L'ACCORDO in italiano: la guida definitiva

0:00 Most Italian students have trouble

0:03 with agreement—also called “concordance”—but wait,

0:07 do most students HAVE problems or… HAVE problems?

0:14 After watching this video, you'll say, “Ah,

0:17 this video was a blessing!”… or “it was a blessing”…?!?

0:23 State or been?

0:24 And, in the end, you'll think: "We always keep learning new things..."...

0:31 or...

0:31 "we keep learning new things?!?

0:35 Continue, continue?

0:36 Agreement (or concordance) is the phenomenon by which

0:40 we have to make the gender (masculine or feminine),

0:44 the number (singular or plural), and the person (first, second,

0:49 or third) of the different elements of the sentence agree.

0:53 It's one of the most difficult aspects for Italian students,

0:56 especially for those who speak

0:58 languages ​​​​that lack certain grammatical categories,

1:02 such as gender (masculine and feminine), which doesn't exist in English.

1:08 So be even more careful if you speak English.

1:12 My name is Davide and this is Podcast Italiano,

1:15 a channel for those learning Italian.

1:16 Turn on the subtitles if you need them;

1:20 and remember that the full transcript with glossary is on my website,

1:25 podcastitaliano.com.

1:25 I've also prepared a PDF associated with the video, which I recommend you print,

1:32 and which you can use after watching the video

1:35 to review everything you've learned and also do some exercises,

1:38 which you'll find for this video.

1:40 They will be really useful.

1:42 I'll leave you the link in the description, but you can also scan this QR code.

1:48 Before moving on to the problematic cases, let's review the basics.

1:53 Agreement is that phenomenon whereby we say:*

1:56 “THE Italian wine” but “THE Italian pizza”;

2:00 or…* “the Italian wine” but “the Italian wines”;

2:03 or again…* “I only drink wine at dinner” but “I never eat pizza for lunch”;

2:10 or…* “the wine is exported” but “the wines are exported”;

2:16 or finally…* “We export our wines,” but “you export your wines”

2:23 and “they export their wines.” I'll leave you a table,

2:27 here on the screen, that summarizes these types of agreements.

2:29 You can pause the video if you want, but you can also find it in the PDF.

2:35 The examples above show which elements

2:37 of the sentence the agreement must be realized between:

2:40 the article and the noun (for example, the wine, the pizzas);

2:44 the noun and the adjective (Italian wine, Italian wines);

2:49 the noun and the pronoun (the wine we drink it,

2:54 we eat pizzas); the subject and the verb,

2:58 which can also be a participle (I export, you export; but also exported wine,

3:06 ordered pizza, etc.); and finally,

3:09 the direct pronoun and the participle (we drank it,

3:14 we ordered it, etc.) I'll leave you all the combinations in this table,

3:18 which you can also find in the PDF.

3:21 These are the basic rules:

3:22 if you have an intermediate level of Italian, you already know them.

3:26 But agreement has some particular cases that can raise doubts.

3:30 These doubtful cases have in common

3:33 the fact that the grammatical category (therefore gender,

3:36 number and person) on the one hand,

3:39 and the meaning on the other, do not coincide.

3:44 Ok?

3:44 We have problematic cases of gender agreement,

3:48 number agreement and (3) both gender and number.

3:52 Let's start with the first type, that is,

3:55 the problematic cases for gender agreement, which are essentially two.

4:00 1.

4:00 The first concerns the residues of words or expressions that in Latin

4:05 were of neuter gender (which does not exist in Italian),

4:10 such as aliqua and omnia.

4:12 Indeed, we must remember that the expressions

4:16 "something" and "everything" require the feminine agreement,

4:20 as the following newspaper and online headlines demonstrate:

4:25 Chivu after Juventus's 91st-minute goal:

4:27 "We need to erase something that happened in the past."

4:33 "Everything was illuminated." Tina Modotti wrestles with art and life.

