"Me ne vado a casa."
Translation:I am going home.
163 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
Showing you the steps: "andare" = "to go". Vado a casa. "andarsene" to leave/to go (away)" "Me ne vado a casa" = I am leaving for home >> I am going home"
Mais en français, on ne dirait pas à l'oral : Je m'en vais à la maison. Mais plutôt : Je vais à la maison/chez moi. Le "m'en" a tendance à disparaître. Can we do the same in italian when we are talking with someone and just say " Io vado a mia casa"?
"s'en aller" is NOT disappearing, it is very much alive whether in oral or written French, and the destination may be specified: "je m'en vais au cinéma", "ils s'en vont chez eux". It serves to express leaving from some place to go somewhere else.
I think it becomes necessary in French when used on its own, without a stated destination: "Je m'en vais" (I'm leaving) tout simplement. Is this the case in Italian? "Me ne vado"? Or would this rather be expressed as "Vado via," as we learned elsewhere?
but "s'en aller" has the sense of going away FROM, not going TO. It does not seem to fit here, except to say that it adds an extra dimension to "andare", changing it to something like "i'm leaving for home"
Let's see if I got this one right:
The verb here, i.e. andarsene, is a pronomial verb, where -se- is in fact the reflexive pronoun si but where the i is switched to an e when preceding another pronoun, in this case the pronominal particle -ne. Ne indicates »something» or »somewhere».
So if I break this one down I have:
[verb] = andare, »to go» +
[reflexive pronoun] = se, »oneself» +
[pronominal particle] = ne, »somewhere»
= [to go][oneself][somewhere]
When put into work the pronomial verb is split up into its components, like in the sentence in this exercise:
[the reflexive pronun] = mi -> me +
[the pronominal particle] = ne +
[the conjugated verb] = vado
Is this just about right ..? If not, I'll delete the comment :)
These pronomial verbs took me a while to grasp. Hopefully this will help some people. When we think of "andare" we think of "to go". There is another verb called "andarsene" it is like andare but it means "to go away" and is conjugated as follows: Me ne vado Ce ne andiamo Te ne vai Ve ne andate Se ne va Se ne vanno Therefore when you see this, conjugate it as you see above. To interpret this sentence. Me ne vado = I go away/ I leave a casa = to home "I go away to home" OR "I am going home"
Thanks, you've helped a lot. I would still use the easiest way to form a sentence. I hate to admit that I have to cheat to get through this chapter. Once I learn that a certain clitic means one thing, the tables are turned. "Ne" still is nebulous. I kind of get your explanation, but ask why it's necessary to use it. I'm no language scholar, just wanting to have fun with a language that I always wanted to learn because of its musicality. Nevertheless, you are good teaching material. Maybe I would learn this weirdness if you were my teacher.
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I have no idea what parts of language are called - I need a dictionary here to understand the english! I think this is why I am struggling with this section.
I DO know what the parts of speech are and I'm struggling with this. Yikes!
Me too! I did Latin for 6 years! But it was long ago. I suspect the names for parts of speech have changed. I've never heard of pronominal or pronominal as mentioned above.
Oh Alex...finally someone who feels exactly the way I do. I'm lost and getting frustrated.
Try and enjoy it. Learning should be fun. Some of these highly technical grammatical explanations don't help. 'Blinding with science' comes to mind.
I know some parts of speech but "partitive article" is not one of them. I just don't get it.
Me too, Alex. And, I apologize to the others that I am an ignoramus who only knows 1.4 languages. The French and Spanish explanations for the meaning of this sentence do not help me. Allora..... (oh well?????) :-)
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Agree 100%. It's as if you're not a language major, you have no chance at understanding this. I have multiple degrees... but not in English/languages. Very frustrating!
Thank you for the explanation but I do not understand one word that you said. "reflexive pronoun"? "pronominal particle"? This is a whole new language to me and I have a college degree. What the heck are these things and why can't I understand what you are saying. I am a native English speaker and I have never heard these words. So frustrating but again I thank you for trying to help.
This is not an issue of your college education. These are concepts that should have been taught in jr. high and high school. It certainly isn’t your fault. It is due to the weakening of the educational system. For those of us in our 60’s, this was drilled home to us in our day.
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@Bill98991 With all due respect, many of us did learn these concepts in school ("drilled" into us or otherwise) but as native speakers of English (or any other language) we don't have occasion to recall all the terms...in other words we just speak the language fluently with no need to break down sentences conceptually. Fast forward to adulthood when here we are trying to learn Italian and our memory may not be so great with regard to these concepts. Bravo to you for having such tremendous recall of everything you learned in junior and senior high school! Have a little empathy.
3 years of HS Latin, 2 years of college German (Ich washe mir die Hande--a reflexive) Learned sentence diagramming with restrictive and non restrictive introductory adverbial clauses. But crimminey sakes this grammar term, pronomial particle, is new to me.
The second clearest explanation (after uroshu). Must be wright ;-) Thank you!
ha-ha-ha! shall we try integral and differential calculus with analytical geometry? In Italian?
