Today, I’m told, Italians celebrate the Halloween that we in America have popularized around the world with costumes, candy for the children, and parties for the adults. Of course, this is all great fun and my children always celebrate Halloween on October 31st. But, I’ve also been told that the Italian traditions for the days after Halloween, All Saints Day and All Souls Day on November 1st and 2nd are still followed in Italy, and the food traditions have remained intact.
Since my father passed away almost 5 years ago, I have come to realize the importance of a day like All Souls Day. I want my children to remember the times they shared with their grandfather and other relatives who are no longer with us. Setting aside a special day to get together and reminisce about the past is one way to make sure we remember the times we cherished together as a family. After all, our connections to the past help to shape our future as well.
I was especially happy when I recently came across a blog by Cinzia from Instant Italy about All Souls Day. I discovered that in Liguria Italians celebrate All Souls Day with a special chick pea soup that uses ribs to flavor the broth, called ceci con le costine. I’ve made my own version of this soup to for my Sunday “remembrance” dinner in November this year. Given the circumstances (i.e. given that it is still 2020), this soup will be a warming treat I can present in decorative jars and drop on a few doorsteps.
Why not try to make this soup for your family? My version is like a simple minestrone soup, but without the pasta and the cooking time can be split up into two days. It’s a great way to start off the fall season!
If you’d like to read Cinzia’s blog to learn more about how Italians celebrate the Halloween season, just click on this link: All Saints’ Day in Italy.
-Kathryn Occhipinti
Recipe is listed below. Check out my latest Instagram video from Conversationalitalian.french and watch me make the dish if you like!
Chick pea and rib soup for All Souls Day in Italy (Cece con le Costine)
Ingredients
For the Broth
(Best if made a day ahead)
1 lb. pork ribs or veal soup bones
Olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, papery skin removed
1 medium onion, skin removed and quartered
2 stalks of celery, chopped coarsely
3-4 carrots, chopped coarsely
1 bunch fresh parsley tied with cooking twine
1 lb. bag of dried chick peas, soaked in water overnight to soften -or- 2 cans (16 oz.) chick peas, drained
Ingredients
For the Soup (To be added to the broth)
1 onion, finely chopped
3 carrots, finely chopped
2 stalks of celery, finely chopped
chick peas, either dried/soaked or canned (as above)
1 can (28 oz.) Italian plum tomatoes, chopped
Fresh or frozen Swiss Chard or Spinach
Procedure
Make the Broth
(Day 1)
Use a large soup pot or stock pot for this recipe.
Pour 2 Tbsp. of olive oil into the stock pot. Add the pork ribs or veal bones and 2 cloves of garlic, intact but flattened with the back of a knife. Salt and pepper the ribs. Brown the ribs on all sides over medium heat, turning while they cook.
Add 16 cups of water and the coarsely chopped onion, celery, carrots and the bunch of parsley. Stir.
Cook the broth uncovered as follows: Bring to a boil over high heat and then lower to medium low heat to keep the broth at a simmer until the meat has cooked and is falling off the bone, about 2 -3 hours. Skim off any foam that forms on the top of the soup periodically, but do not stir the soup while the broth is cooking.
After the broth has cooked long enough to gain flavor from the ribs and vegetables, remove the ribs and vegetables and parsley.
Put the pot of broth into the refrigerator if you have two days to make the soup. This will allow any fat to float to the surface and harden so it can be skimmed off the next day. Otherwise, proceed to make the soup.
Make the Soup
(Day 2)
The next day, take the broth out of the refrigerator and skim the fat off the top.
Put the pot on the stove. Add the soaked chickpeas and cook until they have softened, about 1 hour. (If you have a bag of old chick peas have been sitting in the cupboard for awhile, they may take longer to soften.)
Remove 1 cup of the pre-cooked chick peas and puree. Add back to the soup.
If using canned chick peas instead of dried, add the canned chick peas, with one cup pureed, at this time into the soup.