4:38 The word "something" requires the masculine agreement,

4:41 even though the word "thing" contains the feminine

4:44 noun "thing." We see this, for example,

4:47 in these headlines: Carlo Buccirosso returns to the scene

4:50 with "Something went wrong!" "Something moved in ECOWAS." Remember:

4:56 if "something" or "something" is followed by a partitive, that is,

5:01 an adjective introduced by the preposition

5:03 "di," then the agreement is always masculine,

5:06 as these other headlines demonstrate:" Despite everything," even

5:10 the 2024 data confirms this, but something new is needed.

5:15 Bermuda, imposing rock structure discovered under the ocean.

5:20 "Something never observed before." 2.

5:22 The second problematic case concerns the courtesy Lei,

5:25 the pronoun we use to express kindness and respect.

5:29 Well, the adjectives and participles used in Lei

5:33 will be masculine if Lei refers to a woman.

5:36 For example, “Did you go to Puglia, Mrs.

5:39 Bianchi?” or “You are very good,

5:42 doctor.” But if Lei refers to a man, they will be masculine.

5:46 Look at these dialogues:* “Are you sure you'll do a clean job?

5:50 I want my husband to die,

5:51 but not for him to suffer.”* “Have you ever ended up in jail?”- “Me?

5:55 Never, in 50 years of an honorable career.” And so… “Are you sure you'll do

5:59 a clean job?” “Have you ever ended up

6:03 in jail?”… You have never “finished.” Be careful, because with pronouns,

6:07 both direct and indirect,

6:09 the gender agreement of Lei is feminine: in other words,

6:12 we will use the pronouns la and le,

6:14 and not lo and gli:* “I will make a vowel sign for you.”* “Detective,

6:19 if you take my case, I promise you a large reward.”* “Sir, I am Agent Lloyd,

6:24 sorry for waking you up in the middle

6:26 of the night.” “I will give you a vocal sign.” “Detective, if you take my case,

6:33 I promise you a large reward.” “Sorry for waking

6:37 you up in the middle of the night.” 1.

6:40 The third and final problematic case

6:42 by gender is the agreement of the participle

6:45 with the verb essere and with the verbs

6:48 that we technically call copulatives, that is,

6:50 those verbs that serve to connect the subject to a noun or an adjective,

6:55 which therefore have a function analogous to that of the verb essere,

6:59 such as, for example, divenire, diventare, apparere,

7:03 sembra, Sembra, restare, restare, risultare, svelarsi etc.

7:10 It will be clearer with examples: 2.

7:14 His arrival was/was a surprise.

7:17 3.

7:17 The prize has become/become an obsession.

7:21 4.

7:22 Our delay seemed/seemed to him to be rude.

7:26 5.

7:27 The charity lottery was /was a failure.

7:30 2.

7:31 As you can see, with these verbs,

7:34 gender agreement can occur either with the subject

7:38 or with the noun following the verb.

7:41 This is a case where Italian allows you two options.

7:45 It will probably be more natural for you to use the subject agreement,

7:51 so "his arrival was a surprise," but be aware that you will

7:56 also often hear "his arrival was a surprise," so don't be surprised!

8:00 Let's now move on to problems related to number; that is,

8:04 the cases in which it is the choice

8:06 between singular and plural that can cause us difficulty.

8:09 2.

8:10 The first concerns the agreement of the verb with the so-called

8:14 “collective nouns,” which are those singular nouns that, however,

8:18 indicate a group of people, things, animals, etc., for example: part,

8:26 hundred, thousand, million and all percentages,

8:29 such as 10%, 50%, or constructions such as half, two thirds, etc.

8:36 3.

8:37 Look carefully at the number of the verb in these newspaper headlines:

8:42 Most migrants arriving in Italy in 2024 come from “safe

8:47 countries” 82% of Italians live in homes they own,

8:52 age matters Most citizens are in favor of EU enlargement In Gaza,

8:58 one million children are at risk of their lives due

9:01 to the blockade of humanitarian aid And so we have seen: 2.

