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Ice and Fire Posted by Geoff on Mar 2, 2018
Here’s my English translation of Serena’s recent article Gelo e Fuoco. Quando da bambina vidi il film ‘Dottor Zivago’, la scena che mi fece più impressione è quella in cui Zivago e Lara passano la notte in una casa isolata, in mezzo alla bufera di neve, coi lupi che ululano fuori. Quella notte non riuscii…
Qualche Problema Posted by Geoff on Feb 26, 2018
Indefinite adjectives are used to indicate an undefined number or quality of things or persons. They’re mostly straightforward, but there’s an important exception that can easily trip you up. Probably the most frequently used aggettivo indefinito (indefinite adjective) is qualche, which means ‘some’, ‘any’, or ‘a few’. The confusing thing about qualche is that although…
Non Voglio Alzarmi! Posted by Geoff on Feb 19, 2018
Getting out of one’s nice cosy bed can be tough sometimes, especially in the middle of the winter when you’re lying there listening to the wind’s icy fingers grabbing at the roof tiles and whipping the branches around … Sto così bene qui a letto, devo davvero alzarmi? = I’m really comfortable here in bed…
Italian False Friends Posted by Geoff on Feb 16, 2018
The English language contains many Latin words, and once you learn to recognise them it will be a great help in terms of building up your Italian vocabulary … … but not always … and that’s where false friends come in. False friends, often referred to as false cognates, are words that sound very similar…
Making Comparisons – An Exercise Posted by Geoff on Feb 13, 2018
Last week I published a blog called Making Comparisons In Italian in which we looked at the use of di and che in conjunction with più or meno. Here’s an exercise that will give you an opportunity to put that knowledge into practice. Firstly though, we’re going to see how we describe things that are in…
Making Comparisons In Italian Posted by Geoff on Feb 5, 2018
When learning how to make comparisons students are usually taught to use più (more) or meno (less) and the preposition di (than). But is this always the case? Let’s find out. Here are some examples that follow the rule outlined above: La Spezia è più grande di Pontremoli = La Spezia is bigger than Pontremoli…
Tuscan Villa For Sale – An Exercise Posted by Geoff on Feb 2, 2018
So far in my series of blogs on the Italian article we’ve looked at l’articolo determinativo (the definite article: the), l’articolo indeterminativo (the indefinite article: a/an) and le preposizioni articolate (preposition/article combinations: on the, in the, from the, etc.). Here’s an opportunity to put your learning into practice. In chapter 1 I asked you to…