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In the sentence "Quanta cioccolata avete mangiato?" The answer will be "Ne abbiamo mangiate poca" or "Ne abbiamo mangiata poca"? Does mangiare get an E because of Ne or does it get an A because cioccolata is a singular feminine noun?

Thanks!

Charo
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tfreifeld
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    The correct answer is the second one. Cioccolata is a singular noun. In this case “ne” works as a “pronome partitivo” and is used to refer to a quantity or part of it both in the singular and in the plural. http://www.oneworlditaliano.com/grammatica-italiana/particella_pronominale_ne.htm –  Jul 31 '19 at 03:42
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    Welcome to Italian.SE! This is a related question: https://italian.stackexchange.com/questions/54/past-participle-and-changing-endings-with-auxiliary-verb-avere (maybe it's a duplicate, at least one of the answers address "ne" particle). – Charo Jul 31 '19 at 07:53
  • It is either “ne abbiamo mangiata poca” or “ne abbiamo mangiato poca”. If you found “mangiate”, then it's a misprint. – egreg Jul 31 '19 at 08:36
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    @egreg: But, it would be "ne abbiamo mangiato" referring to "cioccolata"? – Charo Jul 31 '19 at 08:53
  • @Charo A common trend is not to do “concordanza” when the pronoun is not marked for gender. – egreg Jul 31 '19 at 08:57
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    Being the subject clearly “cioccolata” I’d recommend the use of the feminine desinence despite recent trends. –  Jul 31 '19 at 09:05
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    @egreg: But this article of Treccani Encyclopedia (2011) says: "L’accordo del participio con l’oggetto è invece obbligatorio con ne usato come partitivo in funzione di oggetto". – Charo Jul 31 '19 at 09:21
  • Thank you all for the answers! – tfreifeld Jul 31 '19 at 09:26
  • @Charo Grammars always lag behind usage. ;-) I'm not saying it's “correct”, just that it can be heard. – egreg Jul 31 '19 at 09:54
  • Can someone write an answer to this? – Denis Nardin Aug 03 '19 at 18:23

2 Answers2

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According to Treccani Encyclopedia, agreement in gender and number of past participle with direct object is compulsory when the pronominal particle "ne" is used as a partitive with the function of direct object

L’accordo del participio con l’oggetto è invece obbligatorio con ne usato come partitivo in funzione di oggetto

and gives these examples:

  • di film, ne ho visti parecchi
  • ho comprato delle mele e ne ho mangiate tre (Cordin 2001: 650).

So, according to this rule, you should say

Ne abbiamo mangiata poca

because past participle "mangiata" must agree in gender and number with the direct object (which has been substituted by "ne") "cioccolata".

Charo
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The correct answer is definitely "ne abbiamo mangiata poca" as already said in comments. Here "mangiata" gets a final A because it refers to "cioccolata".

tommaso1311
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