My Father’s War–Part 1 Posted by Serena on Jul 3, 2015
Il 10 giugno 1940, quando l’Italia ha dichiarato guerra all’Inghilterra, mio padre era un giovanotto di 19 anni appena compiuti e viveva con la sua famiglia a Bengasi, in Libia, che era colonia italiana dal 1911. Approfittando del fatto che papà in questo periodo abita con noi, gli ho chiesto di raccontarmi le sue esperienze…
A Bit More Italian Back-to-frontness Posted by Geoff on Jul 1, 2015
Now why on earth won’t my spell checker recognise the word back-to-frontness? It seems perfectly valid to me! In my last blog, Learning Italian: The Back To Front Language! I touched upon the seemingly superfluous articles il, la, i, and le, in phrases such as la mia bici (the my bike): Hai visto la mia…
Learning Italian: The Back To Front Language! Posted by Geoff on Jun 29, 2015
My mother tongue being English, I can really empathise with the problems encountered by learners of la bella lingua. Let’s face it dear readers, Italian sounds divine … but it’s all back to front, upside down, and inside out, vero? Of course, if you already speak another Latin language your learning experience will probably be…
Pluralise! Answers And Analysis Posted by Geoff on Jun 25, 2015
Firstly, well done all of you who had a go at our Pluralise! quiz. In today’s article we’ll give you the correct answers together with an explanation and analysis. Singular: my grandfather had a cow and a sheep = mio nonno aveva una mucca e una pecora Plural: my grandfather had two cows and three sheep…
My Father’s Old Trade Posted by Serena on Jun 24, 2015
By Serena with English translation by Geoff In questi giorni mio papà vive con noi, cioè con me, Geoff e otto gatti, perché mia mamma non sta bene ed è ricoverata in ospedale. Per tenere tranquillo mio padre e non fargli venire in mente brutti pensieri, ho scoperto un trucco semplice ma molto efficace: gli…
Italian Quiz: Pluralise! Posted by Geoff on Jun 22, 2015
So, how are your plurals? Well today we’re going to find out with a little quiz. But firstly, let’s just go over a few simple rules for pluralising in Italian: Masculine words generally end with an ‘o’ in the singular, and an ‘i’ in the plural Feminine words generally end with an ‘a’ in the…
To Be Or To Be? Posted by Geoff on Jun 18, 2015
Stare or essere? …. that is the question … so often asked by students of Italian. If English is your mother tongue, the concept of two different verbs both meaning ‘to be’ can be pretty confusing. We’ve already covered this topic in depth here. But today I’m going to focus on an important, but easily…