Italian All-in-One For Dummies (125 page)

Indefinite words used solely as pronouns

Table 6-2
lists some indefinite words that you can use only as pronouns. Most of these indefinite pronouns are singular and invariable, but they do convey a generic, singular or plural meaning. Look at the following example:

Hai visto qualcuno?
(
Did you see someone?
)

Sì, ho contattato tre dottori.
(
Yes, I saw three doctors.
)

In English nowadays, you use
everyone
to mean
all people.
You add third person plural possessive adjectives and personal pronouns, as in
Everyone thinks that his/her team is better.
In Italian, you can't use
ognuno
that way. You use
tutti
(masculine, plural), as in
Tutti pensano che la loro squadra sia la migliore
or
tutte
(feminine, plural) if you know the group includes only women.

To convey
whoever, whatever,
and
whichever,
you can use

chiunque
+ verb in the subjunctive, as in
Chiunque sia stato, lo scopriranno
(
Whoever did it, they'll find them
)

chiunque
+
di
+ noun/pronoun to refer to people, as in
Chiunque sia stato di loro, lo scopriranno
(
Whoever did it, they'll find them
)

qualunque
or
qualsiasi
+ noun, as in
Qualunque regalo tu le faccia, non sarà contenta
(
Whatever present you give her, she won't be happy
);
Puoi scegliere il gusto che vuoi
(
You may choose whichever flavor you want
)

Note:
Chiunque,
qualunque,
and
qualsiasi
often require the verb in the subjunctive as shown in the preceding examples. See
Chapter 6
in Book IV for details about the subjunctive.

Indefinite words that express a part of a set

When you employ an indefinite pronoun, it often refers to part of a set. For example, in the sentence
Alcuni di loro non verranno alla festa
(
Some of them won't come to the party
),
alcuni
(
some
) is the indefinite pronoun and
loro
(
of them
) is the set. You can employ the following formulas using pronouns and other words to convey a part of a larger whole:

ognuno/ciascuno
(
each
),
chiunque
(
any
),
nessuno
(
none
),
qualcuno
(
any; some
), or
uno
(
one
) + the preposition
di
(
of
) or
tra
(
among
) + the verb in the third person singular

If there's a past participle, you leave it in the masculine, as in
Qualcuno di voi ha scritto al giornale
(
Some of you wrote to the paper
), unless you know that the group consists of only females. For example,
Una delle ragazze si è fatta male
(
One of the girls got hurt
).

alcuni
(
some; a few
),
molti
(
many; a lot of
),
parecchi
(
several
),
pochi
(
few
),
tanti
(
so many
), or
troppi
(
too many
) +
di
or
tra
+ the verb in the third person plural

Alcuni di voi hanno chiesto un rinvio.
(
Some of you have asked for a postponement.
)

The indefinite article
del, dello,
della, dell'
(
some
) in the singular + nouns that are uncountable or indicate things in bulk, such as
acqua
(
water
),
vino
(
wine
), or
pioggia
(
rain
)

Vuoi del vino?
(
Do you want some wine?
)

The adverbial phrase
un po' di
(
a little of
) + uncountable concrete nouns or abstractions