9:05 82 percent of Italians LIVE 3.

9:07 most migrants COME FROM 4.

9:10 most citizens ARE 5.

9:12 one million children ARE AT RISK 4.

9:15 In all these examples,

9:16 the verb agrees in number with the singular collective noun.

9:20 This type of agreement is called "grammatical agreement" and is

9:25 the type of agreement that is usually preferred in written language,

9:30 especially formal ones.

9:32 But, sifting through newspaper headlines and news,

9:35 we also come across cases where the plural is used instead:

9:39 Most of the people rescued never received treatment in their country.

9:45 In Bangladesh, at least five people died and a hundred were injured.

9:51 A thousand people marched in Porto San Pancrazio for Palestine.

9:56 Over a million children in Gaza are at risk of mass death.

10:00 And so...

10:00 2.

10:00 Most of the people HAVE NOT received 3.

10:04 a hundred people ARE injured 4.

10:07 a thousand people HAVE marched 5.

10:09 and over a million children ARE AT RISK 5.

10:12 In all these examples, the verb is always plural,

10:15 despite the subject- which is expressed from a collective noun- both singular.

10:20 This type of agreement is called "agreement in sense," that is,

10:24 "agreement based on sense,

10:26 meaning," and is very common not only in spoken language (and so,

10:31 for example, most people came- which is probably more

10:37 common than most people came) but is also common,

10:41 as we have just seen in these titles, in written language.

10:46 2.

10:46 The second problematic case of agreement in number is when we have not

10:51 a single subject but multiple subjects

10:54 that follow- rather than precede- the verb, as in the following examples,

10:59 in which both singular and plural agreement are possible;

11:02 and therefore:* The quality and originality

11:05 of the materials should be emphasized.

11:08 But also… THEY ARE the quality

11:09 and originality of the materials should be emphasized.

11:11 or…* The tenacity and perseverance with which

11:14 he pursued his goal should be praised.

11:18 But also… THEY ARE to be praised.

11:22 And we conclude with the third and final type of problematic cases of agreement,

11:26 which involves both gender and number at the same time.

11:30 1.

11:31 The first case concerns the passivating si.

11:33 Let's start with the examples:* Qui

11:36 si studiA l'accordo (which means something like

11:39 "here the agreement is studied")* Qui

11:42 si studiANO i casi problemati diaccordo (i.e.

11:46 "here the problematic cases of agreement are studied") As you can see,

11:51 we have the particle si followed by a third-person verb (singular or plural,

11:57 studia or studi) and a direct object (l'accordo or i casi problemati diaccordo).

12:05 The construction is equivalent to a traditional passive sentence.

12:08 And so "qui si studia l'accordo" means "here the agreement is

12:13 studied or the agreement is studied" and "qui si studiano i

12:18 casi problemati diaccordo" is equivalent to "qui sono studiati (or here

12:22 the problematic cases of agreement are studied)." As you can see,

12:26 there is a number agreement between the verb and the object:

12:29 if the object is singular (like "l'accordo") the verb is singular (si studia);

12:34 if the object is plural (problematic cases) the verb is plural (si studia).

12:40 But this is not always the case, as I will now show you.

12:44 Listen carefully to this excerpt from the novel

12:47 The Tartar Steppe by the Italian writer Dino Buzzati:>

12:52 "The reduction in personnel forced the available forces

12:55 to be spread out along the edge of the walls,

13:00 and various experiments continued to be carried out to obtain,

13:04 with fewer resources, a security service almost as effective as before.

13:07 Some guardhouses had to be abandoned, others equipped with more equipment,

13:13 the companies had to be recomposed and divided

13:15 again into dormitories." In this portion of text,

13:18 we have two examples of the use of the si passivating verb:- ​​in the first,

13:23 "si continuavANO a fare diverse prova" (they continued to do several tests),

13:27 the object is plural,

13:28 and the verb (which in this case is a more complex structure than a single word,

13:34 i.e., "si continuavano a fare") is plural:

13:37 therefore, number agreement is present.

