Archive for 'Grammar'
February Quiz – The Answers Posted by Geoff on Mar 5, 2014
Well done everyone who had a go at our end of February quiz. Quizzes are are fun, but also very useful to Serena and myself because they help to highlight difficulties that you, our readers, experience when learning Italian. If you haven’t already had a go at the quiz you can find it HERE. Now…
February Quiz Posted by Geoff on Feb 28, 2014
Our quizzes always seem to be popular, and we get lots of requests for more, so here’s one to finish off February with. All of the answers, or clues can be found in blogs that we’ve written this month. Okay now … concentrate … 1. Eclisse del Cuore: in her version of the classic 80’s…
To Be or to Have? Part 2 Posted by Serena on Feb 17, 2014
As promised in Part 1 of this blog, today we’re going to look at some more verbs which use both essere and avere in the passato prossimo. Let’s dive straight in: 1. suonare = to play, to ring. This is a transitive verb, so it’s normally built with the verb avere: Giovanni ha suonato la…
To Be or to Have? Posted by Serena on Feb 7, 2014
If you’re learning Italian, knowing when to use essere or avere when talking about the past in the present perfect (Passato prossimo) is always a challenge. Should I say “Giovanni è vissuto in Inghilterra dal 2002 al 2007” or “Giovanni ha vissuto in Inghilterra dal 2002 al 2007”? I remember once, when I was teaching…
How Not to Say I Love You in Italian Posted by Serena on Jan 29, 2014
Italians are very romantic, and town walls all over Italy are covered in graffiti with big passionate declarations of love. Ma amore non fa sempre rima con cuore (but love does not always rhyme with heart), as we say in Italian, so despite the good intentions these romantic graffiti are often full of grammatical mistakes…
Italian Grammar Quiz – The Solutions Posted by Serena on Jan 22, 2014
Here, as promised, are the correct answers to the quiz that we published a few days ago. If you haven’t already had a go at it you can find it here. 1. It keeps the wind off your face in the car. The correct answer is il parabrezza (literally ‘the breeze stopper, the windshield/windscreen of…
Italian Grammar Quiz Posted by Serena on Jan 17, 2014
How many of you made a new years resolution something like this: “This year I’m going to really make an effort to study Italian”? Well here’s a little quiz to give you a kick-start. This quiz highlights some subtle but important grammatical differences. See how many you can solve. 1. It keeps the wind off…