-use of subject ne with verbs taking auxiliary avere:
Parleranno tre avvocati. ‘Three lawyers will speak.’
Parleranno tre di loro. ‘Three of them will speak.’
[Not *Ne parleranno tre.]
2It is often stated that use of ne is not acceptable if the subject precedes the verb. But many speakers are able to accept, for example, Molti ne arriveranno ‘Many [of them] will arrive’.
On this issue, see especially Lepschy (1989).
Scriveranno alcuni gruppi di studenti. ‘Some groups of students will write.’
Scriveranno alcuni gruppi (di loro). ‘Some groups (of them) will write.’
Molte cicogne mangiarono i pesci. ‘Many storks ate the fish.’
Molte di esse mangiarono i pesci. ‘Many of them ate the fish.’
Although it is true that all verbs with reflexive clitic pronouns take the auxil-iary essere, it is not the case that with all such verbs ne can refer to the subject of the verb. With ‘true’ reflexives (i.e., those verbs where the subject carries out some action on itself, so that the reflexive clitic is in effect the object of the verb), ne refers to the object, not the subject:
Gianni non si guarda le unghie, se ne ‘G is not looking at his nails, he’s
guarda solo una. looking at just one of them.’
But in ‘lexically reflexive’ verbs (i.e., those where a clitic reflexive pronoun is an inherent part of the verb – see 6.15), ne refers to the subject:
Mentre gli operai sostituivano le tegole ‘While the workmen were replacing the del tetto se ne sono staccate all’improvviso rooftiles some of them suddenly came
alcune. loose.’
Ho riparlato del fatto ai ragazzi, ma non ho ‘I mentioned the matter to the boys avuto l’impressione che se ne vergognassero again, but I didn’t get the impression
molti. that many of them were ashamed of it.’
In general, expressions where a quantifier is the subject of a predicative verb we cannot use ne when referring to the subject. In other words, phrases such as
‘Many/Three/Some of them are/seem important’ might be expressed in Italian as Sono/sembrano importanti molti/tre/alcuni (di loro), but not *Ne sono/sembrano importanti molti/tre/alcuni, etc. However, there is a small class of predicative adjectives with which such use of ne is possible,3 namely noto ‘well-known’, chiaro ‘clear’, certo ‘certain’, sicuro ‘sure’, oscuro ‘obscure’, probabile ‘likely’, prevedibile ‘foreseeable’, gradito ‘pleasing’, evidente ‘evidente’, ovvio ‘obvious’:
Ne sono noti molti. ‘Many of them are well-known.’
Ne erano prevedibili alcuni. ‘Some of them were foreseeable’.
Ne can also stand for da + noun where the subject of the verb is ‘moving away from’ or ‘out of’ something, but not where the subject is stationary:
Si avvicinò al porto e poi se ne allontanò. ‘It approached the harbour and then went away from it.’
A volte le zampe delle mule sprofondano ‘Sometimes the mules’ hooves sink into nell’argilla e non ne escono che a fatica. the clay and have a job getting out of it.’
Ora è qui a covare l’uovo come una colomba ‘Now he’s here sitting on the egg like a paziente. Aspetta di vederne uscire un patient dove. He is expecting to see a colombello nuovo e voglioso di vivere. [Mar.] new little dove, keen for life, come out
of it.’
Arrivò a Berlino il tre, e ne partì qualche ‘He got to B on the 3rd, and left [from
giorno dopo. it] a few days later.’
One could not say *Era a Copenaghen e me ne ha mandato un pacco, since the sub-ject was effectively stationary in Copenhagen; one might say instead Era a Copenaghen da dove mi ha mandato un pacco ‘He was in Copenhagen from where he sent me a parcel.’
Use of ne 109
3For an interesting theoretical account, see Bentley (2002:94-102).
Ne also stands for da + noun in passive constructions (see 14.31), including
‘resultative’ passives expressing the mental state brought about by what the noun refers to:
I tulipani furono distrutti dal vento. ‘The tulips were destroyed by the wind.’
I tulipani ne furono distrutti. ‘The tulips were destroyed by it’.
Quando noto una contraddittorietà così ‘When I see such a glaring discrepancy, I palese, ne resto turbato. am disturbed by it.’
Menocchio, venutone a conoscenza, ne ‘M, having come to learn of it, was so rimase talmente scosso da esporla affected by it as to expound it far and
diffusamente. wide.’
There are, however, some restrictions on the use of ne. If di or da + noun are part of a prepositional phrase (i.e., one introduced by a preposition, such as sull’orlo della sedia ‘on the edge of the chair’) then di/da + noun cannot easily be replaced by ne. Many speakers find unacceptable or awkward expressions such as *Se n’è seduto sull’orlo for ‘He sat on the rim of it’, or *Ne lanciò un sasso contro la finestra ‘He threw a stone at the window of it’, for Lanciò un sasso contro la fine-stra della casa ‘He threw a stone at the window of the house’. Possible alternatives would be S’è seduto sul suo orlo and Lanciò un sasso contro la sua finestra or just (and rather more idiomatically) S’è seduto sull’orlo and Lanciò un sasso contro la finestra.
Ne cannot stand for a noun phrase introduced by a. So we cannot say, for example, *Paolo ne parlò a molti meaning ‘P spoke to many of them’ (rather, one would say, Paolo parlò a molti di loro).