In Italian, a pronominal verb is basically a verb mixed with pronouns.

Pronominal verbs look similar to verbs you already know, making it a little bit easier to take a guess at their meaning.

We’re all familiar with the Italian verb ‘andare,’ meaning ‘to go’.

The pronominal verb that looks similar to andare is andarsene.

You can guess by how it looks that andarsene probably has something to do with going somewhere.

Andarsene means ‘to go away somewhere’.

Pronominal verbs often end in –sene.

The ‘se’ is actually the pronoun ‘si,’ but it changes to ‘se’ because it is preceding another pronoun.

The pronoun it is preceding in this case is ‘ne,’ which is called a pronominal particle. The ‘ne’ often refers to something or somewhere. In the case of andarsene, it relates to somewhere.

Here are some other pronominal verbs that end in –sene:

– pentirsene – to regret something

– fregarsene – to not care (only used colloquially) about something

Besides –sene, pronominal verbs can have other endings too.

They can end in –sela, -sele, -cisi and –ci, just to name a few.

The common thread is that they are all combinations of verbs and pronouns.

Here are a few other pronominal verbs before we get into how to conjugating them.

– volerci – to take (as in time, effort, etc.)

– cavarsela – to manage, to get by

– avercela – be angry or upset by someone

-- entrarci - to have to do with

Where do all the pieces go?

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Not Your Typical Tourist Retreat: Language Immersion in Tuscany

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