Italian Alphabet and Pronunciation Guide For Beginners and Intermediate Learners Why it’s Important To Practice Your Italian Pronunciation From Day 1 In over ten years of teaching Italian as a foreign language, I’ve noticed a number of patterns that are next to impossible to get rid of (or that take a great deal of time […]
How To Speak And Understand Italian Better With Short Stories Why Using Short Stories To Speak Italian Better Our brain doesn’t learn words in isolation. We need to attach a memory or a feeling to a new word or fit in a context. Stories will provide you with a visual to relate to new words or idioms, making it easier to retain new information. They are short: it means they are easy to use and […]
BECOMING A POLYGLOT: HOW DID I LEARN SIX FOREIGN LANGUAGES The primary reason why I decided to pursue a career as a language coach is that, as an avid language learner myself, I couldn’t stop passing on my love for language learning to others. Multilingualism has enhanced my life in many ways, and so it […]
What does “CI SI” mean in Italian? If you have come across “ci si” in Italian and felt confused, this post is for you. The Impersonal Form “Ci si” is a very peculiar form of Italian that occurs when a reflexive verb (a verb like rilassarsi, divertirsi, or annoiarsi) is used in the impersonal form. […]
How To Use the Particles “Ci” and “Ne” in Italian Have you been learning Italian for a while? Then, I am sure you have been faced with the quirky usage of the Italian particles ci and ne (also known as particelle pronominali in Italian). And you’ve been wondering dozens of times how to use ci and how to use ne. Maybe you have also […]
20 Short Stories and Easy Readers To Take Your Italian To The Next Level (for Beginners and Intermediate Learners)
The Italian Prepositions Explained What’s a preposition in Italian? I like to describe prepositions as the glue that holds words together in a sentence. A preposition is a small word that connects different parts of a sentence and affects the meaning of a noun, adjective, or verb. Common prepositions in English include “in,” “at,” “by,” […]
The Most Common Italian Question Words (+exercises) Questions words are also those words that use at the beginning of a question to form a question. In English, they are words like “who?”, What? “When”, in Italian it’s words like Chi, Cosa, Quando, etc… The table below feature the most common interrogative words in Italian: Edit […]
CILS B1 Cittadinanza (Citizenship): The Listening Part The whole exam lasts a total of 2.05 hours. The listening part lasts only 30 minutes and is the first of five different tasks. The listening section is divided into two parts: prova n.1 and prova n.2. In prova n.1, you’ll have to listen to six short texts […]
Cils B1 Cittadinanza (CILS B1 for Citizenship): How to Prepare for the Speaking Part
Writing a Formal or Informal Email for your Italian Citizenship Exam If you’re preparing for your Italian Citizenship exam, you know that one of the writing prompts for the writing portion includes writing a formal or informal email. First and foremost, it’s important to determine the appropriate register for your email because Italian distinguishes between […]
Free bite-sized short stories for beginners and intermediate Italian learners L’Ingrediente Segreto [download here] – March 2023
Which Verbs Use “Essere” in the Passato Prossimo Italian has many compound tenses (verbs which are made up of two entities: auxiliaries + past participles). One of the most common compound tenses is the passato prossimo (the Italian equivalent of the past simple).The auxiliaries used in compound tenses are either the verb avere or essere. For […]
The Italian Numbers: A Guide for Beginners My English teacher at university was an Irish woman who had lived in Italy for over a decade. One day, she admitted to us that numbers were still a pain for her. Having learned several languages myself, I know firsthand how difficult it is to master numbers in […]
The Passive Voice in Italian The passive form in Italian (or English) is used when we want to focus on the object of the action, rather than the agent who carries out the action. For example: Serena teaches the class [active form, focus on the agent = Serena] The class is taught by Serena [passive […]
The mysterious combination of the pronoun ci and the verb avere Everybody agrees that the pronoun ci is, probably, one of the most mysterious words in Italian, and thus, I thought it would be great to dive, in this post, into the use of ci when used in conjugation with the verb avere: this is […]