"She had not wanted it."

Translation: Lei non l'aveva voluto.

[Koolkaren]

I suspect that 'voluta' should not be considered wrong because, if the thing she had not wanted were feminine, the past participle would have to agree with the preceeding direct object. That would mean the 'voluta' as well as 'voluto' should be accepted. Am I confused?

[Blomeley]

I agree, I will report it now

[Koolkaren]

Thanks! :)

[Marninger]

We don't know if "it" is of male or female gender so I think there are two possibilities.

• Lei non l'aveva voluto. (where l' stands for lo)

• Lei non l'aveva voluta. (where l' stands for la)

[FrancescoS213]

No, you're right.

[NataliaMakarova]

"Voluta" is fine, what's not fine in that sentence is that it starts with "no". "No l'aveva voluta" is wrong because it should start with "Non" and it has nothing to do with "voluta".

[eszter.mac]

Is separating 'lo' from 'aveva' really incorrect? 'Lei non lo aveva voluto'

[mariaelena256]

you need to use l' before a word starting with a vowel: lo aveva =l'aveva because of the "a" in aveva. it's like la acqua = l'acqua

[Black_Cherries]

Do you really? With lo? I know that with "la," elision is compulsory. But with "lo," isn't the 'o' more robust? I'm not saying you can't use elision with 'lo' -- of course you can. But do you have to, really, if you choose not to?

[bill_oneill51]

Yes there should be two correct choices since the past participle has to agree with the gender of the preceding direct object in this tense. "It" could be either masculine or feminine and we can't tell which one it is here.

[donmilio]

'Lo aveva' is OK!!!

[Black_Cherries]

That's what I thought.

[ilAustiniano]

Is the past participle different than the present participle? I thought that when the auxiliary verb was avere, the masculine participle was always used.

[stevenjrhouse]

The difference here is the presence of the direct object before aveva. Koolkaren's comment says that if this direct object is feminine, then the past participle also needs to be feminine.

[AntonyHodgson]

OK - thanks for clarifying (also Koolkaren and bill_oneill51).

[pieronorfo]

"lei non lo aveva voluto" is correct !!!!!

[Martin400960]

i wonder why it is not... any explanation?

[Marninger]

You normally elide the -o or -a of a singular article before a noun beginning with a vowel e.g.:
la+acqua = l'acqua
lo+amico = l'amico
lo/la+aveva = l'aveva

If you want to you can read up on when to use the elision in Italian at ThoughtCo

[Daniele728192]

It is not the only way! You also can not use elision

[NicholasNasta]

why does the l' go before aveva?

[mangoHero1]

The direct object always goes before the first verb

[vera967768]

When do we need to include "it" in the sentence? In the last lesson it was omitted in "Ti era piaciuto".

[Marninger]

Ti = to you
era = he/she/it had
piaciuto = pleased

So in this case the "it" is hidden inside "era".

She had not wanted it.
She = Lei
had = aveva
not = non
wanted = voluto
it = lo

But in Italian word order this need to be "She not it had wanted" = Lei non lo aveva voluto and then "lo+aveva" will be elided to *l'aveva.

[meSopy]

I still don't understand why we use trapassato in sentences where only one thing happens. Help

[Marninger]

I guess it is hard to come up with sentences for us to practise on, - but an imaginary continuation or next sentence could perhaps help.

She had not wanted it. But then, after she had won on the lottery, everything changed.

[meSopy]

Ok, thank you I was afraid that there was some principle that I don't understand. Have a lingot

[donmilio]

'L'aveva' is OK!!!!!

[colbymenning]

it here is lo (m) and elided. when la = it (f) then voluto becomes voluta.

[VivaLaDan01]

What is wrong with "Non avevo voluto"?

[Jackdaw2009]

In this case "avevo" would indicate " I had" rather than "she had" "aveva". Also by the omission of l' in front aveva there is nothing to say what she hadn't wanted.
Hope this helps

[sapolion]

"Lei non lo volle" was how the speech recognition misheard my attempt. It was marked correct, but I have no idea what form it is. I looked it up in my Italian verb book where I found it is "past absolute". What form is this and how is it used?

[Andie46421]

Can't I say "lei non aveva voluto questo"?

[drevokocur]

I don't know if you still care after 5 months but lo = it, questio = this. there's a difference.

[duoitaliano]

According to Duolingo
Lei non l'aveva voluto = She had not wanted it
Can the translation also be
Lei non l'aveva voluto = She did not want it
?

[drevokocur]

I propose to all students to look up the lesson on past perfect on google and study it on a different web. all the questions that people asked here would be clear from the first paragraphs = 5 minutes of study.

[behnam263]

I some times have some problems with " L' ". Why some times aveva without L and some times L'aveva? for example here?!

[gderango]

La is indicating the "thing" that she doesn't want. Instead of la aveva, you say l"aveva, due to the two vowels in sequence. If you are saying Lei non aveva voluto, you would just be saying, she does not want. Lei non l'aveva voltuto is "she does not want it".

[LoyaPrakas]

Previosly when I gave the same answer, you termed it wrong. Now you said that it is right. Prakasarao