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I am confused by the use of object in the sentence.

In the sentence

Io me ne sono ricordato

What is the meaning of me or ne?

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  • You can read the sentence in this way: Io mi sono ricordato (is the same of yours)
    – Joe Taras
    Feb 20, 2015 at 8:00
  • @JoeTaras - the object is missing in your sentence..Io mi sono ricordato di.. (fare, dire qualcosa).
    – user519
    Feb 20, 2015 at 8:04
  • @Josh61: an example: Question - Hai comprato il pane? Answer: Me ne sono ricordato / Mi sono ricordato (more used the first)
    – Joe Taras
    Feb 20, 2015 at 8:08
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    The 'ne' we are referring to is 'comprare il pane'. Mi sono ricordato (di comparare il pane). Just to clarify.
    – user519
    Feb 20, 2015 at 8:11
  • @Josh61: Yes, is referred on action "comprare il pane"
    – Joe Taras
    Feb 20, 2015 at 8:13

2 Answers 2

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In currently spoken Italian, the pronoun io would be omitted in this case, but it's not the main aspect of the question.

In the sentence

me ne sono ricordato

the verb is ricordarsi which is not, as several grammar say, the reflexive form of ricordare, but an intensive form. The conjugation is the same as for reflexive verbs. There's a slight difference between ricordo and mi ricordo. In the former case I'm just stating a fact, in the latter something more personal than the “mechanical” remembrance is implicit. So it would be

mi sono ricordato di comperare il pane

rather than ho ricordato di comperare il pane, because this would have almost no meaning. On the contrary, compare

mi sono ricordato dei begli anni trascorsi insieme a te

with

ho ricordato i begli anni trascorsi insieme a te

In the first case some emotion is clearly involved, which is at least not expressed in the second sentence.

If you want to say what you remembered, with the intensive form you need a complemento di specificazione and not a direct object, as you see in the examples above. So, if the remembered thing is in pronominal form, you have to use ne, that exactly means di ciò, di questo, di quello. Such a pronoun is quite difficult to place for foreigners; in this case it goes before the verb, but after the direct object that also precedes the verb in medial/reflexive conjugation:

mi sono ricordato di ciò/questo/quello

becomes

me ne sono ricordato

Yes, another small rule: the pronoun io has two forms for the oblique cases, which are me and mi. As a direct object it can be either, depending on the context. It's mi when no other particle is involved, it's me otherwise. (Actually the rule is more complicated.)

The same alternation can happen when it's in dative form, I show a case where the pronouns are after the verb (imperative mood):

dammi da bere; dammene ancora

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    Great, complete answer!
    – DaG
    Feb 20, 2015 at 11:49
  • The thing that's freaking me out about this sentence is why "ne" is used and not "ci" - isn't "ci" the thing that you would use to refer to an "it" from a past sentence? (italian.stackexchange.com/questions/29/…)
    – bbozo
    Jan 2, 2016 at 8:26
  • @bbozo What sentence are you referring to?
    – egreg
    Jan 2, 2016 at 9:36
  • @egreg sorry :) "me ne sono ricordato", usually I would use "ci" and be correct ("we think about it" - "ci pensiamo"), but in this case it doesn't work -_- could maybe a rule be inferred, for example "ci" when "it" is definitive, "ne" when "it" isn't? something like "c'e una cosa bella, ne penso", "questa cosa e bella, ci penso" ?
    – bbozo
    Jan 2, 2016 at 10:25
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    @bbozo “Ci penso” is “I think about it”; “ne penso male” is ”I think bad of it”. The pronoun ne implies a specification.
    – egreg
    Jan 2, 2016 at 10:29
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Ne: (it is a personal pronoun in this case which may refer to persons or things)

  • pron. pers. Forma atona del paradigma dei pron. di 3ª m. e f. sing. e pl. (meno freq., di 1ª e 2ª m. e f. sing. e pl.), con riferimento, anche generico, a cose, animali o persone già nominati o che verranno nominati, o con valore neutro, con riferimento a una frase; è usata come proclitica (davanti al verbo, anche con un'altra particella: p.e. me ne sono accorto) o come enclitica (dopo il verbo, anche insieme a un'altra particella, sempre in grafia unita: p.e. parlagliene)

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