How to master the Italian imperfetto
WHAT IS THE IMPERFETTO IN ITALIAN? Italian uses two tenses to talk about the past : the passato prossimo (present perfect) and imperfetto (imperfect). Most non-romance languages do not make the difference, this is why using correctly the imperfetto in Italian can be tricky. Not to mention that, most Italian grammar is not very clear […]
A short guide on how to use correctly BENE, BRAVO, BELLO and BUONO
IN A NUTSHELL… 💡Bravo is used just with people. 💡Buono refers to the interior qualities of things or people. 💡Bello refers to the exterior qualities of things or people. 💡Bene is used just with verbs. WHEN TO USE BENE IN ITALIAN Bene is often misused. One of the most recurring mistakes in Italian is […]
BELLO and BEL in Italian
Everybody knows that quello means that and bello in Italian means nice, however you may have noticed that, sometimes, bello and quello, are used in a different shape. In fact, it is not rare that bello becomes bel or begli or bei and quello becomes quel or quegli or quei. If you ended up here, it is because you are not sure when using bel instead of […]
The Italian connectors: how to learn them
Italians are quite wordy and love stringing together long sentences. To put them together they use connectors (or conjugations) A connector in Italian is a small word that joins information together within a sentence. I am sure you have already eavesdropped on many of them without being too sure about their function. Do allora, perché, […]
Ciò and cioè explained
The question I want to reply to today regards the meaning of the word ciò. I will also digress on the difference between ciò and cioè, another common and peculiar Italian word. CIO‘ Ciò appears to have multiple meanings. Ciò is a demonstrative pronoun, and it is often used instead of questo and quello, especially […]
The combination of fare and an infinitive verb explained
Faccio riparare il frigo a mio fratello or mi faccio riparare il frigo da mio fratello (I will have the fridge repaired by my brother) Your keen eye might spot the interesting usage of the verb fare and an infinitive that you have ever seen before. The combination of fare and infinite verb in Italian. […]
HOW TO USE THE ITALIAN VERB METTERSI
Mettersi is an Italian verb that non-native speakers might find not so easy to use. However, it is widely used in conversational Italian and you might want to know how to use it. Before learning the meaning of this peculiar verb, let’s have a look at conjugation of the verb in presene and passato prossimo. […]
The imperative mood explained
The imperative form, in Italian, is used to: give orders give exhortations advice or invite someone to do something. It is a rather regular mood, with just a few irregular exceptions. Besides, what makes the imperative very easy, is that, it exists just in the present tense and the first and third person singular, io […]
