Archive for 'Grammar'
Mi Piace! – Part 2. Posted by Geoff on May 14, 2018
In Mi Piace! – Part 1. I wrote: “In Italian it’s not the person that does the liking, but the thing that pleases the person”. Today we’ll find out why it’s so important to understand this basic concept. Insisting on translating ‘mi piace‘ as ‘I like it’ is fine if you never intend to move beyond…
Mi Piace! – Part 1. Posted by Geoff on May 7, 2018
In my last couple of articles we’ve been focusing on pronomi personali indiretti (indirect personal pronouns). Today, we’ll put what we’ve learnt into practice with the important verb piacere (to please). You won’t get far in Italy without the verb piacere: Ti piace l’Italia? (Do you like Italy?) you’ll be asked, and hopefully you’ll reply…
A Not So Perfect Witness Posted by Serena on May 4, 2018
This, the third chapter of my detective story, takes the form of a quiz based on the passato prossimo. If you haven’t read the previous chapters you can find them here: Chapter 1. The Strange Case Of The Irregular Body Chapter 2. An Extremely Subjunctive Investigation Since he retired from the Royal Navy many many…
A Bit More About Indirect Personal Pronouns Posted by Geoff on Apr 30, 2018
In my last blog we explored the basic functionality of pronomi personali indiretti. Today we’re going to see how the forme atone combine themselves with other pronouns or verbs. Let’s begin by revising the forme atone: mi = to me ti = to you (singular) gli = to him le = to her ci =…
An Extremely Subjunctive Investigation Posted by Serena on Apr 26, 2018
Happily, thanks to the correct list of body parts that we sent him, our grammatically challenged Tenente Ciceri didn’t have to spend a month directing traffic! If you haven’t already done so, you can read part 1. here: The Strange Case Of The Irregular Body The List Of Irregular Body Parts: the ear = l’orecchio…
Italian Indirect Personal Pronouns Posted by Geoff on Apr 23, 2018
Pronomi personali indiretti are really not as complicated as they sound once you’ve understood the basics of how they work. To Whom? Put simply, indirect personal pronouns answer the question ‘to whom?’ (a chi?) For example: a chi hai dato il libro? = to whom did you give the book? ho dato il libro a…
The Italian Past Participle Posted by Geoff on Mar 26, 2018
How does the Italian past participle (il participio passato) work when used with the verbs essere (to be) and avere (to have)? Let’s find out. The Past Participle With Essere: When we use the past participle with essere it has to agree with the subject in gender and number. This means that the ending of…