In this video I 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!

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 the playlist in which I grouped together all my videos about pronoun verbs:    • verbi pronominali - Italian pronomina...  

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
- in -SI, such as "vestirsi",
- in -SELA, such as "cavarsela",
- in -CELA, such as "farcela"
- 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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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".

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.