Italian adjectives, also known as “aggettivi qualificativi,” generally agree in gender and number with the nouns they refer to. In Italian, all nouns have a gender (masculine and feminine) and can be singular or plural
This is a very simplified classification, but it will show most of what you need to learn as an absolute beginner.
When consulting an Italian dictionary, you will typically find adjectives listed in their singular masculine form. There are three categories of adjectives: those ending in -o, those ending in -e, and those ending in -a.
Italian adjectives decline in the feminine and plural forms as follows:
1. Adjectives ending in -o:
– “-o” for the masculine singular (e.g., Antonio è bello). – “-a” for the feminine singular (e.g., Lucia è bella). – “-i” for the masculine plural (e.g., Antonio e Claudio sono belli). – “-e” for the feminine plural (e.g., Lucia e Giorgia sono belle).
2. Adjectives ending in -e:
– “-e” for both the singular forms (e.g., Dario è intelligente, Stefania è intelligente). – “-i” for the plural forms (e.g., Dario e Francesco sono intelligenti, Claudia e Marta sono intelligenti). Adjectives ending in “-e” do not differentiate between masculine and feminine genders. The distinction is determined by the noun itself or the accompanying article.
3. Additionally, there is a small number of invariable Italian adjectives that do not change regardless of gender or number. Examples include “rosa” (pink): la macchina è rosa, i vestiti sono rosa. Other examples are pari (even), dispari (odd), blu (blue), lilla (lilac), and viola (violet).
4. Adjectives ending in -ista: this is just an example of adjectives ending with a particular suffix. there are others and you will learn with experience.
– Adjectives keep the same in the singular form (e.g., Mauro è altruista, Elisa è altruista). – Adjectives change in the plural form: – “-i” for the masculine plural (e.g., Giulio e Luigi sono ottimisti). – “-e” for the feminine plural (e.g., Michela e Giorgia sono pessimiste).
In this case, there is only one form for both the masculine and feminine singular, but two different forms for the plural.
The position of an adjective in a sentence can also alter its meaning in some cases. For example: – “Luigi è un amico vecchio” means “Luigi is an old friend.” – “Luigi è un vecchio amico” means “Luigi is an old man.”
Feel free to test your knowledge with the quiz above, and check your score at the end. If you’re interested, you can have a chance to win a coupon for an Italian Zoom class with a native teacher.
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“Il tempo” is the Italian word for both time and weather. Today we are going to talk about time
You can review the lesson point with a fun quiz ( about 5 minutes – cinque minuti).
I giorni – Days
Giorno is the Italian word for day and daytime. Some Italian days are named after the planets, following the Greek/Roman tradition: Luna (Moon) Marte (Mars) Mercurio (Mercury) Giove (Jupiter) Venere (Venus).
Sabato, Saturday, comes from the Hebrew Shabbat and Domenica (Dies Dominicus) is the Latin for “day of the Lord”. In Italy the first day of the week is lunedì and the name of days starts with a small letter (unless of course they are at the beginning of a sentence). The word dì is an obsolete version of giorno but it’s still visible at the end of the name of the days as suffix. Listen and repeat:
Lunedì – Monday
Martedì – Tuesday
Mercoledì – Wednesday
Giovedì – Thursday
Venerdì – Friday
Sabato – Saturday
Domenica – Sunday
Below, some common adverbs of time (avverbi di tempo). Pretty straightforward, they are of great importance. Please listen carefully, try the quiz and memorise them.
Ieri – Yesterday
Oggi – Today
Domani – Tomorrow
Dopodomani – The day after tomorrow
L’altroieri – The day before yesterday
Tra due giorni – In two days
Tre giorni fa – Three days ago
I mesi – Months
Nothing exotic here. Just memorize, listen and repeat.
Gennaio
Febbraio
Marzo
Aprile
Maggio
Giugno
Le ore – Hours
Che ore sono? – Che ora è? —> What time is it?
The question can be asked using both the singular or plural form of the verbo essere (to be). Normally, the answer is “sono le…” lit, “they are” as opposed to “è… – it is…”, since numbers different to one (l’una) are plural. In other words:
SONO LE … ore e minuti (hour and minutes)
e.g. 4:32 –> Sono le quattro e trentadue
In case of one, noon or midnight, we need to use the singular conjugation of essere.
È (it is) mezzogiorno (noon)
È mezzanotte (midnight)
Èl’una
13.32 è l’una e trentadue;
12: 25 è mezzogiorno e venticinque
Other useful words are
…e un quarto(a quarter past)
…e mezza or …e mezzo (half past)
…meno un quarto (a quarter to).
