The Direct Object Pronouns in Italian
The Italian Direct Object Pronouns What’s a pronoun? Pronouns are an essential part of speech that allow us to replace something that has already been said and avoid repeating ourselves. Pronouns are widely used in conversation as they help us to be more concise and speak faster. Italian, just like English, makes extensive use of […]
The Italian Modal Verbs Explained for Beginners
The Italian Modal Verbs Explained for Beginners What’s the Difference Between the Italian Modal Verbs and Other Types of Verbs? When your teacher (or your book) is telling you “this is a modal verb,” there’s no need to panic! Saying a verb a is “modal” is just a label to remind you that, in Italian, there are […]
Imperfetto and Passato Prossimo: the Difference
Understanding the Difference Between Imperfetto and Passato Prossimo Both the imperfetto and passato prossimo are used to describe past events. However, they are used in different situations. The passato prossimo is used when the action is completed, happened once, and has a definite starting and ending point. The imperfetto, on the other hand, is used to describe […]
The Italian Sentence Structure
The Basics of Italian Sentence Structure and Word Order The Italian sentence structure is similar to English, but with a few key differences. The good news isItalian follows the same sentence order as in English, which is: SUBJECT + VERB + OBJECT . We call this pattern SVO, for simplicity. The subject stands for who’s doing […]
How to master the Italian Imperfetto
The Italian Imperfect Tense First things first.. What’s The Imperfect Tense? The imperfect (or imperfetto, in Italian) is a past tense. We mainly use the imperfect tense to talk about past actions that happened as a habit, to describe the context of past actions or events, and in a few other cases.
The Possessive Adjectives in Italian
What Are Possessive Adjectives in Italian? The possessive adjectives are those words that translate from the English: “my, your, her, his, our, their”. They denote ownership between two objects. For example, La mia cassa → my house Il suo cane → his dog Il nostro lavoro → our job In Italian, a possessive adjective in […]
Conoscere and Sapere: The Difference Explained
Conoscere and Sapere: The Difference Explained What’s the difference between “sapere” and “conoscere”? If you came across this page, it’s because you have been confused by using the Italian verbs sapere and conoscere. Fair enough. English (and other languages) uses only one verb, the verb “to know,” to cover knowledge’s meaning in all possible forms. […]