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Proprio Posted by Serena on Jul 11, 2014
Here’s another question which I eagerly started replying to in my recent post ‘July’s Grammar Clinic’ thinking ‘this should be simple to answer, just a couple of lines should do the trick’. Ultime parole famose, 230 words later I realised that I was only half way through, so it’s all grown up and now it’s…
July’s Grammar Clinic Posted by Serena on Jul 4, 2014
Your feedback and questions are very important to us, as they really help us to focus on your needs. Sometimes readers have questions about particular aspect of Italian grammar that we feel it would be useful to share with everyone. Here are three important ones: Question 1. From Robin: I have another “reader’s question” and…
Adjective Order in Italian Posted by Serena on Jul 2, 2014
Dear readers, your questions really do help us to focus on what’s important to you as students of Italian, so please keep them coming. Here’s an interesting one that arrived a few days ago from a reader called Patsy: “Could you give me any advice on adjective order in the case of multiple adjectives? It…
Boh! Posted by Serena on Jun 28, 2014
A couple of days ago a reader asked me: is "Boh" the Italian equivalent of "Doh!"? Well, according to the Vocabolario della Lingua Italiana Treccani, the exclamation ‘boh!’ expresses: uncertainty, e.g. ‘boh! non lo so proprio’ (… I don’t really know); incredulity, e.g. ‘boh! se lo dice lui, sarà vero’ (… if he says so…
Mimì The Cat’s Special Recipe Posted by Serena on Jun 26, 2014
Written by our guest blogger Mimì the Cat (with a little help from Serena). Based on a True Story. Cari lettori, oggi tocca a me, Mimì La Gatta, descrivervi una buonissima ricetta, e finalmente non vegetariana: arrosto di orbettino! Questa è una ricetta molto semplice ed economica, come potete vedere dagli ingredienti, pochi e genuini…
Fiori di Zucca Fritti Posted by Serena on Jun 24, 2014
It’s early in the morning and the courgette plants look beautiful with their big yellow orange flowers fully open, they look so inviting to the bees, but also … to me: mi viene l’acquolina in bocca pensando ai fiori di zucca fritti (my mouth waters just thinking about fried pumpkin flowers). I don’t know why…
Molta Confusione! – The Solutions Posted by Serena on Jun 23, 2014
Here, as promised, are the solutions and explanations to last weeks quiz on the use of molto, molta, molti or molte. We asked you to fill in the gaps in the following sentences. Notice that when molto means ‘many’ or ‘a lot of’, it’s an adjective (i.e. it refers to a noun), and therefore it…