Ruckelhaxan, Thank you so much, this clarified this bewildering sentence. Cheers!
Perfect explanation. Ben fatto! I've been speaking Italian for years after living in Florence for a year. So I wrote, "I'm leaving for home" and it was marked incorrect... Grrrr! A lot of Italians would also simply say "vado a casa"... Either way...
"A lot of Italians would also simply say "vado a casa"."
Exactly.
It's simpler and takes less time to say.
The question I have is: Do any Italians say "Me ne vado a casa"?
i feel like "vado a casa" means "i go home", while "me ne vado a casa" is more like "i leave to my house". that way, the difference is clearer at least to me...
maybe that, that this section is trying to teach a different grammar structure, and this is an example for that (so not using it, you miss the point)
I believe I could do without the point if it meant finding the simplest, most direct way to expressing myself clearly in another language. I'll aspire to be the poet laureate of Italy in my next life. Will "Sto andando a casa" work as well?
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I agree so much with your statement. I too just want to be able to converse, not to be able to diagram each and every part of a sentence. I have never been able to do that in my native English.
"Vado a casa" indicates that you are going home now or in the near future. "Sto andando a casa" indicates that you are in the process of traveling home right at this moment as we speak.
Have you ever heard of Living Language Conversational Italian? I had the books and CDs (or maybe tapes) back in the mid-90s. I really liked it.
There should really be a write up in the lightbulb thingy with notes about andarsene. did I somehow miss where this one was explained?
It is andarsi +ne. The "i" just happens to change to an "e" when followed by the "-ne"
This is how you conjugate andarsene: Which means "to go away" Me ne vado Ce ne andiamo Te ne vai Ve ne andate Se ne va Se ne vanno
"No, You can only choose between "Vado a casa" or "Me ne vado a casa" with the slight difference in meaning. The first is neutral >> I am going home and the second is rather >> I am leaving for home." I answered "I am leaving for home" and it was not accepted. This is very frustrating.
"ne" has not meaning of it's own. the complete construction "andarsene" >> me ne vado >> te ne vai etc. Imperative singular, quite common: "vattene" one word = "beat it". Here learning by heart goes over understanding.
I haven't come across this 'andarsene' anywhere. I've only done simple present to date. Can you recommend a website which would help please?
Thank you. Duolingo should have a section on reflexive verb conjugation.
Try here: http://italian.about.com/od/verbs/a/aa043008a.htm (about.com is a pretty useful site for languages)
In this case, the word 'ne' is a part of the verb 'andarsene' (the verb given in this sentence) and means ‘to go away’ or ‘to leave’. 'Andarsene' is a pronominal verb, which means that it has two pronouns that go with it ('si' and 'ne') and those two pronouns modify the meaning of the verb ‘andare’.
Andarsene = andare + si + ne (in this sentence it means 'to leave for' = me ne vado a) The first pronoun 'si' (which changes to 'se' in front of 'ne') is a reflexive one and changes according to the subject, whereas the second pronoun (ne) always stays the same. Reflexive pronouns for all persons are:
mi (myself), ti (yourself), si (himself, herself, itself), ci (ourselves), vi (youselves), si (themselves)
All these Italian reflexive pronouns (mi, ti, si, ci, vi, si) change the final 'i' to 'e' in front of the pronoun 'ne' and thus become: me, te, se, ce, ve, se.
This is how you change it for all persons in the present and past tenses:
Presente:
io me ne vado (= I am leaving/going away)
tu te ne vai (= you are leaving)
lui/lei se ne va (= he/she is leaving etc.)
noi ce ne andiamo
voi ve ne andate
loro se ne vanno
...........................................
Passato prossimo:
io me ne sono andato/a
tu te ne sei andato/a
lui/lei se ne è andato/a
noi ce ne siamo andati/e
voi ve ne siete andati/e
loro se ne sono andati/e
I hope this helps!
Do you work for Duolingo? If not, you should. Your explanation is clearer and more detailed than the one they offer in the section on clitics. I found their explanation unintelligible, but can find no way to make suggestions to them about their "tips", only about individual lesson items. Thanks for taking time to write something so useful and clear.
Verna, look up a definition of "clitics"; I had to do that as I was not familiar with the term.
My English grammar training used contractions. Still clitics wikipedia entry will have to be reread.
This kind of detailed and friendly explanations and people like you, who take the time to write and post them, is what keeps me going with this kind of learning a language. Your post is very much appreciated, thank you :)
Just gave you a lingot for this excellent explanation - thank you!
Molte grazie! Have your 50th Lingot for this very helpful post on me!
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Thank you so much. I am really struggling with this and you have really explained it in a way I feel I can understand.
I do like Duolingo but I sometimes fail to see why things are made unnecessarily complicated at an early stage of learning this language. I want to be able to make myself understood in Italian, not to write a new Divina Comedia.
Clitics as such are a pain in the ass. Why add to the confusion with verb forms as "andarsene", when we haven't reached that point of learing yet ..?
Cheers everybody, this comments on here are being quite helpful!