Add the finely chopped onion, celery, carrot and chopped plumb tomatoes with their juices from the can. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Cook until all vegetables have softened.
Add Swiss chard leaves or spinach leaves. Cook until the greens have wilted.
Serve the soup hot, with grated Parmesan cheese and a loaf of crusty Italian bread.
Conversational Italian for Travelers Just the Important Phrases (with Restaurant Vocabulary and Idiomatic Expressions) is YOUR traveling companion in Italy! All the Italian phrases you need to know to enjoy your trip to Italy are right here and fit right into your pocket or purse.
Kathryn Occhipinti, MD, is the author of the Conversational Italian for Travelersseries of books and a teacher of Italian for travelers to Italy in the Peoria and Chicago area. “Everything you need to know to enjoy your visit to Italy!”
Visitlearntravelitalian.com/download.html to purchase/download Conversational Italian for Travelers and find more interesting facts and helpful hints about getting around Italy!Learn how to buy train tickets online, how to make international and local telephone calls, and how to decipher Italian coffee names and restaurant menus, all while gaining the basic understanding of Italian that you will need to know to communicate easily and effectively while in Italy. —From the staff at Stella Lucente, LLC
Chick Pea Soup with Ribs (Ceci con le Costine) for All Souls Day
How to talk about movies and TV in Italian: Important Italian phrases and vocabulary you need to know when talking about the shows you watch with Italian friends and colleagues!
This blog series, “How to Talk About… in Italian” will focus on the topics that have come up most frequently in my everyday conversations with Italian family, friends and colleagues. We willfocus on the important Italian phrases and Italian vocabulary we all need to know to become more fluent when we speak about everyday events in Italian!
The topic for this month —movies and TV — comes up frequently during daily conversation, both when making small talk with acquaintances and also when planning activities with family, friends, and co-workers. In the “How to Talk About Movies and TV in Italian” blog for this month, we will focus on common Italian phrases needed to describe the type of show you have watched, if liked it, and why . As usual, the focus will be on common Italian expressions that can be used to describe your own interests.
Enjoy the third topic in this “How to Talk About…” series, “How to Talk About Movies and TV in Italian.” —Kathryn Occhipinti
In Italian, a few simple sentences will suffice to say if we liked what we saw — or not. You may recall that Italians use the irregular verb piacere to convey the idea that they like something. For a refresher on how this verb works, please refer to the beginning Italian blogs in my Conversational Italian! blog, “Piacere — How Italians Say, ‘I like it!” and “Piacere: How Italians Say, ‘I liked it!’
The most important thing to remember is that the conjugation ofpiacerewill have to agree with the number of things that are being liked.
So, when speaking in the present tense, if one thing is liked, simply use the third person singular conjugation piace.
If many things are liked in the present, use the plural third person, which is piacciono.
For the past tense, we can use the passato prossimo third person singular forms “è piacuto” and “è piaciuta”for the one-time event when we liked something.
If many things are liked, the third person plural forms “sono piaciuti”for the masculine plural (and mixed group plural) and“sono piaciute”for the feminine plural are used.
Then put the indirect object pronoun “mi” before the verb to make the simple sentence: “ To me, this is/was pleasing!” Or, as we would say in English, “I like/liked this!”
To ask a friend if they like or liked something, put “ti“ before the verb, for “Is/was this pleasing to you?” Or, as we would say in English, “Do/Did you like this?”
If, for some reason, we do NOT like what we have watched, just start your sentence with the word “non.”
What we might say about our favorite TV show or movie that we like:
Mi piace questo film.
I like this movie.
Mi è piaciuto questo film.
I liked this movie.
Mi piace molto questo film.
I really like this movie.
Mi è piaciuto molto questo film.
I really liked this movie.
Ti piace questo film?
Do you like this movie?
Ti è piaciuto questo film?
Did you like this movie?
