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Reflexive Verbs – Part 1 Posted by Geoff on Sep 4, 2018
You won’t get very far in Italian without reflexive verbs. Many are fundamental to everyday conversation, and not too difficult to grasp, others are more obscure and can be hard to conjugate. Mi chiamo Geoff (my name is Geoff, literally: I call myself Geoff). This is probably one of the first Italian phrases that I…
Idiomatic Verbs Using ‘Ci’ Posted by Geoff on Aug 29, 2018
In my previous article about ‘ci‘, we looked at its use as the personal pronoun ‘us’, ‘each other’, or ‘we’, and as the adverb ‘there’ or ‘here’. Today, things get a bit more complex as we move into the mystic realm of idioms. Ci is used in a number of important idiomatic verbs that can…
‘Ci’ Posted by Geoff on Aug 27, 2018
Like an elusive butterfly, she flutters from sentence to sentence. Just when we think we can grasp her, with a swift beat of tiny wings, ‘ci‘ flies out of reach, only to alight somewhere else totally unexpected. Luckily, I have a special grammatical butterfly net. Let’s capture her and take a closer look at her…
Alla Ricerca Della Freschezza – Part 2 Posted by Geoff on Aug 15, 2018
Whilst mad dogs and Englishmen are out in the midday sun, we’re heading for the mountains. Specifically, to Lago Santo, a beautiful mountain lake at 1,507 metres above sea level in the Parco Nazionale dell’Appennino Tosco-Emiliano. In part 1 I described the debilitating heat of August and gave examples of some of the vocabulary that…
Alla Ricerca Della Freschezza – Part 1 Posted by Geoff on Aug 6, 2018
In autumn, winter, or spring I’m always pleased to see him … But now, in August, when he creeps round onto my patio, I don’t want him there. I wish he’d leave me in peace, and I retreat indoors to close him out. ‘He’ (‘Lui‘) is the sun (il sole), and right now he’s not…
Tongue-Tied? – Keep It Simple! Posted by Geoff on Aug 3, 2018
What student of Italian doesn’t dream of being able to pour forth impressive grammatically correct sentences, or hold fluent, colloquial discourses with the ‘natives’? But running before you can walk is quite likely to reduce you to a bumbling troglodyte! Oh, the amazing conversations that I had in my head when I was learning Italian…
A Ghastly Discovery! – Translation Posted by Geoff on Jul 30, 2018
Here’s my English translation for Chapter 10 of our detective story. Il furgone refrigeratore con a bordo l’uomo incappucciato, l’Ispettore Augusto e il Tenente Ciceri, si ferma ai piedi della scalinata d’ingresso di Villa Reale. Sulla veranda, ad aspettarli, c’è un uomo che indossa un camice bianco. The refrigerated van, with the hooded man, Inspector…