Why can't we simply say mi vado a casa? If this is also correct, I rather say it this way.
No, You can only choose between "Vado a casa" or "Me ne vado a casa" with the slight difference in meaning. The first is neutral >> I am going home and the second is rather >> I am leaving for home.
Thank you for your help, I think for the time being I will use "vado a casa". The "ne" part totally throws me off for I can not find the logic behind it, in order to understand and retain it.
As I do, learning any language. Select the things you want to use, try (not too hard) to remember things you might need to understand. In this case the difference won't put you off. "Me ne vado <> (io) vado" are similar enough to understand both expressions. Have fun.
It is my understanding that the present progressive tense isn't used nearly as much in Italian as it is in English. It is used only if you are actually doing the action at the time. I.e., you would not say "sto andando" unless you are literally moving toward home. A couple of links:
The following one says "A good rule of thumb is, only use the present progressive if you’re describing an action that’s unfolding while you speak."
http://tutorino.ca/grammatica/2007/4/27/the-present-progressive-i-am-walking.html
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For the verb 'andarsene': Presente io me ne vado tu te ne vai lui, lei, Lei se ne va noi ce ne andiamo voi ve ne andate loro, Loro se ne vanno
Since I don't understand the connection between andarsene and vado, i guess this is another sentence i will have to memorize.
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Andare = "to go". Ne = "from this". Andarsene = (word by word) "to go oneself from this", ergo "to leave".
And andare, being an irregular verb, is conjugated "io vado, tu vai, lui va..."
Thus "Io me ne vado" = "I leave".
Thank you. I didn't see the connection in the earlier writings. Important to know that andare is conjugated to vado, etc. I gave you a lingot.
Best explanation yet. Yes, ne has meaning! Word for word is how I learned French. Thanks!
crumbs! andar+se+ne. Hold on to your cappelli, miei amici! 1)Andare, to go--easy peasy. 2) Skipping to ne, we know it so far as "of it" or "about it"and NOW"from it." 3)The "me" is a variation of "mi"--the reflexive 3rd person sing. (I hear you sigh!) Here's the rub--before "ne" "mi" changes to "me".
Howcome? you ask. Euphony, my guess, most likely: "Me ne" rhymes and is easy to say.
Me ne vado thus seems idiomatic to me.
Duolingo, couldja please group sentences firstly for pronouns as direct objects, then pronoun indirect objects and then objects of a preposition. Then give us reflexives. My head hurts!
Nobody jostle me, please, or all this grammar is gonna fall out.
Me ne vado: Myself from it I go. "I'm outta here!"
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No, "io me ne vado" means I am leaving, I am going away. So you are not just saying, that you are going home, but also that you are leaving whatever party/place/relationship ;-) you're currently at.
Someone, somewhere, posted a translation that might help with seeing the sense of this idiom...."I'm outta here!"...I'm leaving now! ♡ HTH!
This is frustrating because "Ne" is not a clitic here! "Ne vado" just looks like the "andare" verb, it's actually a different verb! andarsene!!
Ne, as a clitic, is not shown here!
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O.K Duo must have heard your cries of woe, as I just had this sentence with the keyboard option, and there was not way to write Me therefore they prompted you to write simply Vado a casa. Let's here it for the simple approach!
I think then we can say You are going home " te ne vai a casa" He is going home " se ne va a casa" We are going home " ce ne vediamo a casa " You all are going home " ve ne andate a casa" They are going home " Se ne vanno a casa" i hope it is correct
well, that's a weird decision, to say I'm going home is the same as I am going home
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Thank you uroshu! I have struggled with "ne" in other contexts and been unable to find a coherent explanation. Thanks again.
it translated "Me ne vado" as "i am going". What other contexts could this be used in? For example, "me ne vado andare alla negozia" as " i am going to the shop"?
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I get the idea of "ne" because I speak French, but what the heck is "net" which is what the woman said, I wrote, and got it right???
My humble opinion: Italian loves euphony. Me ne rhymes. Saw a guy in my Roman neighborhood call urgently after his friend "Sta qui!" Then he shouted, "Sta qua!"which rhymes. Or maybe his friend had progressed along further to elicit "qua."
Hoorah for English! Despite non-grammatical sentences coming from the mouths of new speakers, the meaning is comprehensible. English spelling, not so much. Our vowels are all turning to schwa. sniff sniff
This took a long time for me to get. The concept isn't that hard, it's just that Duolingo doesn't spend much time explaining these verbs.
When you see "me ne vado" don't think of the verb andare, think of the verb andarsene.
andare is conjugated as:
io vado
tu vai
lui/lei va
noi andiamo
voi andate
loro vanno
Now for andarsene it is: me ne vado te ne vai se ne va ce ne andiamo ve ne andate se ne vanno
In Spanish one could say "Me voy a la casa." It is the reflexive form of the verb to go. So, I don't understand what ne is doing in the sentence.
Way too complex as the first task in a lesson. I read the tip sheet and nothing there supports the thinking needed to understand this.