13:40 in the second, "si dovettE abbandonate alcune corpi

13:44 di guardia" (they had to abandon some guardhouses),

13:46 the object is plural, and the modal verb dovette is singular:

13:50 therefore, number agreement is absent.

13:52 The alternation of the two construction types

13:55 with the si passivating verb—with and without number

13:58 agreement—in a text written by an important

14:02 twentieth-century author indicates that both solutions are valid.

14:07 If the verb, instead of being in the imperfect, had been in the past perfect,

14:11 we would have had two possibilities:

14:13 1) The first is: no agreement between object and participle,

14:16 as in "siè dove abbandonate alcune corpi

14:19 di guardia" (we had to abandon some guardhouses),

14:21 where the object, "corpi" (corps),

14:23 is masculine plural and the participle, "dovuto" (due) is masculine singular.

14:28 2) Two: agreement in both gender and number, as in "si sono continuatE a fare

14:33 diverse prova" (we continued to do several tests),

14:35 where the object, "prove" (prove), is feminine plural and the participle,

14:39 "continuate" (continue) is also feminine plural.

14:42 To summarize and simplify, with the passivating si:- we can achieve or not

14:48 achieve agreement with the object;- if we achieve agreement,

14:51 it will be an agreement in both number and gender.

14:54 1.

14:55 The second case of problematic agreement in both gender and number

14:59 is that between the first and second person direct pronouns (mi,

15:03 ti, ci, vi, and those in cases such as mi vedi,

15:08 ti chiamo, ci guardano, vi ascoltano) and the participle.

15:12 Once again, let's start with the live use of the language.

15:16 Let's listen to these clips:*" Your experience really struck me." 2.

15:22 Your experience really struck me.

15:25 The speaker is a woman, but the participle ends in -o.

15:29 It struck me.

15:30 The direct pronoun "mi" refers to a female,

15:33 but the participle does NOT agree in gender.

15:38 Let's listen to another clip:* "What struck me so much

15:42 is how the relationship between owner and animal develops." 3.

15:46 What struck me so much is how

15:49 the relationship between owner and animal develops.

15:51 In this case too, the speaker is a woman,

15:54 but this time the participle ends in -a, mi ha colpitA.

15:58 In short: with the 1st and 2nd person direct pronouns,

16:01 if the speaker is a woman, you can choose between masculine or feminine.

16:06 The meaning remains the same.

16:08 Agreement in number of the participle

16:13 is also optional (and therefore not mandatory).

16:15 Let's watch these clips:* “But what struck

16:16 us most were definitely the Mazzanti houses, with their frescoed facades.” 4.

16:21 But what struck us most were definitely the Mazzanti houses,

16:24 with their frescoed facades.

16:26 “It struck us,” instead of “it struck us.” But now watch

16:31 this video:* “The crisis that has hit us since the summer

16:35 of last year and the resulting recession in almost all European

16:40 countries has obviously led to a steep drop in imports.” 5.

16:45 The crisis that has struck us: here, however, we have a plural agreement,

16:51 “it struck us,” (the ci refers to us Italians).

16:55 Well, we've reached the end of the video.

16:59 I remind you that in the PDF accompanying the video—which

17:01 you may have already downloaded (but if you haven't,

17:04 you can download it now at the link in the description

17:08 or by scanning this handy code)—you'll find a review of everything we've seen,

17:13 as well as many really useful exercises

17:17 to test yourself with all these problem cases.

17:20 Because yes, it's one thing to watch a video like

17:24 this, but it's the exercises that really help you nail the concepts.

17:28 And, of course, listening to a lot of Italian is part of that.

17:38 That's all, see you next time!