by Serena | Dec 6, 2023 | intermediate, Italian grammar
Senti! Guarda! Dai, vieni! Spend a day in Italy and you’ll hear the imperative everywhere: at the market, in the kitchen, on the phone, between friends. Many of my English-speaking students are afraid it sounds rude, so they avoid it. Good news: in Italian, the...
by Serena | Dec 6, 2023 | Italian grammar, beginners, intermediate
What’s the difference between “sapere” and “conoscere”? Although both “sapere” and “conoscere” translate to “to know” in English, in Italian they have distinct meanings and are rarely...
by Serena | Dec 6, 2023 | intermediate, Italian grammar
The imperfetto is the tense my students fall in love with once they get it, because it’s the tense of memories: childhood summers, old habits, the way things used to be. It’s also very regular, so the hard part is not the endings but knowing when to use...
by Serena | Dec 6, 2023 | Italian grammar, intermediate
How do you say “I should” in Italian? With the conditional of dovere: dovrei. And “I should have done it”? With avrei dovuto (or sarei dovuto/a). Here’s how both work, with plenty of examples. In short Should = dovrei, dovresti, dovrebbe…...
by Serena | Dec 6, 2023 | Italian grammar, beginners, intermediate
Wondering why Italians say ce l’ho instead of just l’ho? Or why it’s ce l’hai? and not simply l’hai? Bella domanda! It’s one of the most common things you’ll hear in Italy, and once you get it, you’ll use it every day....
by Serena | Dec 6, 2023 | beginners, intermediate, Italian grammar
Question words are those used at the beginning of a sentence to form a question. In English, these include words such as ‘Who?’, ‘What?’, and ‘When?’. In Italian, equivalent words are ‘Chi?’, ‘Cosa?’, and...
