"Lui si è messo la giacca rossa."
Translation:He put on the red jacket.
23 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
why is it has put? there is no verb to have here? and why is there "si" here? what does it have to do with oneself?
"Si è messo" is the near past (passato prossimo) of "mettersi" (or indossare), literally "to put on oneself" (reflexive); the non reflexive form "mettere" would be "ha messo", with no real difference in meaning if used intransitively. English only has "to put on" (or to wear), so it's "he put on" or "he has put on".
Just to understand. There isn't a far past tens reflexive? Where you also use the "si ho messo"?
Far past (passato remoto) doesn't use auxiliaries, although trapassato does... Anyway, reflexive form of verbs always uses essere as auxiliary, and transitive form always uses "avere". I'll list a few examples with both mettere (transitive) and mettersi (reflexive):
- Present: Metto la giacca / Mi metto la giacca
- Near past: Ho messo la giacca / Mi sono messo la giacca
- Imperfect: Mettevo la giacca / Mi mettevo la giacca
- Pluperfect: Avevo messo la giacca / Mi ero messo la giacca
- Far past: Misi la giacca / Mi misi la giacca
I'll spare you the "trapassato remoto" (used to described something that happened before another action that happened in the far past); I mostly wanted to point out the difference in auxiliary between the two forms.
dude you always got something constructive helpful and productive to say I appreciate ya , are u native italian ?
First of all thank you :) second, where do you suggest I read more to understand these rules better?
An interesting website is http://www.italian-verbs.com/ (try it with mettersi and mettere). As for when to use each tense and mood, try http://www.lifeinitaly.com/italian/mood-tense
Duo should be paying you if they aren't already. You have helped me learn so much through these comments. GRAZIE MILLE!
Ciao Ferdinando, just a little note to say that i appreciate your assistance with difficulties i sometimes have and also appreciate that i am not alone when viewing others comments.
I don't understand this sentence, I think it has to be: He puts on the red jacket
It's implied in Italian when it refers to items of clothing etc. I suppose you'd have to specify if it was someone else's jacket.
Sorry, that should say "if it WERE someone else's...". I should probably get the grammar right in my native tongue at least! ;)
i think "he wore" would be 'lui indossava' which is a different action from putting one on , right ?
put on is active and wear can be active too,even when native english do not use it that way..
