Greeting is easy, even if your Italian is at zero level.
When you meet a friend, you greet him by saying Ciao (“hello”); when you meet a person you don’t know you say Buongiorno (“good morning”), or Buonasera (“good evening”) if we are at the end of the day.
When we are introduced, we shake hands saying: Piacere (“how do you”).

When the conversation is over we say “Ciao” to our friend; to the person with whom we are not in confidence we say: Arrivederci (“goodbye”), or A presto (“see you soon”), Buona giornata (have a nice day)” or Buona serata (“good evening”), depending on the time.

Yes, but what to say during the conversation to comment on what the Italian interlocutor is saying to you, making him understand that despite your basic Italian, you understand it?

Here are some tips:

• Positive, admiring exclamations: Wow! Che bello (How beautiful)! Splendido (Wonderful!) Che fortuna (So lucky!), Che piacere (What a pleasure!).
• Exclamations of surprise or doubt: Davvero (Really?), Veramente (Truly?)? Non ci credo (I can’t believe it).
• Negative exclamations: No, non è possibile (“No, it’s not possible!”); E’ terribile (“It’s terrible”), Mi dispiace (“I’m sorry”).

The post Saying hello is easy, but then what? appeared first on .

Mi piace, mi piacciono… watch out for the subject

 

How do you say in Italian: “I like Bellagio” and “I like spaghetti”? Here: “Mi piace Bellagio”and “Mi piacciono gli spaghetti”. And not: “Io piace Bellagio” o “Io piace spaghetti”!! What a struggle to learn this construction! What drives students into error? A simple thing. They think they are the subject of the sentence, but they, themselves are not! In the sentence “Mi piacciono gli spaghetti”, the subjects are the spaghetti. Spaghetti is a plural noun and therefore the verb is third person plural. In the sentence: “Mi piace Bellagio” the subject is Bellagio. Bellagio is a singular noun and therefore the verb goes to the third person singular.    

The post Mi piace, mi piacciono … watch out for the subject appeared first on .

What to say when you want to ask for information and you only have a few basic notions of Italian? How to ask, for example, where is via Roma?

Here the answer:
“Senta, per favore, dove è via Roma?”
or

“Mi scusi, per favore, sa dove è via Roma?”

Or again:

“Buongiorno, per favore, dove è via Roma?”

Here another valid formula, to use, for example, if you enter a shop to ask  where via Roma is.

“Excuse me where is via Roma?” becomes: “Scusi, per favore, vorrei una informazione, mi sa dire dove è via Roma?”

But, if asking the question can be difficult, understanding the answer can be even more difficult.

So here’s what to say in case of difficulty, if you want to ask somebody to repeat the answer more slowly:

“Scusi, non ho capito, può ripetere più lentamente?”
Or:
“Ho capito bene? Devo prendere la prima via a sinistra e poi a destra?
(“Did I understand correctly? Do I go immediately left and then right?”)

At this point of the conversation, it would be hard to find someone who doesn’t smile to you and lend a helping hand repeating the indication and perhaps helping you with gestures. The famous gestures used by the Italians.

The post How to successfully ask for information appeared first on .

How to overcome the problem of many irregular verbs in Italian?
Simple: with patience, timing and method.

As soon as you get to know the present tense of regular verbs, start immediately to study the present tense of some of the most used irregular verbs. This will allow you to familiarize with the galaxy of irregular verbs and to practice them immediately, being able to express yourself in a conversation that is certainly simple but valuable. Wich is necessary to understand and be understood.

But, what are the first irregular verbs to study?

Here’s the list:

avere
essere
andare
venire
uscire
potere
volere
sapere
piacere,  nelle forme: mi piace, mi piacciono.

The post How to overcome the jungle of Italian irregular verbs appeared first on .

In Italian it is very important, in order not to make mistakes talking to somebody, to learn as soon as possible the difference between  two diffent verbal sujects: “Tu” and “Lei”.
“Tu” is used when you talk with a friend, a child, a family member or someone you know well.
Es: Paolo, tu come stai? Luigi dove vai?

“Lei” is very formal and used when you talk to someone you don’t know, or with whom you don’t have a friendship, such as, for example, in a business meeting, with a teacher at school, with a doctor in the hospital, when you go shopping, when you ask for information. Es: talking to the doctor: “dottore, come sta”?  Talking to the teacher at the school: Professore, dove va?

Be careful: we also use “Lei” for the feminine third person, but the meaning is different.
Es: talking about Maria, you can say: Lei (Maria) oggi va a Roma e torna domani.

The post “Tu” or “Lei”? Friendly or formal conversation? appeared first on .

The post The 5 most helpful ways to test your italian appeared first on .

The post That “H” that makes the difference appeared first on .

How many Italian words can you find in this crosswords?

The post Find the italian words … appeared first on .

Bellagio, la spiaggia a San Giovanni

Quante volte avete sentito una frase come questa? Il ci in questa frase è usato come pronome per indicare un luogo noto. Questo pronome è così semplice ma così complesso per gli studenti di italiano anche di livello avanzato.
Gli studenti si chiedono preoccupati: ma ci è anche pronome personale, è pure usato nella costruzione dei verbi riflessivi.

Quando riconoscerlo e usarlo nel suo significato corretto?

La soluzione è semplice. Dimenticate gli usi del ci pronome e pensate al luogo cui vi riferite: per non ripetere il nome del luogo, usate ci.

Dunque, attenzione al contesto della frase!

The post Quando ci vuol dire lì appeared first on .

Ecco un breve lista di casi in cui si usa il verbo fare, (con significati differenti), utilissima nella vita quotidiana, in particolare al turista in viaggio:

– fare colazione
– fare un giro
– fare una passeggiata
– fare foto
– fare spese
– fare la spesa
– fare la fila
– fare un viaggio
– fare il biglietto
– fare la valigia
– fare sport
– fare la lavatrice
– fare una domanda
– fare brutto/bel tempo
– fare freddo/caldo
– fare i compiti

Esageriamo un po’… e aggiungiamo alcuni usi del verbo fare estremamente colloquiali, direi confidenziali:
– fare una telefonata
– fare una mangiata
– fare una dormita
– fare una camminata
– fare una cantata.

The post I molti usi del verbo fare appeared first on .