Archive for 'Grammar'
Adjectives and their position Posted by Serena on Aug 17, 2009
A few weeks ago in my blog Esprimiti – part 1 I wrote: Siamo entusiasti della nostra nuova casa (we are delighted with our new house), which prompted the following question from Vince: “‘nuova casa’. That’s how we say it in English. Do Italians now put adjectives in front of nouns with there being no change in meaning? Is there a…
Tricky little words: “Ci” – part 2 Posted by Serena on Aug 5, 2009
Last week I wrote a post in which I explained as best as I could the many ways in which we use that tricky little word called ci. If you missed it you can read it here: Ci – part 1 . Well done those of you who had a go at translating my two silly sentences…
Tricky little words: “Ci” Posted by Serena on Jul 27, 2009
Very often, in the process of learning a language it’s the little things that we find the hardest to get to grips with. It doesn’t take long when learning Italian for example to work out that soddisfazione means ‘satisfaction’, eccellente means ‘excellent’, and that riabilitazione means ‘rehabilitation’. But ‘ci’, that little two letter word that…
Esprimiti! part 1. Posted by Serena on Jul 12, 2009
Learning another language always has its ups and downs, and it’s quite normal to pass through phases in which you feel that you’re making progress, followed by times where you feel that you’re not getting anywhere. This partly depends on the level of interaction that you have with native speakers of the language that you…
Ogni Posted by Serena on Jul 3, 2009
Following an interesting discussion that arose from my article ‘Talking about the time’ I thought it would be useful to explore the use of ogni, a word which can occasionally cause some confusion. Ogni usually means ‘every’, ‘each’, or ‘all’ and is commonly heard in the following types of phrases: ogni mattina mi alzo alle sette (every morning I get…
Giorno or Giornata? Posted by Serena on Jun 30, 2009
A reader wrote to me asking: “Can you explain the difference between giorno and giornata (both meaning “day” in English) if there is one?” I thought that the answer to this was going to be short, and straightforward, but when I looked in my Italian dictionary, just to check that my comment would be correct…
Bisogno or Bisogna? Posted by Serena on Jun 6, 2009
Here is another example of a verb that does not translate very well from English into Italian: “to need”. In Italian the verb bisognare (to need) has become redundant except in its third person form, but we use two different constructions to express the concept of ‘need’ that should not be confused with each other…