If you’re in Italy and you’ve had enough of someone, you don’t care about what they have to say any more and you want to tell them in no uncertain terms that you are leaving, then these pronominal verbs will come in handy. A pronominal verb is a verb that has pronouns in it, for example the colloquial verb ‘fregarsene’ which means ‘to not care at all / to not give a damn’ and the verb ‘andarsene’ which means ‘to go away / to be off’. Both verbs are often used in informal spoken Italian and are idiomatic, which is the case for many pronominal verbs.
Here are some sentences using these two verbs:
Te ne vai?- Are you leaving?
Sì! Non voglio più sentire più quello che hai da dire, me ne vado – Yes! I don’t want to hear what you have to say any more, I’m off
Cosa ha detto tuo fratello? – What did your brother say?
Boh! Chi se ne frega? – Who knows! Who cares at all?
As you can see, these verbs are only to be used in informal settings and are very emphatic so be sure to use them in the right situations. You can conjugate them like this:
Me ne vado
Te ne vai
Se ne va
Ce ne andiamo
Ve ne andate
Se ne vanno
Me ne frego
Te ne freghi
Se ne frega
Ce ne freghiamo
Ve ne fregate
Se ne fregano
As you can see, you select the correct pronoun - me, te, se, ce or ve – then add the ‘ne’ in the middle, and then the present tense verb with the right ending.
There are other pronominal verbs that end in -sene like ‘andarsene’ and ‘fregarsene’, such as ‘pentirsene’ – ‘to regret something’ and ‘approfittarsene’ – ‘to take advantage of something or someone’. They can also end in -ci, -la, -cela and -sela, see some examples here:
Volerci – to take (time or effort)
Quanto tempo ci vuole per arrivare? – How long does it take to get there?
Smetterla – to stop / quit doing something
La vuoi smettere – Can you stop it
Avercela – To have it in for / be angry with someone
Ce l’hai con me perché ho dimenticato il tuo compleanno? – Are you angry with me because I forgot your birthday?
No, non ce l’ho con te – No I’m not angry with you
Farcela – to succeed, to manage, to make it
Sono troppo stanco, non ce la faccio più – I’m too tired, I can’t take it any more
Ce la puoi fare! – You can do it!
Prendersela – To get angry / upset / offended
Me la prendo con te perché mi hai fatto quello stupido scherzo – I’m angry with you because you played that stupid joke on me!
Sentirsela – To feel up to
Te la senti di studiare questi verbi pronominali? – Do you feel up to studying these pronominal verbs?
Spero di sì! I hope so!
