Archive for 'Grammar'
Busy Busy Busy! Posted by Serena on Nov 6, 2014
Written by Serena with photos by Geoff Today’s post is written from the point of view of our two month old kitten Amber, and I’ve kept the language fairly simple (well she is only two months old!). Words and expressions highlighted in purple are explained in the Grammar and Vocabulary section at the end. Una…
How to use the Past Conditional in Italian Posted by Serena on Oct 22, 2014
Last week we took a look at the present conditional, which, if you missed it, you can find HERE. Today we are going to look at il condizionale passato (the past conditional). Here are a couple of examples of how we conjugate it, firstly with the auxiliary verb essere (to be): Coniugazione del verbo essere…
How to use the Present Conditional in Italian Posted by Serena on Oct 16, 2014
While I was replying a reader’s question last week about the differences between the congiuntivo presente and the condizionale, I realised that although I’ve covered the use of the congiuntivo presente I’d never written an article specifically on the use of the condizionale (conditional). So I’m going to make amends, beginning today with il condizionale…
Now It’s Your Turn – The Translations Posted by Geoff on Oct 10, 2014
Italian translations by Serena, photos by Geoff So, how did you get on with your English to Italian translations of Lucky Number Seven – Now It’s Your Turn? Here are our versions for reference. N.B. As you will see, there may be several possible translations for some of the sentences. From Part 1: a. I…
Lucky Number Seven – Now It’s Your Turn! Posted by Geoff on Oct 6, 2014
All photos by Geoff Chamberlain In our first two blogs about Amber, the kitten that we rescued three weeks ago, Serena wrote the text in Italian followed by an English translation. In the third blog I wrote in English followed by an Italian translation. Well, here’s part 4, and this time it’s your turn dear…
Who’s Who? Posted by Serena on Oct 2, 2014
I’ve often noticed that English speakers who are learning Italian tend to mistakenly use chi instead of che. Of course, they look and sound very similar, and English to Italian dictionaries tend to give chi as the primary translation for who. If only it were that simple! Today we’re going to look at the difference…
Te Ne Vai Posted by Geoff on Sep 18, 2014
Ne is one of those famous tricky little words that is guaranteed to frustrate any student of Italian. A few years ago we wrote THIS BLOG on the subject, and I strongly advise anyone who is having problems with the use of ne to read it through thoroughly. Today though, I’m going to follow Mary…