"We had understood one another."
Translation:Ci eravamo capiti.
19 Comments
113
I suspect that here, as in French with 'avoir' and 'être', you always use 'essere' with reflexive verbs. That's my best guess. :)
It's reflexive, then essere should be used. Abbiamo capito is not, then the suffix doesn't adapt to plural, like it always does with essere.
I agree - capire takes avere in itself, but when used as a reflexive verb it takes essere and the ending must agree with the object. So here the "i" on capiti is needed because "ci" is the object and it is plural.
Good explanation here on "Choosing The Auxiliary Verb in Italian". http://italian.about.com/od/verbs/a/italian-verbs-auxiliary.htm Since "Understand" is an Intransitive verb, it takes Essere, not Avere.
- 113
In English, 'understand' is not an intransitive verb (in other words, it can take a direct object, as in "I understand it"). I believe that this is also true in Italian. Therefore, I think it generally uses the auxilliary 'avere', as in "Ho capito". The reason it uses 'essere' here is because in this sentence it is reflexive. If I have misunderstood this, I hope someone more fluent in Italian than I will be kind enough to correct me. :)
You are absolutely correct, Understand is a transitive verb in both English and Italian. Your explanation seems correct, but I'm no expert. No sooner do I think I'm understanding the grammar I get confused again!
- 612
Not fluent, but that's correct. The verb here is the reflexive verb "capirsi" which means "to understand each other", and all reflexive verbs take "essere".
I'm not fluent, but my guess is that since the sentence is "we understand each other", the verb became reflexive (in the group of "we").
I wrote : "avevamo capito l'un l'altro" which is the EXACT tradution of "one another. So why its is wrong??
It's reflexive, so it takes the reflexive direct object pronoun for us: ci. Here's a good link: http://italian.about.com/library/fare/blfare116a.htm
"Ci eravamo capiti a vicenda" why is wrong? "A vicenda" is the actual translation of "One another"
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When a verb takes "essere" as the helping verb in the past tense, the past participle (capito) has to agree with the subject (we) in gender and number. If it is a group of all females, the answer can be "ci eravamo capite", and if there is a male in the group, it's "ci eravamo capiti".
I was corrected to "Ci capimmo," a form I don't think I'd ever seen before....
