Italian combined pronouns: me lo, te la, glielo, ce ne

When a sentence has both an indirect object (the person who receives something) and a direct object (the thing), Italian can replace both with pronouns and put them together: «Mi presti la penna? Sì, te la presto.» “Will you lend me the pen? Yes, I’ll lend it to you.” These pairs are called pronomi combinati, combined or double pronouns.

Three rules do most of the work. The receiver comes first, the thing second. The indirect pronouns mi, ti, ci and vi change their i to e: me, te, ce, ve. And gli and le both become glie-, which joins the second pronoun in a single word: glielo, gliela, glieli, gliele, gliene.

Order and spelling: me lo, te la, glielo

The receiver always comes first and the thing second: «Te lo do», never «Lo ti do». Before lo, la, li, le and ne, the indirect pronouns mi, ti, ci and vi change their final i to e, and they are written as separate words: «me la», «te li», «ce lo», «ve ne».

For a third person, gli (to him) and le (to her) both become glie-, which joins the second pronoun in one word: «glielo», «gliela», «glieli», «gliele», «gliene». So «glielo do» can mean “I give it to him”, “to her”, or “to you” when you address someone formally as Lei; the context makes it clear. In everyday Italian gli also means “to them”, so «glieli mando» can also mean “I’ll send them to them”. The formal alternative «loro» never combines and goes after the verb: «Li mando loro».

Reflexive si follows the same pattern and becomes se: «Marco se lo mette» “Marco puts it on”, «Se ne va» “He’s leaving”. Verbs such as andarsene are covered with pronominal verbs.

• Il numero di Carla? Te lo scrivo su un foglio. · Carla’s number? I’ll write it down for you.
• La signora Neri aspetta la ricevuta: gliela mando subito. · Mrs Neri is waiting for the receipt: I’ll send it to her right away.

Combinations with ne: me ne, ce ne, gliene

Ne combines in exactly the same way when it stands for a quantity or for a phrase with di: «Mi dai un po’ di torta? Te ne do una fetta», «Hai parlato del problema al capo? Sì, gliene ho parlato». The quantity, if there is one, stays after the verb: «Me ne servono due».

You also meet «ce ne» with the ci of «c’è» and «ci sono»: «Ce n’è ancora?» “Is there any left?”, «Ce ne sono tre». Here ci is not a receiver but part of esserci, yet it changes to ce in the same way.

Where the pronouns go

Like single object pronouns, the pair goes immediately before a conjugated verb, after «non» if there is one: «Te lo mando stasera», «Non te lo dico». The two pronouns always travel together.

With dovere, potere or volere followed by an infinitive, you can put the pair before the modal or attach it to the end of the infinitive, which drops its final -e: «Te lo posso prestare» or «Posso prestartelo», «Glielo devo dire» or «Devo dirglielo». After an infinitive that does not follow a modal, the pair must be attached: «È meglio dirglielo subito», «Ho deciso di regalargliela».

With affirmative commands to tu, noi and voi, the pair is attached too: «Dammelo», «Mandiamoglielo». Commands have their own rules, covered with the imperative with pronouns.

Combined pronouns in the passato prossimo

In compound tenses the pair goes before the auxiliary. Lo and la usually elide before the forms of avere that begin with h or a vowel: «Te l’ho detto», «Me l’ha prestata», «Gliel’abbiamo spiegato». Li and le never elide: «Glieli ho restituiti», «Me le ha mandate».

The past participle agrees with the direct object pronoun, not with the receiver: «Le foto? Me le ha mandate ieri» is feminine plural because of le foto, while «Il libro? Gliel’ho prestato» is masculine singular. With ne, it agrees with the quantity: «Di biglietti, me ne ha regalati due». After an elided gliel’, the participle is often the only sign of gender: «gliel’ho dato» refers to something masculine, «gliel’ho data» to something feminine.