What we might say about our favorite TV show or movie that we did NOT like:
Non mi piace questo film.
I don’t like this movie.
Non mi è piaciuto questo film.
I didn’t like this movie.
Mi piace molto questo film.
I really don’t like this movie.
Mi è piaciuto molto questo film.
I really didn’t like this movie.
Ti piace questo film?
Don’t you like this movie?
Ti è piaciuto questo film?
Didn’t you like this movie?
Using common expressions to say we like a TV show or movie…
Of course, there are many common expressions in Italian that go beyond the simple: ” I like it” or “I didn’t like it.” Just like in English, we might say, “It was cool,” or “It was out of this world,” It seems like new expressions are invented almost every day for how we feel about things! So, it should come as no surprise that Italians also have invented colloquial expressions that express feelings that go deeper than simply liking. Here are a few you might want to try to surprise your Italian friends.
If you want to ask your friend if it is worth your time to watch a certain movie, you can use the phrases, ” Vale la pena?” for “Is it worth it?” “Voleva la pena il film?” means, “Was the film worth it?”
In the table beloware some answers to this question that you might hear from a native Italian if they liked the film you are talking about:
Mi piace un sacco!
I like it a lot! (lit. a sack full)
Mi è piaciuto un sacco!
I liked it a lot!
È stato bello!
It was great!
È / È stato meraviglioso!
It is / was wonderful!
È / È stato stupendo!
It is / was amazing / cool!
È / È stato fantastico!
It is / was fantastic / cool!
È / È stato fico / figo!
It is / was cool!
È / È stato fichissimo / fighissimo!
It is / was the coolest!
È / È stato da paura!
It is / was cool!
È / È stato il meglio!
It is / was the best!
È il migliore film che io abbia mai visto.
It is the best film that I have ever seen.
How do I say, “TV show” and “movies” in Italian?
The programs we watch on a television set ( il televisore) or on a screen (lo schermo) are referred to most commonly in both English and Italian as “TV.” The pronunciation, of course, is different in each language. In Italian, “TV” is pronounced as an Italian would pronounce the letters “t” and “v”, which sounds like “tee-vooh.” Notice from the table below that there is an Italian word for TV, “la televisione,” and therefore the abbreviation is feminine as well.
TV
La TV / La televisione
Cable TV
La TV via cavo
Satellite TV
La TV sattelitare
RAI-TV
Italian state television (Radio-Televisione Italiana)
Television set
Il televisore
TV or computer screen
Lo schermo
TV show
Un programma Un programma televisivo
TV series
Una serie TV Un telefilm
Episode
Una puntata
Situation Comedy
Una serie TV sitcom Una commedia
Comedy show
Un programma comico
To talk about a movie in Italian, we could refer to “la pellicola,” but this word is no longer in common use. Instead, Italians most often refer to a movie in general with the word “film.” Movies in general are either “i film,” with the borrowed English word preceded by the plural masculine definite article in Italian, or “il cinema,” a collective masculine noun.
The usual verbs for “to watch,” “guardare,” and “to see,”“vedere,” describe the act of watching a screen to see a TV show or movie.
Movie theater
Il cinema
Film studio
Lo studio cinematografico
Movie
Il film (La pellicola)
Movies
I film / Il cinema
to capture an image for a film
filmare / riprendere / girare
to be recorded
essere filmato
to watch a movie
guardare un film
to watch a movie
vedere un film
Using common expressions to say what we prefer…
The verb preferiremeans “to prefer,”which is a regular -isc conjugated -ire verb.“I prefer,“ is “Io preferisco…” To ask a question of someone else, say, “Tu preferisci…?”
If you want to say you prefer one movie genre over another, just use the adjective preferito. This also works for your favorite movie, TV show, color, etc. Just make sure to change the ending of preferito (a,i,e)to reflect what it is you are describing, whether masculine or feminine, singular or plural.
Here are examples from the dialogue below:
È il tipo di film che io preferisco. It’s the type of film that I prefer.
