La particella Si

The Impersonal Si
Impersonal sentences have an unspecified subject. In English, this idea is frequently expressed with one, people, you, we and they. In Italian, the same idea is expressed with the particle si + 3^rd sing. person of the verb: 

La domenica si dorme di più On Sunday, people sleep more
Si può entrare nel supermercato alle nove People can enter the supermarket at nine
Qui non si può fumare Here you cannot smoke
Si sta bene in vacanza One feels good on vacation

You are actually already familiar with this construction. In fact, you have encountered it (see Introduzione) when you have learned phrases such as Come si dice…, Si dice..., Come si scrive…, Si scrive…, etc.

All the verbs and all the tenses can be constructed in the impersonal form using si + 3^rd sing. person of the verb:

• Present: Si vede che sei stanco (One [or we, people, etc.] can see you are tired)
• Imperfetto: Fino a qualche anno fa, in Italia si fumava molto (Until a few years ago, in Italy, people [or we, etc.] used to smoke a lot)
• Passato prossimo: Ieri in Italia non si è lavorato (Yesterday, people [or we, etc.] did not work)
• Future (see next chapter): Si andrà in pensione a 65 anni (People [or we, etc.] will retire at 65)

Note: With the  Passato Prossimo the auxiliary must always be essere (to be), never avere (to have). That’s why we have si è lavorato and not si ha lavorato. The past participle is always in –o (lavorato).

Si passivante
When a direct object is expressed (a direct object answers the question what? or who?), the impersonal si becomes si passivante. Do not worry! Even if grammatically speaking, they are not the same, they work precisely in the same way:

• Impersonal si: In Italia si mangia molto (In Italy, people eat a lot) – There is not a direct object
  
• Si passivante: In Italia si mangia molta pasta (In Italy people eat a lot of pasta) –  molta pasta is the direct object (In Italy, people eat WHAT? Molta pasta)²It is called “passivante” because the sentence has, in fact, a passive meaning: In Italia si mangia molta pasta = In Italia, molta pasta è mangiata (In Italy, a lot of pasta is eaten).

The only difference is when, instead of a singular direct object, there is a plural one. In this case,  the 3^rd plural. person of the verb must be used. Note the difference:

• In Italia si mangia molta pasta (In Italy, people eat a lot of pasta) – si mangia because pasta is a singular noun
• In Italia si mangiano molti spaghetti (In Italy, people eat a lot of spaghetti) – si mangiano because spaghetti is a plural noun

You must pay attention when potere, dovere, or volere verb are used. Note the difference:

• Si deve studiare (You/We/People have to study)
• Si deve studiare la storia (You/We/People have to study history or History must be studied)
• Si devono studiare le lingua straniere (You/We/People have to study foreign languages  or Foreign languages  must be studied)

While In the first two sentences, the sing. person of the verb (si deve) is used, in the third one, the plural (si devono) is used to agree with the plural subject le lingua straniere.

With the Passato Prossimo the auxiliary must always be essere (to be), never avere (to have), and the verb must agree in gender and number with the direct object:

• Ieri, si è celebrato il Natale (Yesterday, people celebrated Christmas) – si è celebrato because Natale is a singular and masculine noun
• Ieri, si è celebrata la Pasqua (Yesterday, people celebrated Easter) – si è celebrata because Pasqua is a singular and feminine noun
• Ieri, si sono persi molti soldi in borsa (Yesterday, people lost a lot of  money on the stock exchange) – si sono persi  because soldi is a plural and masculine noun
  
• Ieri, si sono cancellate molte prenotazioni (Yesterday, people canceled many reservations) – si sono cancellate  because prenotazioni is a plural and feminine noun

• Write 5 sentences with the Impersonal Si and 5 sentences with the Si Passivante. Then you can check if they are grammatically correct using Spell and grammar checker.
• Pretend you are Italian and ask a classmate what people can or can not do in America using the particle Si (ex: In America si può bere alcol per strada?). Then your classmate asks you the same kind of questions about Italy. You can use Speech to text to check your pronunciation.