"Non le parlo."
Translation:I do not talk to her.
31 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
"le = a lei = to her" is an indirect object pronoun that answers the question A chi = "to whom?"
If the sentence was "Non gli parlo" than we would translate it as : " I do not talk to him/to them."
note: formal way of writing "gli = to them" is "loro" and it follows the verb : "Non parlo loro" = I don't talk to them. (personally, I find it strange)
check this for more examples http://www.cyberitalian.com/en/html/gra_prpr.html (pronouns are tricky)
You made it easier to understand the whole duality of "lo" - "gli", "la" - "le". Still I wonder whether in your last example loro should be used with preposition a ("talk to them"). Non parlo a loro kind of makes sense if gli and le are like "a lui" and "a lei".
Carol, the sequence for indirect object pronouns is: to me (mi); to you (ti); to him/it (gli); to her/it (le); to them (ci); to you plural (vi); to them (loro - although in colloquial Italian 'gli' is often used in place of 'loro')
le as an object either means
them
or
to her / for her
The translation only makes sense with to her.
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A lightbulb comes on
Aha! So the choices are either "I don't speak them" or "I don't speak to her".
I see exactly what @MABBY is getting at. Well put ... thanks. "I don't speak them" makes no sense, thus it has to be "I don't speak to her."
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"Non loro parlo" is wrong. "Loro" is never used as a clitic. I'm not sure about the preposition "a", but otherwise it is "Non parlo (a) loro"
If you are talking about several languages you speak or not I think the other one also makes sense.
Here is how I analyzed it:
Firstly, the object pronoun precedes the verb, so I assumed it is in the class of unstressed (atonic, clitic) object pronouns, rather than the class of stressed object pronouns, which usually come after the verb.
Within the unstressed object pronouns, le is used in two ways: first, as the direct object 3rd person plural pronoun meaning them (feminine). If that were the case, we would have:
"I do not speak them", which I didn't think was right.
Le is also used as the indirect object 3rd person singular pronoun meaning to her. If that were the case, we would have:
"I do not speak to her", which I deemed the correct translation.
I don't think this is correct because in other examples we used la for the females. Let say, non la mangio (I do not eat it and "it" is let say a banana a female object) and for female plural we say: non le mangio - I do not eat them and here they are bananas or banane in italian . I think like that way but probably there is a better explanation.
Anyone else have weird computer pronunciation? Mine sounded like "non lei pello" when he said it.
i wrote "io ne parlo" and duo accepted that. actually my answer should be marked wrong.
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With the new voice it impossible to distinguish" Non le parlo" or "Non ne parlo". It sound like "Non nthzle parlo" ;-)
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With the current female voice, this sounds more like "non ne parlo" ("I do not speak about it"), which would make good sense, too.