Learn Italian

First lesson with the new format and the new books went really well!

A quasi 40 anni ho imparato a mettere l'eyeliner. Sono progressi. Che non c'entrano niente con l'italiano, ma sono progressi lo stesso.

Le lasagne, parte 1

1. Soffritto (carota, sedano cipolla)

2. Olio extra vergine di oliva

Soffriggere

3. Carne tritata

4. Cuocere

5. Passata di pomodoro

6. Acqua

7. Continuare a cuocere a fuoco lento

Who's up for a lasagna recipe today?

Minestra di cicoria e fagioli borlotti

Buonissima nei mesi invernali!

Chi vuole la ricetta?

Chicory and beans soup

Delicious during the winter months

Who wants the recipe?

IL CONFINE TRA FRANCIA E ITALIA
The border between France and Italy

Do you know how to drive in Italy?

Here's some useful vocabulary

GUIDARE = to drive
LIMITE DI VELOCITA' = speed limit
VOLANTE = steering wheel
STRADA = road

On the picture you can see the following directions:
URBANO = in the city
EXTRAURBANO = outside the city
STRADA EXTRAURBANA PRINCIPALE = freeway (the blue one)
AUTOSTRADA = motorway with tolls (the green one)

The picture is blurry because that's how good I am at taking pictures

I have fantastic new material for lessons to take students from A1 to C1 ! Activities and practical lessons on how to deal with things in Italy included!

Not even the time to have lunch today! Sandwiches at the desk between a lesson and another. But that's ok because I love my job!

Do you know this statue and why it is important for Italy?
Join me on a lesson on Zoom where we discuss the region of Calabria, Southern Italy, its heritage, the language and the culture of this area, from the Ancient Greek civilization to modern times!
If interested leave a comment!

The Lira was Italy's currency before the Euro.

This picture is of 5000 lire taken at the British Museum.

5000 lire would be roughly € 2.50 or $ 3

How to say in Italian:

Currency = Valuta
Money = Soldi
To pay = Pagare
Currency Exchange = Cambio Valuta
Cash = Contanti
Notes = Banconote
Coin = Moneta

When to use indicativo and when to use congiuntivo? Here's a little help.

Yesterday this came out during a lesson.

Nuovo means new.

But you add "di" before "nuovo", and it changes meaning completely.

Di nuovo means again.

First country reveal on my map!
SLOVENIA!

No matter where you're from, come and learn Italian with us! Let's reveal the colour of your country on our student map together!

ITALIAN FOOD AND WINE

Join me on Zoom for one hour of ITALIAN food specialities and wine.

We will go on a journey of all the Italian food specialities (not only pizza and pasta!)

You will learn about the 20 regions of Italy, you will learn the typical dish of each region, and in some cases, more than one!

Then, we will learn what the labels on the italian bottles of wine mean, and we will learn how to recognise a good italian wine!

There will be two meetings, one held in English, and one held completely in Italian.

The price is € 10 each meeting.

If interested, follow these steps.

1. comment under this post
2. contact me privately on messenger

DO NOT SKIP A STEP, DO BOTH THINGS!

LAST MINUTE ITALIAN SPEAKING MEETING

TOMORROW 17 JANUARY 2023 17:00 ITALIAN TIME

RARE OCCASION!
A meeting on ZOOM where you can practice your Italian with the aid of a native speaker teacher from Torino! Come and join us for 50 minutes for italian conversation. No matter if you are beginner, intermediate or advanced learner! The price is heavily reduced as a last minute offer. € 4 / $ 4 / £ 4 only!

Please, if interested leave a comment!

How to pronounce c and g in italian

Some info on how to use the preposition A.

This list is incomplete, if you want the full explanation, please comment!

Sometimes, the verbs in the -IRE group, have the -ISC- suffix added. This is how you conjugate them.

HOW TO CONJUGATE THE PRESENTE INDICATIVO IN ALL THE CONIUGAZIONI
- ARE
- ERE
- IRE

When to use the PRESENTE INDICATIVO

From today, we start explaining verbs and conjugations!
Please, please, please, remember these are just quick schematic charts. If you need any help, comment and I will be happy to help!
A PDF chart with the complete explanation is available on request!

Ordinal numbers
(first, second, third, etc.)

How to change their endings according to masculine, feminine, singular, plural

Useful words for the calendar!

How to reinforce a question: add "mai"

Question words.
Who, when, where, etc. The wh- words in English.
These words are actually ADVERBS (they describe a verb).
Interrogative adverbs are simply what we use to start a question.

How to say there is and there are in Italian.
Notice that they follow the same pattern in English, you just have to change the verb "to be / essere" to turn the phrase in the present, in the past, in the future, etc.

Any questions? Ask in the comments!!

The preposition di

Stare and essere are the equivalent verbs for the English "to be". It is difficult to find specific rules, the best thing is to just learn as they come along, eventually they will just sound right or wrong in your ear.
But in the meantime, here are some common guidelines, and a more detailed pdf is available on request.

SUBJECT PRONOUNS

I, you, he, she, it, we, you, they.

In Italian we can distinguish between everyday language, and formal written language.

Note that even in everyday language you speak both formally and informally.

See charts.

For any extra information needed, please comment. These charts are also available in pdf form.

Feel free to ask all your questions in the comments.

Pronouns can be omitted most of the times, ask in the comments for explanations about this.

Adjectives follow the number and gender of the articles and the nouns they describe. The whole sentence has to be in agreement.

Here you find some charts on how to turn an adjective into a masculine, feminine, singular or plural according to what you need.

Before or after the noun?
In Italian you can put the adjective before or after the noun.
There is a slight difference in how the sentence feels.

Adjective before the noun:
gives feelings and emotions to the sentence. It describes a noun. Example: le vecchie foto (the old photographs) - it tells me that the photographs are old, but also that I am emotionally attached to them.

Adjective after the noun:
it distinguishes and sets aside the noun from other similar nouns. Example: le foto vecchie (the old photographs) - it tells me that I'm talking about the photographs that are old, not about the new ones.

The definitive article.

The indefinite article.
Uno, un, una, un'

It is used to talk about generic things.

Un is the masculine, both for words that start with vowel and consonant.

Un' is the feminine for words that start with vowel

Uno is the masculine for words that start with specific letters (see charts)

Una is the feminine for words that start with consonant

Remember to never put the ' sign for the masculine un.
See the difference:

Un aiutante --> a male helper
Un'aiutante --> a female helper

Because un, uno, un' and una represent the number 1, there is no plural form.

Sometimes we need to match the grammatical gender also to the gender of the person or people we are talking about. This happens when we have to describe someone's profession or qualities.

Here is how to turn words from masculine to feminine according to their endings, and how to form the plural of words that have the same ending both in masculine and feminine.

How to make the plural from Feminine singular

How to make the plural from Masculine singular

Just change the ending of the words according to this chart!

For masculine words that end in co and go, you change between ci and gi or chi and ghi according to where the stress is in the word. Just check a good dictionary and learn with practice!

How to recognise if a word is masculine or feminine in Italian.

Italian has a grammatical gender, which means that every word has a masculine or a feminine version, and we must use the articles, adjectives, etc. accordingly. The whole sentence must be in agreement with the grammatical gender.

Masculine words end in:
- o
- ma
- e
- consonant

Feminine words end in:
- a
- sione
- zione
- si

See the chart for exceptions!