Luca scrive a Claudia una lettera

With this sentence we need rules #0 and #0:

Luca gliela scrive (Luca writes it to her)

It’s easy, isn’t it? But let’s make other examples!

Giulia dà a me un regalo [rules #0 and #0] → Giulia me lo dà (Giulia gives me a present → Giulia gives it to me)

Paola compra un computer al suo ragazzo [rules #0 and #0] → Paola glielo compra (Paola buys a computer for her boyfriend → Paola buys it for him)

I miei genitori hanno prestato un libro a me e mio fratello [rules #0 and #0] → I miei genitori ce lo hanno prestato (My parents lent me and my brother a book → My parents lent it to us)

Now, there’s only one last question to discuss… What happens with the pronoun of third person plural “loro“?

Federico regala a loro i suoi gioielli (Federico gives his jewels to them)

How should this sentence be translated?

Here you should take into account what we discussed before, that is the fact that there are two possible solutions:

0) to keep “loro” after the verb;

0) to use “gli“, with risk of ambiguity

Therefore, the sentence Federico regala a loro i suoi gioielli might be transformed in two ways:

Federico li regala loro or Federico glieli regala (Federico gives them to them)

Yes, we’re done! We did our best to explain to you one of the most difficult topics of ItalianGrammar…

But now it’s your turn! Use both direct and indirect pronouns to translate the following sentences:

Marcello e Federico hanno cucinato gli spaghetti a tutta la famiglia! (Marcello and Federico cooked spaghetti for the whole family!)

Loro hanno raccontato a te e tuo fratello tutta la verità. (They told you and your brother the whole truth)

I miei amici scrivono sempre a me dei messaggi! (My friends always writes me some messages!)

Hanno donato i loro abiti ai poveri. (They gave their clothes to poor people)

Now, if you learned how to use direct and indirect pronouns, you just have to go over the Italian subjunctive and then nobody will be able to stop you! You’ll really speak better than many Italians!