Learn Italian pronominal verbs: RIMANERCI MALE

In this video I'm gonna talk about Italian pronominal verbs and specifically about the phrasal expression "RIMANERCI MALE".

This video is geared toward those who would like to learn Italian well. If you want to learn Italian well and speak it like a native speaker, you've come to the right place!

Hi, everybody! I'm Luca and in this video I wanted to talk about the pronominal verb "rimanerci" and specifically about the expression "rimanerci male". Here we have two components: the verb "rimanerci" and the adverb "male".

I noticed that pronoun verbs are quite problematic for non-native speakers learning Italian. So I take this chance to review pronominal verbs forms.

Well, first of all we should say that "rimanerci" belongs to a category of pronoun verbs ending in "ci". So it does not belong to the groups of pronominal verbs ending in "sela" or "si".

This is a good thing, because I'd say that these verbs are comparatively more simple. Why? Because the (pronominal) particle "ci" remains unchanged.

So the present tense is:

"io ci rimango,

tu ci rimani,

lui o lei ci rimane,

noi ci rimaniamo,

voi ci rimanete,

loro ci rimangono".

As you can see, the pronoun "ci" remains unchanged in all forms. After that we clearly need to add the adverb "male". So we get: "io ci rimango male", "tu ci rimani male", "lui ci rimane male", ecc.

Yet, it's surely more interesting to see what happens in the tense called "passato prossimo", which is quite possibily the most frequently used tense with this phrase.

So let's start from "passato prossimo" for grammatically masculine subjects. With masculine subjects we should use, needless to say, a masculine past participle. That is, "rimasto" for singular forms and "rimasti" for plural forms.

Forms are:

"io ci sono rimasto",

"tu ci sei rimasto",

"lui c'è rimasto",

"noi ci siamo rimasti",

"voi ci siete rimasti",

"loro ci sono rimasti".

To all these forms we add "male". So: "io ci sono rimasto male", "tu ci sei rimasto male", "lui c'è rimasto male" and so on.

By contrast, for grammatically feminine subjects we should obviously use a feminine past participle. The singular form is "rimasta" and the plural form is "rimaste".

So with feminine subjects we have:

"io ci sono rimasta male",

"tu ci sei rimasta male",

"lei c'è rimasta male",

"noi ci siamo rimaste male",

"voi ci siete rimaste male"

e "loro ci sono rimaste male".

Like I said, the "passato prossimo" is quite possibly the most frequently used tense with this phrasal expression.

In theory, you could find this phrasal expression also in other tenses, for instance in the future tense.

Future forms are:

"ci rimarrò male",

"ci rimarrai male",

"ci rimarrà male",

"ci rimarremo male",

"ci rimarrete male",

"ci rimarranno male".

These forms don't create too many issues.

That's all with respect to verb forms.

But what does "rimanerci male" mean?

Let's do an example right away!

Let's pretend that on your birthday your best friend doesn't call you to wish you happy birthday.

Chances are you won't like that and you will be a tiny bit disappointed. You could say that "ci siete rimasti male".

Somebody could ask you: "Ma ci sei rimasto male che Marco non ti ha fatto gli auguri di compleanno?"

And you could answer them: "Sì, ci sono rimasto male". Or, in case of feminine subjects: "Sì, ovviamente ci sono rimasta male".

Similarly, if someone agrees to meet up but then doesn't show up, that is they do what we call in Italian "dare buca", - I also made a video about this phrasal expression, here you can find a card to the Italian idiom "dare buca" - well, if somebody "vi dà buca", it is likely that you "ci rimanete male".

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"Laura non ha superato l'esame e c'è rimasta male".

What does this sentence mean? It means that Laura didn't pass her exam and that made her feel bad.

Basically, "rimanerci male" means feeling bad because of something. Generally speaking, feeling bad, that could be either feeling sad because of something, or, depending on the situation, being disappointed with something.

So if something happens and that for me is a letdown, I can say "ci sono rimasto male".

Similarly, if something happens and I'm sorry that it happened, I can say "ci sono rimasto male".

So, if we wanted, the sentence "Ci sono rimasto male" could be rephrased this way: I'm sorry that this thing happened. Or: that let me down.

Lastly, I wanted to stress this: like I said, "rimanerci male" doesn't mean getting upset, but rather feeling bad, being disappointed. In other words, if something "ci fa rimanere male" it means that it makes us feel bad.

Some time ago I made a video about 2 more pronominal verbs used in specific Italian idiomatic expressions.

One is "saperci fare", the other is "prenderci la mano".

Here, or here, in this entire section, I will add a card to them. Check them out!

If you want to learn new pronoun verbs, you might wanna take a look at these 2 videos.

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