Archive for 'Grammar'
The Living Dead or How to use the Present Participle in Italian Posted by Serena on Jan 9, 2014
Hands up who knows what the participio presente (present participle) is. What, no one? Well it’s not really that surprising, in fact the present participle is not even usually found in Italian language books for foreigners. The present participle is easily recognisable by its particular ending: –are verbs (such as tremare) change their ending to…
Present or Future? Posted by Geoff on Dec 6, 2013
“Va bene, adesso prendo un caffè poi me ne vado a casa così finisco di scrivere il blog”. A literal translation of this simple sentence into English highlights a confusing aspect of the use of the present tense in Italian: ‘Okay, now I have a coffee, then I go home so that I finish writing…
Unravelling the Chinese Italian Instructions Posted by Serena on Nov 22, 2013
I guess we’ve all stared in frustrated confusion or amusement at the badly translated instructions that arrive with our latest ‘made in China’ acquisition. A few days ago Geoff bought a tactical torch for his airsoft rifle from the Chinese stall on the market here in Pontremoli. It’s well made, well presented, and with a…
Da or Per? Posted by Serena on Nov 12, 2013
I recently received the following comment from a reader: “I think the two prepositions da and per, when they have the same meaning, is a source of confusion since there isn’t a rule to go by. A future blog would be much appreciated on this.” Yes, it’s true that this is a tricky subject, so…
The Fall of my Guardian Angel Posted by Serena on Sep 27, 2013
In this little story from my childhood I’ve mainly used two verb tenses: imperfetto, which I’ve marked in purple, and passato prossimo, which is in red. Quando ero bambina in casa avevamo una statuina in ceramica di un angelo, che mia madre diceva essere il nostro angelo custode: era alta circa 10 cm, aveva la…
Lei or Lei, how to tell you from her … Posted by Serena on Sep 20, 2013
Recently, I wrote several posts about the formal personal pronoun “lei” (you singular). I also explained that the use of the capital letter for the formal pronoun is an artificial distinction created by some grammar books to make it ‘easier’ to recognise. In reality, Lei (you) written with a capital letter is uncommon, and only…
Lei, Le or La?–The Solutions Posted by Serena on Sep 10, 2013
Here are the solutions to our quiz about Lei, Le and La which we published a few days ago. If you haven’t seen it yet you’ll find it here: 1. Buon giorno Dottor Bianchi, le avevo telefonato ieri mattina per fissare un appuntamento, si ricorda? (telefonare a qualcuno, indirect object) = Good morning Doctor Bianchi…