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- Topic: Italian >
- "Mi riposo."
38 Comments
If you don't rest yourself, what do you rest? I don't agree that rest can't be used as a reflexive verb in English, even if it's usually encountered as a stress on the subject. Considering you can rest your horse and your legs after long exertion, resting yourself can't be said to be wrong.
But "burn" isn't a reflexive verb in English, yet "ti bruci" was translated as "burn yourself." So I am really confused. And frustrated. I thought I learned form "ti bruci" and put in "rest myself," but I got it wrong. So I can't win.
How are we to know when Duolingo wants us to translate it to "yourself" and when it doesn't?
Resto also means "I stay" or "I remain" (also remainder/change as noun) e.g. Resto qui = I'll stay here
Riposo is can mean "I rest/sleep" or as a noun "rest/relax/sleep".
Since it's a noun you can use it to say "at ease / relax". So: "mi riposo" makes it clear your talking about yourself, but I think "riposo" is also valid for this case.
Riposo tutto il giorno = "I rest all day". So you don't always need the "mi" but it would make it clearer.
There is a bit of cross over between resto and riposo in that they both can mean "rest" in different senses in english.
I think resto is more towards "remain/stay" and riposo more towards "resting/break/retirement".
http://www.wordreference.com/iten/Riposo http://www.wordreference.com/iten/resto
106
The verb appear to be "Risposarsi," so it's a reflexive. Like in most sentences in Italian, the subject can be excluded. The sentence could be "Io mi risposo," as long as the "mi" is before it.
I don't think there's a hard and true rule here. When you are doing something to yourself, there is usually a pronoun: I rest (myself) - mi riposo I get (myself) up - mi also I sit (myself) down - mi assido
But I am sure there are exceptions. The simplest trick is to buy an italian verbs app and check there if the infinite version of the verb finishes in -si :)
From wikipedia: "In grammar, a reflexive verb is, loosely, a verb whose direct object is the same as its subject, for example, "I wash myself". " So the verb being reflexive means that it goes together with a reflexive pronoun like myself, ourselves, etc.
The sentence "I rest myself" could alo be translated as "io mi riposo", the reflexive pronoun "mi" basically means "myself". "Yourself" (single person) is translated as "ti", etc.
The fact that you can leave out personal pronouns (I, he, she etc.) in Italian can make it a bit confusing!
1611
Unlike Spanish, in Italian "mi" never means "my".
Reflexive verb
- (it) mi riposo = (es) me reposo
Possessive + noun
- (it) il mio riposo = (es) mi reposo