Archive for August, 2009
La storia di un’autovelox Posted by Serena on Aug 29, 2009
A few blogs ago I wrote about the tough new laws which are being applied to cyclists here in Italia despite the continuing infringements committed by the idiosyncratic ‘Italian Driver’: Ancora una nuova legge da dimenticare As a ‘coda’ (sequel), I thought you might enjoy the following article which I read a few days ago…
Verbs followed by the preposition ‘Di’ Posted by Serena on Aug 26, 2009
At the end of my previous article ‘Tricky little words: ‘Ne’’ I promised you a list of common verbs that are normally followed by the preposition di, and which can be substituted by the particella pronominale ‘ne’. Several of the verbs in this list are reflexive, therefore when using the ‘ne’ the reflexive pronoun goes…
Tricky little words: Ne Posted by Serena on Aug 23, 2009
In my previous ‘Tricky Little Words’ article I dealt with the dreaded ‘ci’. Now it’s time to get to grips with that other ubiquitous two letter word that can be such a nightmare for learners of Italian: ne! Firstly though I want to clarify the distinction between the congiunzione ‘né … né’ (note the accent…
Ancora una nuova legge da dimenticare! Posted by Serena on Aug 20, 2009
Recently my English sister in law, who lives with her family in France, came to stay with us for a week here in Italy. Having bravely driven right across France in a car packed with herself, her French husband, her three young children and all the paraphernalia necessary for a family holiday, she had the…
Adjectives and their position Posted by Serena on Aug 17, 2009
A few weeks ago in my blog Esprimiti – part 1 I wrote: Siamo entusiasti della nostra nuova casa (we are delighted with our new house), which prompted the following question from Vince: “‘nuova casa’. That’s how we say it in English. Do Italians now put adjectives in front of nouns with there being no change in meaning? Is there a…
Challenging the Stereotype! Posted by Serena on Aug 14, 2009
Every country seems to have its own simplistic interpretation of stranieri (foreigners), reducing them to a limited set of stereotypes. For example, most Italians that I have met since I returned to Italy a couple of years ago seem to see London as synonymous with England, although when pressed they will concede that there is a…
San Lorenzo Posted by Serena on Aug 11, 2009
Ieri era San Lorenzo (yesterday it was San Lorenzo’s day) and questa notte (last night), as is traditional here in Italy, I went out looking for una stella cadente (a shooting star). In fact la notte di San Lorenzo (San Lorenzo’s night) is also known as la notte delle stelle cadenti (the night of the…