Non per me. Il mio film preferito è un buon giallo. Not for me. My favorite movie is a good mystery movie.
If you might want to say, “I liked (film) better than…” use the sentence construction:
“Mi piace… (film) più di + definite article… (film).
Ma mi piace La Vita è Bellapiù delCommissario Montalbano. I like La Vita è Bella more than Detective Montalbano.
Another way to make a comparison between films:“This film is much better than…”
“Questo film è molto meglio di + definite article…”
Questo film è molto meglio delCommissario Montalbano, sono sicuro! This film is much better than Detective Montalbano, I am sure.
Finally, to mention who has written or directed a movie, use the conjunction “di” to mean “by.”
Some common movie genres
Action
Film d’azione
Adventure story
Storia d’avventura
Costume drama (historical TV show with costumes)
Sceneggiato in costume
Costume drama (historical film with costumes)
Film in costume
Comedy
Film comico / commedia
Comedy drama
Commedia drammatica
Dark comedy
Commedia nera
High comedy
Commedia sofisticata / da intenditori
Low comedy (bawdy)
Commedia popolare
Slapstick comedy
Farsa / Pagliacciata*
Musical comedy
Commedia musicale
Romantic comedy
Commedia romantica
Documentary
Un documentario
Drama
Storia drammatica
Drama movie
Film drammatico / Dramma
Detective movie
Un poliziesco / Un giallo**
Film noir (thriller genre)
Film noir
Foreign Film
Film straniero
Horror
Film horror / Film dell’orrore
Mystery
Un giallo**
Science Fiction / Sci-fi
Film di fantascienza
Psychological thriller
Thriller psicologico
Thriller (suspense film)
Thriller / Giallo
Western
Film Western
*Reference to the opera “Pagliacci,” whose main character is a clown that performs slapstick humor with puppets.
**Mystery books and films are referred to by the color “giallo,” which is derived from the yellow cover all mystery books were given in the past.
Below is a simple dialogue between two friends, Maria and Anna, talking about their favorite movie and TV show. There are, of course, many variations. Think about your favorite movie and create your own!
Maria:
Ieri sera, ho guardato il film, La Vita è Bella, di Roberto Benigni.
Last night, I watched the movie, “Life is Beautiful,” by Roberto Benigni.
Anna:
Ne è valsa la pena?
Was it worth it?
Maria:
Si, vale la pena.
Mi è piaciuto molto questo film!
Yes, it is worth it. I really liked this film!
Anna:
È una storia drammatica?
Is it a drama?
Maria:
Si, è una storia drammatica, ma la prima parte è anche un po’ comica.
Yes, it is a drama, but the first part is also a bit funny.
Anna:
Ah, una commedia drammatica.
I see, a comedy drama.
Maria:
È il tipo di film che io preferisco.
It’s the type of film that I prefer.
Anna:
Non per me.
Il mio film preferito è un buon giallo.
Not for me. My favorite movie is a good mystery movie.
Commissario Montalbano è figo.
Detective Montalbano is cool.
Maria:
Boh. Ho visto molte puntate del Commissario Montalbano sul TV.
Well. I have seen many episodes of Detective Montalbano on TV.
Ma mi piace La Vita è Bella più del Commissario Montalbano.
I like La Vita è Bella more than Detective Montalbano.
Questo film è molto meglio del Commissario Montalbano, sono sicuro!
This film is much better than Detective Montalbano, I am sure.
Anna:
Allora, devo guardare La Vita è Bella un giorno.
Well, then, I will have to watch La Vita è Bella one day.
Remember how to talk about movies and TV in Italian and I guarantee
you will use these Italian phrases every day!
Conversational Italian for Travelers Just the Important Phrases (with Restaurant Vocabulary and Idiomatic Expressions) is YOUR traveling companion in Italy! All the Italian phrases you need to know to enjoy your trip to Italy are right here and fit right into your pocket or purse.
