Si dice che siano dei criminali. Ma lo sono davvero?

English Translation

They are said to be criminals. But are they really?

I am a confused about the use of “lo” here.

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I strongly suspect that the same rule as in French applies here: neutral pronoun to refer to a preceding phrase or segment of phrase.

Ils sont italiens. Je pense qu’ils le sont.

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Good explanation! Thank you.

It is the same in German:
“Man sagt, sie seien Kriminelle. Aber sind sie es wirklich?”

Without much thinking I would have felt that the sentence “Ma sono davvero.” is missing something.
Therefore, I would have said “Ma sono davvero così?” and I now wonder if that would have been correct, too.

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