UNIT TEN Indirect object pronouns (1) 1 We saw in Unit 7 that a direct object is the person or thing that the verb directly impacts on. An  indirect  object is the person or thing that the action is happening  to  or  for :  Scrivo  a Carla  domani  (I’ll write  to Carla tomorrow);  Mando cartoline  a tutti i miei amici (I send cards  to all my friends ). In English, the indirect object can usually be preceded by ‘to’ or ‘for’, but these are very often omitted: compare ‘I gave the book  to Karen ’ and ‘I gave  Karen  the book’, or ‘I’ll pour a glass  for Jane ’ and ‘I’ll pour Jane  a glass’. An indirect object pronoun replaces a noun used as an indirect object: ‘I gave the book  to her /I gave  her  the book’, ‘I’ll pour  her  a glass/I’ll pour a glass for  her’ . In Italian, an indirect object pronoun replaces a noun preceded by the preposition  a ; it has to agree in gender and number with the noun it refers to. Indirect object pronouns normally come before the verb. In the following examples, the pronouns are in italics: 2 The forms of the indirect object pronouns are as follows: mi ti gli  [m]/ le  [f] ci vi gli  [m and f] to me to you to him/it/her to us to you to them Quando vedo Maria  le  racconto tutto. [ le  stands for  a Maria  (fs)] Non telefono a Carlo,  gli  scrivo. [ gli  stands for  a Carlo  (ms)] Paolo non  ci  dice mai la verità. [ ci  stands for  a noi ] When I see Maria I’ll tell  her everything. I’m not going to phone Carlo: I’ll write to  him . Paolo never tells  us  the truth.