When the minutes are more than 30, we can use the …meno # rule. So for example:
14:40 sono le tre meno venti – “lit. it’s 3 minus twenty…”
12:45 è l’una meno un quarto –
17: 55 sono le sei meno cinque –
Meno means “minus”. It makes sense, doesn’t it? Please listen to the following podcast for more examples. Try to anticipate the answers.
I noticed that even expert students struggle with simple numbers. You have a good chance for refreshing this simple lesson point.
Sono le…
5:32
21: 50
14:15
11:27
19:30
22:40
16:00
È…
13:15
00:25
01:30
11:45
23:40
00:45
12:55
Let’s practice! Q&A’s – DOMANDE E RISPOSTE
A couple of words about this last podcast. First off, please listen to the DOMANDE (questions), focus on comprehension and pronuntiation. The second part, RISPOSTE (answers) is dedicated to logic. Try to anticipate the podcast and see if you get it right. You can pause the audio with the space bar (pc) or your thumb (pollice!) if you use a mobile. Read them first and get ready.
DOMANDE
Che ore sono? – What time is it?
Che giorno è oggi? – What day is today?
Che giorno era ieri? – What day was yesterday?
Che giorno è (sarà) domani? – What day is tomorrow?
Che mese è? – What month is it?
A che ora pranziamo? – What time are we going to have lunch?
A che ore inizi a lavorare? – What time do you start working?
A che ora finisci di lavorare? What time do you finish working?
RISPOSTE
Sono le due meno un quarto – A quarter to two
Oggi è giovedì – Today is Thursday
Ieri era mercoledì – Yesterday was Wednesday
Domani è domenica – Tomorrow is Sunday
È dicembre – It’s December
Pranziamo a mezzogiorno – We have lunch at noon
Inizio a lavorare alle 8:30 – I start working at 8:30
Finisco di lavorare alle 17:00 – I finish to work and 17:00
We can use the Italian word NE to express different concepts.
The Italian word NE is a “quasi-pronoun”. In fact, NE is more than a simple pronoun and has three main functions. Let’s see them one by one and listen to the podcast.
1. NE as “partitivo”
Hai comprato il pane?
Sì, l’ho comprato.
Quanto NE hai comprato?
Ne ho comprato un chilo.
In the first answer, we use an object pronoun. Did you buy bread? Yes I bought IT, – LO ho (l’ho) comprato. Then she wants to know how much bread. I bought one kilogram (of it) = NE
NE helps to identify the number of objects or the proportion of a part related to a whole. The use of NE always depends on nouns or adjectives defining a quantity, such as:
Un paio, un centinaio, una decina…
Nouns describing a number a part a portion: dieci, metà, un quarto, un pezzo…
Hai dei biglietti della lotteria? – Ne ho comprati tre.
Avete dei francobolli? – Sì, quanti ne vuole?
Quanti anni ha tua nonna? – Ne ha novanta!
Vuoi un caffè? – No, ne ho già bevuti tre.
Quanti soldi ti servono? – Me ne servono molti.
Vuoi un panino? – Ne voglio solo metà.
2. NE as “motion from a place”
A che ora sei andato in ufficio? – Ci sono andato alle otto.
A che ora sei uscito? – Ne sono uscito alle 5 di sera.
This use of NE (example B) is related to its Latin origin INDE, similar to the English Thence, “from there”, NE = da lì. It’s possible but rather unusual in spoken Italian. It is instead of common use when NE reinforces idioms. For example: ANDARSENE = Sono stanco, me ne vado – I’m tired, I hit the road (lit. I get myself away from here).
3. NE as “specification”
Avete parlato di calcio? – Sì, ne abbiamo parlato.
Sai qualcosa di Claudio? – Non ne so niente.
When we talk / think / about something or someone (using the preposition DI = of/about/’s) we can use NE as a pronoun. In other words, NE is the equivalent of “of/about it”.
So, the example A goes: Did you talk about football? – Yes, we talked about it.
B Do you know anything about Claudio? – I know nothing about him.
That’s all, è tutto. Thanks for reading and listening. A presto!
Learn the Italian direct object pronouns (atoni and tonici), listen to the audio examples.
A direct object (complemento oggetto in Italian) is the target, the object of an action expressed by a verb. It answers the questions: Chi? Che cosa? In other words:
Mangio (che cosa?) un gelato.
