Help with understanding the "Me ne occupo io" translation

In lesson 5.7, "Me ne occupo io" is translated as  "I'll take care of it."  I don't understand how me, ne, and io all map (I know io = I, but why does it end up at the end of the sentence?)   If occupare is a reflexive verb, I might have guessed "Mi le occupo."  

Thanks,

Jay

 

Hi Jay,

I'm a native English speaker but I'll explain it as I understand it. I think it's a fixed phrase but a literal translation of this would be "I'll occupy myself with it" or "of it". It's reflexive, as you say, hence the "me" first and the "ne" means "of it". The "io" at the end is just for emphasis. 

Cheers,
Drew

Hi Drew,

Thanks for the explanation, much appreciated!   I haven't yet encountered "ne" in Italian.  I studied French so "ne" struck me as a negative.    Any idea why "me" is used instead of "mi" for the reflexive pronoun?  It's confusing since this unit generally shows the "mi" pronoun with the "a me" version used to convey emphasis on the pronoun.  With no "a", it's hard to see why "me" is used in this sentence.

Best,

Jay

Hi Jay,

The position of the "me" tells me that it's an indirect object pronoun which means that it really means "to me". In a sentence like "she gives the present to me" the me in the end is the indirect object pronoun (and the others are the subject and the direct object). 

But, in that case, it doesn't really translate very exactly to English. I'm waiting for Lucia to pop up and answer that for both of us!

BTW, I found the "pronoun challenge" at icebergproject.co really good for understanding a lot of this stuff. I'm not an expert by any means but I understand it much better than when I started.

Cheers,
Drew

Hey Drew,

Thanks for that.  I've been looking for a supplement for Rocket, I signed up for icebergproject.co. Looks interesting, thanks for sending that.    Have you ever used any of the Practice Makes Perfect guides? - https://www.amazon.com/Practice-Makes-Perfect-Complete-Italian/product-reviews/0071603670/ref=cm_cr_dp_see_all_btm?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=recent

Best,

Jay

 

Hi Jay,

No, I haven't seen that before.

Actually, the best supplement to Rocket that I've found by a long long way is italki. I started with a tutor 8 weeks ago to actually talk live with a tutor and I can't tell you how much it's helped me. In fact, I'd recommend my teacher directly, she is just fantastic. https://www.italki.com/teacher/2498052

I've always said that I can read and write reasonably well but my listening and speaking is poor but that follow everyone's pattern. It's SO much harder to speak. I've done 8 lessons with Pier Paola now and I have so far to go but I've learned so much in that short space of time.

What level are you up to?

Cheers,
Drew

Spot on, drewster!

jrdevivo, for the difference between me/mi, te/ti you might find this useful: https://members.rocketlanguages.com/members/forum/italian-grammar/ti-vs-te

And also this: https://members.rocketlanguages.com/members/forum/italian-feedback-and-comments/lesson-310-direct-indirect-pronouns-1

If you have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask!

Lucia

Thank you again Lucia - that was just what I needed!

Thanks for the italki tip Drew.  I actually did 1 session a couple of months ago and really liked the woman I had the session with, but thought I might get more out of it once I knew more Italian.  Maybe now is the time to get back in it...

I just finished lesson 5.7.  Some days I feel like I'm starting to make progress, and others it feels like I've forgotten everything I just saw!  Similar to you, my reading and writing are, relatively, decent but speaking and listening is poor.

I know what you mean. I'm at the stage where I do know lots of words and I can read pretty well but the moment I try to speak, it all leaves me, but I do get insight as to which parts are most difficult. I find that nouns are pretty easy but verbs, pronouns & prepositions are really difficult. When I read I can easily understand that "io sono andato" means I went, but I can't think to say this when I'm trying to speak because it's not "internalised".

I think that while you could probably get benefit from speaking to someone at any stage, it would be of limited use until you had the basics right. You're at a good level I'd say. 

We want to go to Italy in June next year and I reckon I need about 100 lessons between now and then to be conversational but I am pretty proud that I've been able to talk for 8 hours. I thought there was no way I'd be able to do that.

Cheers, Drew

You'll be in great shape for June.  We went to Italy this summer and I didn't have much opportunity to speak.  I had a bunch of tourist related phrases memorized, but as soon as people heard me speak, they just spoke English because it was so much easier to communicate.  I stumbled through a bit of Italian in a couple of small villages, but I wasn't too effective.  Force yourself to get those 100 hours in - you'll be glad you did!

We went in May this year and I had only been learning for 3 months by then. I really wanted to try it out and did in a couple of places but mostly had the same experience as you .. straight to English. My tutor told me to pretend to be Swedish or something and say that I don't speak English!