The Italian comparatives: using CHE or DI
The Italian comparatives: using “CHE” or “DI” The Italian comparative expresses how to say MORE THAN, LESS THAN, THE SAME AS. We call this comparativo di maggioranza: La casa di Maria è più grande di quella di Lucia – Maria’s house is bigger than Lucia’s We call this “comparativo di minoranza”: La casa di Lucia è meno grande di […]
Perché / Perciò / Siccome: The Difference Explained
Perché / Perciò / Siccome: The Difference Explained Perché: why / because Unlike in English, perché is used in both a question and an answer in Italian. Perché hai chiamato il taxi? Perché ero in ritardo – Why did you call a cab? Because I was late. Perché used to indicate the cause of something and […]
The Italian impersonal form with ‘SI’
The Italian impersonal form with “SI” In Italian, we have a simple way to make a generalization or to make a sentence where the subject is not specified: the impersonal form. The impersonal form is made up by: si + any verb conjugated in the 3rd person singular for example, in Italia, si + mangia […]
The Italian Preposition DA
The Italian Preposition “Da” Most of the time, the Italian preposition “da” means “from,” but it can also mean “since/for,” “to,” “at,” and other things. Yes, it sounds difficult because prepositions in English and Italian do not have a binary correspondence. That is why, in my classes, I always tell my private students to learn […]
How to Use Passato Prossimo in Italian
How to make the Passato Prossimo What’s the passato prossimo? The passato prossimo tense is used in Italian to express actions and events that occurred in the past. Usually, it appears together with time expressions such as ieri – yesterday stamattina – this morning ieri sera – last night venerdì scorso – last Friday l’anno scorso […]
How to use the verb mettersi
How to use the verb METTERSI Mettersi is an Italian verb that non-native speakers may struggle with. It is, nevertheless, commonly used in everyday Italian, and you may want to learn how to use it. First of all, you might be familiar with mettere, which simply means to put. Well, mettersi, the reflexive version of […]
How to use ECCO
How to use the adverb ECCO Ecco is an invariable Italian adverb that can be used in a variety of meanings. Let’s take a look at some of the most common ones in the form of sample sentences that you can easily insert into your flaschards sets. Here is / Here are Ecco is an […]
Espressioni con ESSERE & AVERE
Common expressions using ESSERE and AVERE 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 verb avere (to have) while English would use […]