Definite article: ‘the’
The first thing to know is that the Italian language uses definite articles a lot more than in English when speaking generally. For example, where we would say beautiful women, Italians would say le belle donne (the beautiful women) or il cibo italiano instead of italian food
Next we should remember that articles have [...]
Where English uses a universal verb ‘to be’, Italian has two verbs: essere and stare. It also uses the verb avere (have) in some cases.
Essere is used as a main verb to express simple ideas such as ‘the grass is green’- ‘L’erba è verde’ or ‘I’m Italian’ - sono italiano.
It is also used as an [...]
… which is famous in the English speaking world as a duet with Sarah Brightman.
In Italian it’s called ‘Con te partirò‘
Quando sono solo
sogno all’orizzonte
e mancan le parole
Si lo so che
non c’è luce in una stanza quando manca il sole
se non ci sei tu con me
con me.
Su le finestre
mostro a tutti il mio cuore
che hai acceso,
chiudi [...]
Subject pronouns in English are I, you, he, she, it, we, you and they.
They are used before a verb to explain who is doing the action, eg I play, they play.
In italian this is already clear from the ending of the verb so often the subject pronoun is not specified.
Let’s use an example with the [...]
If you have found work and are coming to live in Italy, you’d better get used to being a straniero (foreigner)!
Italians split stranieri into two groups: comunitari (those coming from member states of the EU) and extra-comunitari.
First of all you will need un posto da vivere (somewhere to live). The most logical solution is to [...]
Prepositions are notoriously difficult to learn as they are one of the few elements of vocabulary that don’t have a straight translation from one language to another.
Don’t assume that because a preposition seems to have a similar equivalent in one situation that it will always be the same. Take the example of ‘in estate’ (in [...]
One of the first things you notice living in Italy is that tradizione (tradition) is extremely important, and nowhere is this more true than in the famiglia (family).
Il divorzio is not uncommon, but the vast majority of families live together, often with three generations under the same roof - mamma e papà, fratello e sorella (brother [...]
In Italian, if you look in a grammar book, there are a lot of tenses to talk about the past.
Here we are going to look at the most important and most used - the passato prossimo (near past).
This tense can be used in most situations, whether recently or quite a long time ago.
An example using [...]
Although public transport in Italy is really very good (especially in the North), nothing compares with getting off the beaten track and discovering the ‘real’ Italy.
Unless you are planning on bringing your own car you will need to noleggiare un auto (rent a car). Most cities have plenty of choice, often situated near the aeroporto [...]
First of all we should take a look at our own language - English has many ways of expressing the future.
Some examples are I will do, I am doing or I am going to do.
Italian is a lot simpler.
Italians either use the present tense (to talk about the very near future) or the future tense [...]
