Tag Archives: Italian past tense
Past, Present and Future, Quiz Solutions Posted by Geoff on Jan 12, 2015
Well done to those of you who had a go at last week’s quiz. If you missed it and would like to have a go before reading the solutions you can find it here. In the quiz we asked you to translate a number of sentences into Italian using the appropriate tense of the given…
Past, Present and Future Posted by Serena on Jan 5, 2015
Here we are at the beginning of a new year, and isn’t it funny how saying something like “I haven’t seen my friend Fabio since last year” makes it seem like a distant event, when in reality I saw him less than a week ago? Past, present and future, now seems like a good time…
To Be or to Have? Posted by Serena on Feb 7, 2014
If you’re learning Italian, knowing when to use essere or avere when talking about the past in the present perfect (Passato prossimo) is always a challenge. Should I say “Giovanni è vissuto in Inghilterra dal 2002 al 2007” or “Giovanni ha vissuto in Inghilterra dal 2002 al 2007”? I remember once, when I was teaching…
Da or Per? Posted by Serena on Dec 20, 2008
Yesterday, while teaching English to a private student here in Italy, I came across an interesting example in my English grammar book; it said: “John and Ann have been married for 20 years”. My student translated this sentence into Italian word by word as: “John e Ann sono stati sposati per 20 anni”. This is a wonderful example…