Kathryn Occhipinti, MD, is the author of the Conversational Italian for Travelersseries of books and a teacher of Italian for travelers to Italy in the Peoria and Chicago area. “Everything you need to know to enjoy your visit to Italy!”
Visitlearntravelitalian.com/download.html to purchase/download Conversational Italian for Travelers and find more interesting facts and helpful hints about getting around Italy!Learn how to buy train tickets online, how to make international and local telephone calls, and how to decipher Italian coffee names and restaurant menus, all while gaining the basic understanding of Italian that you will need to know to communicate easily and effectively while in Italy. —From the staff at Stella Lucente, LLC
Can you speak Italian? By now, many of you have passed the beginning stages of learning how to speak Italian and can read and comprehend quite a bit of the language. Meraviglioso!
But have you tried to take the next step to communicate in Italian fluently? Are you familiar with the vocabulary to use when shopping in Italy?
Our Italian Practice blog Shopping in Italy includes an audio dialogue recorded with native Italian speakers! In our Italian Subjunctive Mood Dialogues, we have been introduced to the story of Caterina and Francesca, two Italian cousins who are living in different cities and trying to reconnect . In the dialogue for this blog, Caterina visits Francesca in Rome, and they go shopping to buy Caterina some new clothes.
Click on the “PLAY” button below and listen to the Italian dialogue from our Conversational Italian for Travelers text book, “Chapter 10 – Shopping in Milan,” right on this blog. Read along on the printed page that follows the dialogue button. Afterward, click on the website link www.LearnTravelItalian.com and interact with the same recorded audio on our website. Listen to individual lines over and over again—as many times as needed!
After the dialogue, we will present information about how to use Italian reflexive verbs to refer to dressing oneself and trying on clothes. We will also describe how to use questo and quello to point out to the shopkeeper which of those wonderful Italian items will make the perfect souvenir to remember a trip to Italy!
For Italian Dialogue You Will Need to Know…
Expressions That Describe Shopping
Many important expressions describe the act of shopping in Italian. Notice from the tables below how the phrases differ depending on the type of shopping to be done. Examples follow.
Grocery Shopping
fare la spesa
to do the grocery shopping
to do some grocery shopping
General Shopping
fare spese
to do the shopping (clothes, shoes, or other personal items)
fare compere
to do the shopping (any purchase) (la compera = purchase)
fare acquisti
to do the shopping (any purchase) (l’acquisto = purchase)
fare shopping
to do the shopping
We have seen in the dialogue for this chapter that although Americans use the simple phrase “go shopping” for any shopping that they do, Italians often “go to do the shopping,” with the expression “andare a fare la spesa.” This interesting expression refers only to grocery shopping. A phrase denoting the location of the shopping, such as “al supermercato” (“at the supermarket”) can be used to complete the sentence. In most cases, both speakers know the place to obtain groceries, so the actual place is omitted.
If one is going to shop for non-grocery items, several phrases can be used. “Fare spese” is similar to the phrase we have just learned for grocery shopping, but it instead means “to go shopping for clothes, shoes, or other personal items,” usually in the piazza or shopping district in town known to the speakers. Two phrases can be used for shopping in general, for any purchase: “fare compere” and “fare acquisti.” A very popular phrase in Italy today that can be used for any type of shopping is simply “fare shopping!”
Otherwise, to shop for a specific item, use “andare a comprare” and mention what you are going to buy; for instance, complete this phrase with the word vestiti for clothes, like Caterina did in our dialogue.
Faccio la spesa.
(I) do the (grocery) shopping.
Vado a fare la spesa.
(I) go to do the (grocery) shopping.
Vado a comprare…
(I) go to buy… (any item).
Faccio shopping.
(I) go (lit. do/make) shopping (general).
Faccio shopping di vestiti.
(I) go (lit. do/make) shopping for clothes.
Faccio compere.
