The continuous form is used to express an action in progress at a specified time, either in the past, present and future. Examples in English are:
When the phone rang I was watching the TV
At the moment I’m having dinner
This time tomorrow I’ll be sitting on the train.
Italian works more or less in exactly the same [...]
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 [...]
One thing the Italians are good at is cibo (food). Ask any Italian where you can find the best food in the world and they will get a smug expression on their faces and answer without hesitation.
Visitors to Italy will surely agree with this, and one of the best aspects of a trip to Italy [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
L’autunno è arrivato (Autumn has arrived)!
Although the official date for Autumn is 22nd September, throughout Italy il tempo (the weather) is now starting to get really autumnal. The days are crisp with blue skies and the evenings are really cool. In a few weeks in the North of Italy the famous nebbia (fog) will start [...]
To learn how to use adjectives in Italian, it’s important to not follow rules as they are in English.
First of all you should remember that adjectives nearly always follow the noun that they are describing, e.g. una casa vecchia (”a house old”) not una vecchia casa (an old house).
Secondly, adjectives have to ‘agree’ with the [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