Porto (chi?) mia madre al cinema.
Gelato and mia madre are the objects of the sentences.
I didn’t use much fantasy for the examples. There are more complex sentences below.
If we know the object linked to a verb, we can avoid repetitions and instead of gelato or mia madre we can use Italian direct object pronouns: pronome diretto, a.k.a. pronome complemento diretto:
Lo mangio.
La porto al cinema.
I eat it, I take her to the movies. The choice of the right pronoun depends on the gender and number of the noun we need to replace.
Gelato is singular masculine, mia madre is singular feminine. Look at the chart.
Two types of Italian direct object pronouns
(Pronomi Soggetto)
Pronomi Atoni
Pronomi tonici
(io)
mi
me
(tu)
ti
te
(lui / lei)
lo / la
lui / lei
(Lei – form)
La
Lei
(noi)
ci
noi
(voi)
vi
voi
(loro)
li / le
loro
Unlike English, we have two sets of direct object pronouns.
Pronomi tonici: when we use a pronome tonico, the focus of the sentence is the pronoun itself. We want the object to be the main element of the sentence. In this case, the pronoun comes after the verb. The pronomi tonici make sentences less fluid and have an “exclusive” function, as we focus only on one element. Moreover, the pronomi tonici are valid for people, not for objects. I could never turn Mangio il gelato into Mangio lui. If I talk about about a person:
Porto lei al cinema.
I take her to the movies, nobody else. The pronomi tonici exclude other possible objects.
Pronomi atoni: the focus of the sentence is not the pronoun. The pronome atono comes before the verb and it’s strictly linked to the action. It is more common than the equivalent pronome tonico in spoken Italian and the sentence is more fluid. I simply take her to the movie, there’s no particular emphasis on the object.
La porto al cinema.
Unless you really need to put the object at the center of the sentence, your choice will be the pronome atono, more common and useful in spoken Italian. Read and listen to the examples.
Pronomi Atoni
Guardi spesso la tivù? – Sì, la guardo tutti i giorni.
Stai cercando un lavoro? – Sì, lo sto cercando.
Mi chiami stasera? – No, ti chiamo domani.
Ci invitate alla festa? – Sì, vi invitiamo.
Hai comprato le fragole? – No, non le ho comprate.
Avete visto i miei figli? – Sì, li abbiamo visti in piazza.
* voice of a student!
Italian direct object pronouns are very important. You will soon learn that they can interact with pronomi atoni indiretti, riflessivi, si impersonale and some verbs (infinito, imperativo, gerundio).
Sapere is a rather important verb. Let’s see it together and learn some useful sentences. This time the webcast is for everyone.
Ciao a tutti
Sapere VS conoscere
Prima di tutto, first and foremost, let’s have a look at the conjugations of the two verbs and listen to the correct pronunciation.
Both sapere and conoscere translate as “to know”. The difference is in the depth of knowledge and the object I know.
SAPERE AS MODAL VERB VS POTERE
Sapere is a very important modal verb. A modal verb supports and describes a second verb and amplifies its meaning. In English, for example, I can swim means that I am able to swim, I know how to do that, or that I am allowed to do that. “Can” is the modal verb, “to swim” is the main verb.
In Italian, “Can” is translated with two different modal verbs: Potere or Sapere (+ an infinitive verb). I can say:
(io) so nuotare – I can swim, I learned as a child and I know how to do that.
(io) posso nuotare – I can swim, I am allowed to or I’m in a condition to do that.
Another example. Let’s suppose Carlo goes out for dinner and has a few glasses of Chianti. He needs to go back home. Now, he knows how to drive (sa guidare) but tonight he can’t (non può), because he had too much wine.
Carlo sa guidare, ma stasera non può perché ha bevuto.
SAPERE IN CONVERSATIONAL ITALIAN
There are plenty of Italian set phrases coming with the verb sapere. Below, a small, personal selection and webcast.
Fammi sapere. – Let me know.
Sono venuto a sapere che …- I came to know that…
Non ne voglio sapere. – I don’t want to know.
Ti faccio sapere. – I’ll let you know.
Le faremo sapere. – We’ll let you know (formal)
Come faccio a saperlo? How would I know it?
Mi sa che (il ristorante è caro) – I have the feeling that…
Non so se mi spiego. – Need I say more?
Mario sa il fatto suo. -He knows his stuff
Thanks for listening. Get in touch if you have questions. Alla prossima!
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