(I) go (lit. do/make) shopping (general).
Faccio acquisti.
(I) make purchases (usually for non-grocery items).
Mi può mostrare…
Could you (pol.) show me…
Mi fa vedere…
Could you (pol.) show me…
Posso?
May I?
Che taglia porta?
What size do you (pol.) wear?
Porto la taglia…/Porto la…
(I) take the size…/(I) take the (size)…
Qual’è la taglia italiana per
What is the Italian size for
la taglia dieci americana?
(the) size 10 American?
alla moda/di moda
in style
di marca
designer/brand name
Mi provo…/Ti provi
(I) try on (myself)…/(You fam.) try on (yourself)…
Mi metto…/Ti metti…
(I) put on (myself)…/(You fam.) put on (yourself)…
Mi metto…
(I) am trying on (myself)…/(I) am going to try on (myself)…
Mi sta bene.
(It) looks good (lit. stays well) on me.
Ti sta bene.
(It) looks good (lit. stays well) on you.
Mi va bene.
(It) fits me well.
La/Lo prendo!
I’ll take it! (fem./masc. direct object)
Le/Li prendo!
I’ll take them! (fem./masc. plural direct object)
Italian Dialogue Practice: Shopping in Italy
For Itlaian Dialogue You Will Need to Know…
Reflexive Verbs of Dressing Oneself
Italian uses the reflexive verb mettersi (to put on oneself) to convey the ideas of “I put on the dress,” “I put on my dress,” and “I put my dress on.” The reflexive pronoun mi (myself) is placed beforethe conjugated form of mettersi, as usual, and the article of clothing to be put on is then placed after the verb. The subject pronoun is omitted.
So when Caterina goes to try on her dress in our dialogue, she says, “Mi metto il vestito.” Just remember the simple phrase “mi metto,” and replace vestito with the article of clothing of your choice to describe your own action! To describe action in the tu(you) form, use “ti metti.”
(Io) Mi metto il vestito.
I put on the dress./I put the dress on./I put on my dress.
(Tu) Ti metti l’anello.
You put on the ring.
Also, remember that stare is used to describe how someone feels? Well, to tell someone “It looks good on you!” follow this simple method: Conjugate stare into the third person, or “it” form, sta, then place an indirect object pronoun before the verb.
This is easier than it sounds, because for routine conversational use of the io and tu forms, Italian words we already know—mi and ti—are again used. (Mi means both me and to me, and ti means both you and to you; the same Italian words are used for both direct and indirect object pronouns for the io and tu forms.)
So when Francesca told Caterina in our dialogue, “Ti sta bene,” she was saying, literally, “To you, it stays well,” with the meaning, “It looks good on you.”
To ask someone if an article of clothing you are wearing looks good, use, “Mi sta bene?” If clothing looks really wonderful on someone, reply, “Ti sta benissimo!”
Mi sta bene?
Does it (article of clothing) look good on me?
Ti sta bene.
It looks good on you.
Ti sta benissimo!
It looks wonderful on you!
Finally, the expression “va bene” that we have come to know so well by now is also used to describe how an article of clothing fits on a person. If it fits well, say, “Va bene.” If not, use “Non va bene,” as Caterina does in our dialogue to describe a dress that did not fit her properly.
Italian Dialogue Practice: Shopping in Italy
For Italian Dialogue You Will Need to Know…
How to Describe Wearing Clothes with the Verbs Portare, Mettersi,and Vestire
In order to say“I am wearing…” or “I take the size…” the verbportare, which is not reflexive, is usually used in the present tense. You no doubt remember that portare is commonly used to mean “to bring” or “to carry.”
Porto il mio vestito preferito.
I am wearing my favorite dress.
Porto la (taglia) quarantotto.
I take size 48.
Portare can also be used to say “I wore” in the past tense. But perhaps because portare is used so commonly with its other meaning of “to bring” in the past tense, to describe what they wore, most Italians prefer to revert to mettersi and use its past participle messo. Here is how it works:
(Io) Mi sono messo una gonna.
