Pronominal verb ANDARSENE

In this video I'll explain one of the most frequently used Italian pronominal verbs, the verb ANDARSENE. If you are not sure about the difference between the verb "andarsene" and the verb "andare", then this lesson is for you!

I'm Luca and this video is for those who are learning Italian as a foreign language.

If you want to better understand how to use pronominal verbs to speak Italian better, you've come to the right place!

If you want to speak Italian naturally, you might wanna subscribe to my channel, because on this channel I regularly upload lessons about different topics related to the Italian language and grammar.

Among other things, on this channel I have uploaded multiple videos about Italian pronominal verbs.

Here you can find a card to my playlist in which I grouped together all videos about pronoun verbs.

I've made several videos about this type of verbs and I'll continue making them, because I noted that these verbs are highly problematic for those learning Italian as a foreign language.

I think that the problem lies, at least in part, in the fact that a definition such as "verbi pronominali" is quite generic and includes different types of verbs.

Specifically, pronominal verbs include 9 types of verbs that are completely different. In these verbs you have different pronominal particles.

For instance, pronominal verbs include verbs with the infinitive ending in -SI, such as "vestirsi", verbs with the infinitive ending in -SELA, such as "cavarsela", verbs with the infinitive ending in -CELA, such as "farcela" and verbs with the infinitive ending in -SENE, such as "andarsene".

And these are just 4 different types of pronominal verbs. As I said, there are a total of 9 categories of pronominal verbs.

Now I'm not gonna list all pronominal verbs types. What I want to stress here is that each class has a completely different conjugation, precisely because in each type you have different pronominal particles.

For instance, the conjugation of the verb "cavarsela" is completely different from that of the verb "andarsene". Precisely because in the first case you have the pronouns "se" + "la", whereas in the second case you have the pronominal particles "se" + "ne".

Therefore, even if you know how to form verb tenses for the verb "cavarsela", that won't help you form verb tenses for the verb "andarsene", because these 2 verbs follow a completely different pattern.

I noted that on the Internet there's plenty of videos explaining Italian pronominal verbs, specifically very short videos, 5 to 10 minutes long, explaining - in theory - all pronominal verbs.

For me such approach is not optimal. In other words, it's ***** useless.

That's because, as I said, there are different types of pronominal verbs. So, if you discuss all pronoun verbs at once in a single video, chances are that this will only create confusion.

And a very common mistake, that is made quite often by those learning Italian as a second language, is indeed due to mixing up different types of pronominal verbs.

I think that there's only one way to avoid such mistakes: learning these verbs individually, that is: one at a time.

As I said, I have created a playlist, in which I will add this video as well, and in which I've grouped a number of videos where I talk about various pronominal verbs (each individually).

That being said, in this video I'm gonna explain the pronominal verb ANDARSENE. This is undoubtedly one of the most common Italian pronominal verbs and you must know it (there's no way around it).

First I'm going to explain how to form various tenses for the verb "andarsene". Then I will discuss the meaning of this verb.

Alright, then. You surely know the verb "andare", or I would hope so. You know that this is an irregular verb.

In this case we have the verb "andare" plus 2 pronouns, namely: particle "se" and particle "ne". The infinitive mood of this pronominal verb is "andarsene". In other tenses, these particles (may) change position. But, in any case, in all verb tenses you will have 2 particles. Specifically, the particle NE remains unchanged, whereas the particle SE changes depending on the person.

But let's see what are the forms for the present indicative tense.

Alright, then. The present indicative forms are: io me ne vado, tu te ne vai, lui (or lei) se ne va, noi ce ne andiamo, voi ve ne andate, loro se ne vanno.

So, as you can see, it's the same conjugation of the verb "andare". The only difference being that before the verb you add these pronouns.

Alright, then. The present indicative, as you can see, isn't problematic at all.

