My Italian

Archive for September, 2008

Advice on staying in a hotel in Italy - vocabulary and useful phrases

Today it’s never been easier to organise an inexpensive short break in Italy.
Budget airlines such as Ryanair and Easyjet fly to a large number of beautiful Italian cities and with the internet you have access to a huge number of alberghi (hotels) or bed and breakfasts throughout the country.
If you are booking via the internet, [...]

Learn how to make questions in Italian

Making questions is an aspect of the English language that is actually quite complicated if you think about it.
We use something called an auxiliary which is a verb that ‘helps’ the main verb become interrogative. In the present this auxiliary is ‘do’, in the past, ‘did’, future ‘will’ and so on. Plus, if we are [...]

Advice on how to learn vocabulary

Vocabulary is undoubtably the most fundamental aspect of learning to speak a language. You can make yourself understood with just vocabulary but not with just grammar.
There are no short cuts to learning vocab. It takes time and effort. Some methods will tell you to do strange-sounding things like “find a similar sounding word with a [...]

Learn how to form and use a past participle in Italian

First of all, what exactly is a participle? Some examples of English past participles are gone, seen, spoken, eaten etc.
Past participles in English are used to form the past (I have eaten), the passive (it was eaten) or can be used just as adjectives (a half-eaten biscuit).
The good news is that they are used in [...]

A translation of Vasco Rossi’s “Un senso”

Listening to songs is a great way to learn - especially listening to the music the Italians themselves love.
There’s nobody more popular than Vasco!
Voglio trovare
un senso a questa sera
Anche se questa sera
un senso non ce l’ha
Voglio trovare
un senso a questa vita
Anche se questa vita
un senso non ce l’ha
Voglio trovare
un senso a questa storia
Anche se questa [...]

Advice on eating out in Italy

The real reason people visit Italy! Forget the monuments, art and history - we want the food!
First thing to decide is where to go. Depending on your budget you can choose from a whole range of eateries.
Starting from the cheap and cheerful, a self-service restaurant (despite the sound of it) can actually offer really great [...]

How to use comparatives and superlatives in Italian

Comparatives are used to compare two things, for example a book is bigger than a pen.
In italian you simply put the word ‘più‘ (more) in front of the adjective and follow the adjective with ‘di‘ (than):
‘a book is bigger than a pen’ becomes ‘un libro è più grande di una penna’.
Simply put, più + adjective [...]

Some Italian proverbs and expressions using animals

English is not the only language rich in idioms, sayings and proverbs. Italians also love churning out the things their nonni (grandparents) used to say, with an expression for pretty much every occasion!
Some expressions don’t exist in English, whereas some have an equivalent and some are exactly translatable.
‘Animals’ is a topic where you can find [...]

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