Archive for 'Grammar'
Si Impersonale – Part 1 Posted by Serena on Feb 22, 2012
Si dice che al finesettimana avremo temperature primaverili (They say that at the weekend we’ll have spring like temperatures). In Italian we often use the impersonal pronoun ‘si’, known as si impersonale. It is commonly translated in English as ‘one’, but can also mean ‘they’, ‘you’, or ‘it’ in an impersonal sense. To clarify, let’s…
Preposizioni Articolate – part 2 Posted by Serena on Jan 23, 2012
Here’s part 2 of my blog dealing with preposizioni articolate (articulated prepositions). You will need to read the introduction to part 1 for an explanation. – Di (of, than, about): di + il = del e.g.: l’albero è caduto a causa del vento (the tree fell down because of the wind) di + lo = dello…
Preposizioni Articolate – part 1 Posted by Serena on Jan 20, 2012
A preposition is a word that describes a relationship between other words in a sentence. The most common Italian preposizioni are, in alphabetical order: a (to, at, in), con (with), da (from, by, since, to, at), di (of, than, about), in (in, inside, to, within, at), per (for, to, by), su (on, in, about), tra/fra (between…
Parole e Accenti Posted by Serena on Jan 4, 2012
I recently wrote a blog about the accent in Italian verbs explaining that there weren’t any fixed rules, and that they had to be learned by heart. In order to show how important it is to get the accent in the right place, let’s have a look at a few words that change their meaning …
L’Accento nei Verbi Posted by Serena on Dec 12, 2011
In Italian, we have fixed rules for the pronunciation of letters which, once learnt, make it much easier to understand the relationship between written and spoken language. Unfortunately, the same is not true for accents. Although there are rules for where accents fall in verbs there are also lots of exceptions. As for nouns, adjectives…
Tu and Lei – Part 2 Posted by Serena on Nov 16, 2011
In Tu and Lei – Part 1 we looked at the changes that take place when we address people using either the informal tu or the formal Lei. Today we’ll look at the differences between tu and Lei when we give polite orders such as ‘take the next road on the left’ or ‘take a…
Tu and Lei – Part 1 Posted by Serena on Nov 9, 2011
In Italian we have two main forms of addressing people: the informal tu and the formal lei. We normally use tu with family, friends, and children. Lei is used with people we don’t know, and professionals, such as doctors, lawyers, the police etc. Have a look at the following examples in which the informal is…