by Serena | Dec 12, 2023 | Italian grammar, beginners
In Italian, when you want to make a generalization or talk about what “people” do, without saying who exactly, you use the impersonal form with si. It’s everywhere: on signs, in recipes, in conversation. In Italia si mangia bene. Let’s see how...
by Serena | Dec 12, 2023 | Italian grammar, beginners
In Italian, the verbs essere and avere are certainly amongst the most popular ones. This is why they are widely used in many common Italian idiomatic expressions like the one following. Bear in mind that a certain number of recurring expressions use the...
by Serena | Dec 11, 2023 | Italian grammar, intermediate
In English, “need” does a lot of work. In Italian, the same idea can be expressed with dovere, servire, avere bisogno di and bisogna. They’re all correct, but they’re used in different situations and they’re not interchangeable....
by Serena | Dec 11, 2023 | Italian grammar, intermediate
If you want to say “I miss” in Italian, you should say “mi manca” and not “manco”. Why so? What does the “mi” in front stand for? In short To say “I miss” in Italian, use mi manca (one thing) or mi mancano (more things): Mi manca...
by Serena | Dec 11, 2023 | Italian grammar, advanced
Me lo dai? Glielo dico. Dammelo! Double object pronouns look like a tongue twister at first, but they follow a few clear patterns. Once you see them, you’ll start hearing them everywhere in spoken Italian. In short A double pronoun is an indirect pronoun + a...
by Serena | Dec 11, 2023 | Italian grammar, intermediate
What’s the Difference between Imperfetto and Passato Prossimo? Both the imperfetto (imperfect) and passato prossimo (present perfect) are used to describe past events in Italian. However, they are used in different contexts and convey...
