First blog, quiz and audio of a series about the Congiuntivo Congiuntivo presente of Essere and Avere At the beginning of your Italian classes, you probably learned the tenses of the indicativo, such as the presente, passato prossimo, imperfetto etcetera. If you are familiar with the tenses of the indicativo, it’s time to learn the congiuntivo presente … Read more ≫
The “concordanza dei tempi”, will help you to say what comes before, after or during another action. In Italiano! Ciao a tutti. The characters of the following very short story, made of two sentences, are you and your friend Laura. She comes to see you and you know that. We just have two actions: the fact that … Read more ≫
Let’s practice the passato prossimo. Quick review and quiz This is just a review, so I am assuming you are already familiar with the passato prossimo regolare. The quiz at the bottom of this page is a basic review with some new vocabulary. Look up the words and verbs you don’t know. In a nutshell, the Passato … Read more ≫
Imperfetto means “imperfect”, not finished. It’s an Italian past tense. A complete guide, quiz and audio examples Imperfetto “non perfetto”, is an important Italian past tense. It’s part of the indicativo mood, a group of tenses that describe real facts, objects, events. The imperfetto describes a situation or a frequent action in the past. It always needs … Read more ≫
Learn Italian comparatives and superlatives. Solve the quiz. Premium podcast for members. Italian comparatives and superlatives modify the value of adverbs and adjectives. Today we talk about adjectives. Italian aggettivi can express the quality of a noun in three degrees (gradi). Grado positivo. That’s the regular value of any adjective. Maria è alta. She’s tall, that’s … Read more ≫
We can use the ubiquitous Italian word “si” to build impersonal sentences. Learn the “si impersonale” and solve the quiz. In Italia si mangia bene. This sentence means that in Italy people, one, everyone, eat well. There is no precise subject and there is no object. We can build this type of sentencers using the word “si” … Read more ≫
Learn different ways to express bisogno e desiderio: need and desire in Italian. Solve the quiz Level, A2 / B1 Bisogna – Avere bisogno – C’è bisogno di… – Servire Bisogna This is an “impersonal” verb, meaning that, in general, it is necessary, convenient, useful, to do something. Bisogna, is very common in the spoken language. … Read more ≫
Tiziano – Ritratto di Isabella d’Este
The Italian conjunctions nonostante, sebbene, anche se, benché…ect. introduce a concessive clause Ciao a tutti. Come va? This is a basic introduction to the Italian concessive clauses, a group of sentences introduced by specific words. When the outcome of a situation is unexpected, “despite” a condition, we can talk about a proposizione concessiva. In other words: … Read more ≫
Learn the most common ways to say some in Italian with a few examples. Solve the quiz at the bottom of this page There are different ways to express the concept of some in Italian. The right choice may depend on the nature of the objects you want to describe. In Italian, just like in English, objects can be … Read more ≫