Archive for 'Grammar'
Articles, articles, articles! Posted by Serena on Oct 30, 2008
In English there are only three forms for the definite and indefinite articles: “the, a, an”. But, being Italians, as usual we like to complicate our language and to have as many variations as possible on one little word. Lets start with the articolo indeterminativo (indefinite article: a/an). This is not too bad; we have…
Ciao! Salve! Posted by Serena on Oct 22, 2008
Ciao is probably the best known Italian greeting in the world. It’s an informal form used at any time of the day, both when you meet and when you leave somebody (it means “hello” as well as “goodbye”). However, as it’s informal you shouldn’t use ciao in a formal situation, i.e. when you use Lei…
Plurals: what a nightmare! Posted by Serena on Oct 13, 2008
Unlike most Western European languages, the Italian language pluralizes by changing the final vowel. But as we Italians are very creative and chaotic, we are not happy with just a couple of changes. Here I’ll try to make sense of the various possible plural forms which you might encounter whilst studying Italian: 1. The…
“Lei” part 2: a brief history Posted by Serena on Oct 2, 2008
Following on from Natasha’s blog, I would like to add a few historical notes. The use of Lei (lit.: She) as a form of respect goes back to the XVII-XVIII century, when it was common not to address somebody important directly, but to use abstract forms such as la Signoria Vostra. E.g. “Cosa pensa la…
“Lei” – who in the world is she? Posted by Transparent Language on Sep 2, 2008
I hope I lured you in with the post about Venice. Now it is time to discuss some grammar. I know not everybody loves it, but it is, of course, impossible to totally avoid grammar in a language blog. However, I do not want to explain things that no one cares for. So I would…