The use of the Italian particle “ne”
If foreign people pay attention when Italians are speaking, they can note that we use the particle “ne” quite often. Many people asked me what “ne” means, and now I’ll try to explain you all meanings of the particle“ne”.
- We use “ne” normally when we speak about a quantity, example:
“Quante sigarette fumi al giorno?” “Ne fumo 4″ (ne means sigarette)
Then we can say that ne answers the question “How much? How many?” - Sometimes ne substitutes words or phrases that are introduced by “di” that means “di questo” or ” di questa persona”, example:
“Maria ti ha parlato di Luca?” “Sì, me ne ha parlato” (ne = di Luca)
“Hai bisogno di riposo,ti vedo stanco!” “E’ vero, ne ho proprio bisogno” (ne di riposo) - Sometimes ne substitutes words or phrases that are introduced by “da” that means “da questo” or ” da questa persona”, example:
“Ho visto quel film e ne sono rimasto colpito” (ne= da quel film)
ATTENTION!
when we use TUTTO, we don’t use NE but the direct pronouns lo, la, li, le; example:
“Quanta pasta vuoi?” “La voglio tutta”
but
“Ne voglio poca” or “ne voglio tanta”
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March 31st, 2008 at 6:40 am
Excellent website. I have been trying to learn Italian because of trip to Italy I will be taking in August.
I have been communicating with relatives in Italy who are able to speak English. They were not able to explain the use of “ne” as simply as this website did.
November 18th, 2008 at 8:24 am
oh my god,very irregular in usage and meaning!!!