‘Quanti libri hai letto?’ ‘Ho dovuto leggerne tre.’ C’erano molti esercizi, ma ho potuto farne solo alcuni. Il compito era di ffi cile e ho saputo farne solo una parte. ‘How many books did you read?’ ‘I had to read three.’ There were a lot of exercises, but I could only do a few. The homework was di ffi cult, and I could only do part of it. ‘Quanti libri hai letto?’ ‘Ne ho dovut i leggere tre.’ C’erano molti esercizi, ma ne ho potut i  fare solo alcuni. Gli esercizi erano di ffi cili e ne ho  saput a  fare solo una parte  [fs] .  Gli esercizi  [mp]  erano di ffi cili e ne  ho saput i  fare solo una parte.  ‘How many books did you read?’ ‘I had to read three.’ There were a lot of exercises, but I could only do a few. The exercises were di ffi cult, and I could only do part of them. Conosco questo  fi lm: ieri  ne parlavano alla radio. È un libro di successo: tutti  ne parlano. Hai visto lo spettacolo? Che  ne pensi? Ha molti problemi, ma non  ne parla mai. I know this  fi lm: they were talking about it on the radio yesterday. It’s a popular book: everybody’s talking about it. Did you see the show? What do you think of it? He has a lot of problems, but he never talks about them. Marco aveva dei problemi e ne ha parlato con Anna. Questi sono libri di successo e tutti ne hanno parlato. Marco had problems, and talked about them with Anna. These are popular books and everybody’s been talking about them. When  ne  is used in this way, the past participle does not agreee: 9 Another use of  ne  is is to replace a noun (or a pronoun) preceded by the preposition  di  (as in  Parliamo  del  libro di Primo Levi , ‘We’re talking about Primo Levi’s book’): However, if  ne  is not attached to the in fi nitive, the past participle must agree, in the same way as in the rules given in paragraphs 5–7: 124 Unit 17