A rather problematic verb tense, that almost everybody gets wrong, is the imperative mood. The forms for the imperative mood of "andarsene" are: second-person-singular "vattene"; third-person-singular "se ne vada"; and second-person-plural "andatevene".

So let's briefly compare that with the imperative mood of "andare".

Ok, then. Second-person-singular would be "Vai" or "Va" for "andare". For "andarsene", it would be "Vattene". Please note that there is a double T.

Third-person-singular imperative for the verb "andare" is "Vada", while third-person-singular imperative for "andarsene" is "se ne vada".

Second-person-plural imperative for the verb "andare" is "Andate", whereas second-person-plural imperative for the verb "andarsene" is "Andatevene".

Please pay special attention to word stress, because I noted that many people learning Italian as a second language make mistakes involving these forms' word stress.

Another very interesting verb tense is "passato prossimo".

Let's start from (grammatically) masculine subjects. The forms of "passato prossimo" for grammatically masculine subjects are: io me ne sono andato, tu te ne sei andato, lui se n'è andato, noi ce ne siamo andati, voi ve ne siete andati, loro se ne sono andati.

Alright. I wanted to say a couple of things.

First of all, I want to point out that, to make it easier to understand, I have expressly indicated subject pronouns. In actual fact, these pronouns are almost always omitted. In other words, in the overwhelming majority of cases we just say "Me ne sono andato" with no subject pronoun. Whereas in some, rare cases we indicate the subject pronoun and say "Io me ne sono andato". Most of the time, though, you will hear this sentence with no pronoun, that is, just: "Me ne sono andato".

The same goes for the present tense. More often than not, subject pronous are omitted. So you will almost always hear "Me ne vado" and you will rarely hear "Io me ne vado".

The second thing I wanted to say is related to third-person-singular forms. These forms look a bit odd because of elision. I.e. the letter E in the pronominal particle has been removed. We indeed say "Se n'è andato", not: "Se ne è andato". Simply to make it easier to pronounce. So we read and pronounce that like so: "se n'è andato", not like "se ne è andato".

But let's move to gramatically feminine subjects!

Alright, then. Forms for feminine subjects are: me ne sono andata, te ne sei andata, se n'è andata, ce ne siamo andate, ve ne siete andate, se ne sono andate.

That's it. I don't think that forms for the other verb tenses create issues.

For instance, I we take a verb tense at random... let's take "condizionale presente". Its forms are: me ne andrei, te ne andresti, se ne andrebbe, ce ne andremmo, ve ne andreste, se ne andrebbero.

Let's talk about meaning. What does "andarsene" mean? What's the difference between "andarsene" and "andare"?

Well, the meaning of "andarsene" is clearly related to that of the verb "andare". Basically, "andarsene" means going (far) away, leaving, going away, going somewhere else.

But let's do an example straight away!

For instance, one could say: "Quella città non mi piaceva e me ne sono andato". What does it mean? I lived in that town, I didn't like it, and I went somewhere else. In other words: I moved, I went far away, I went to another place, I left.

Another example could be: "Ieri sera sono andato alla festa di Marco. Sono rimasto un paio d'ore e poi me ne sono andato". Which means: I stayed for 2 hours at the party, then I left, that is: I came back home. Or rather, I went somewhere else.

From the examples I gave you, you can see that the 2 particles SE and NE convey the meaning of going to a different place, leaving, going away, stepping away.

I can say that a person "è andata via" or "se n'è andata". Meaning that this person isn't there anymore, they left the place they were in, they went somewhere else.

Or, if you are somewhere and are feeling bored... For instance you don't like the party, you are at a party and you don't like it, right? You can say: "Me ne vado". What does it mean? I'm going away.

Incidentally, you can use "andarsene" like that, with nothing after it. So "me ne sono andato". Or, if you want, you can use "andarsene" together with "via", and you can say: "Me ne sono andato via".

That's it! Here you can find a card to my playlist about pronominal verbs. If you want to learn Italian well, check it out!

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