I wore a skirt.
Ho portato una gonna.
I wore a skirt.
Another way to describe how someone was dressed, is to use the past tense verb “essere vestito(a,i,e).” This verb can be used to make generalizations, as well as to refer to a specific article of clothing. When being specific, the preposition “con” is used in these phrases, as in the examples below.
Era vestito con un abito grigio.
He was dressed in a suit.
Era vestita con una gonna blu.
She was dressed in a blue skirt.
Eravamo vestiti tutto in rosso per la festa.
We were dressed all in red for the party.
Italian Dialogue Practice: Shopping in Italy
For Italian Dialogue You Will Need to Know…
How to Describe Wearing Clothes with the Verb Indossare
The verb indossare also means “to wear” and “to put on.” This verb can is used in exactly the same way as portare or mettersi. To the Italian ear, the verb indossare is said to have a more elegant sound than portare or mettersi, and perhaps this is why indossare is more common in written Italian than in conversation.
Just like the other two verbs that have the same meaning, indossare must always be followed by the article of clothing that the person is wearing.
Caterina indossa un abito rosso.
Kathryn is wearing a red dress.
La signora indossava un cappotto molto elegantamente.
The lady was wearing a very elegant coat.
******************************
Finally, when something fits perfectly on you or another, to really fit into Italian society, use the idiomatic expression “calzare a pennello.” Calzature refers to shoes, or “footwear,” so this Italian saying is the equivalent of the English saying, “It fits you like a glove” or “It fits you to a T.”
Mi calza a pennello!
It fits me perfectly!
Ti calza a pennello!
It fits you perfectly!
Lo/la calza a pennello!
It fits him/her perfectly!
Italian Dialogue Practice: Shopping in Italy
For Italian Dialogue You Will Need to Know…
Questa and Quella
The feminine demonstrative adjectives questa (this) and quella (that) have endings that follow our usual gender rules. Both have the usual –a ending for the feminine singular that changes to an –e ending in the plural, to make queste(these) and quelle (those).
It should be noted that if the singular feminine noun modified begins with a vowel, the usual –a ending of questa or quella can be dropped. The adjective and noun are then combined with an apostrophe to make conversation flow more smoothly.
Unfortunately, there is no hard-and-fast rule for when to drop the –a ending and when to keep it. As usual, listening to the language as it is spoken by a native is the best and most natural way to pick up these phrases. Here are a few examples:
Questa – This (Feminine)
Singular to Plural
questa casa
this house
goes to
these houses
queste case
questa amica
this girlfriend
goes to
these girlfriends
queste amiche
quest’altra*
this other
goes to
these other
queste altre
Quella – This (Feminine)
Singular to Plural
quella casa
that house
goes to
those houses
quelle case
quella amica
that girlfriend
goes to
those girlfriends
quelle amiche
quell’altra*
that other
goes to
those other
quelle altre
*In these last phrases, questo and quello are not followed by a noun, and so they are technically pronouns rather than adjectives… don’t worry about these different labels now, though.
Italian Dialogue Practice: Shopping in Italy
For Italian Dialogue You Will Need to Know…
Questo and Quello
The masculine demonstrative adjective questo(this) uses the usual –o ending for the masculine singular, which changes to an –i ending for the masculine plural and becomes questi(these).
Notice that if the singular masculine noun to be modified begins with a vowel, the usual –o ending of questo will be dropped and the words combined with an apostrophe to make conversation flow more smoothly.
Questo – This (Masculine)
Singular to Plural
questo giorno
this day
goes to
these days
questi giorni
quest’amico
this friend (male)
goes to
these friends (male)
questi amici
Quello – This (Masculine)
Singular to Plural
The masculine demonstrative adjective quello(that) does not follow our usual gender rules but instead follows the rules for the masculine definite article “the” when it precedes a noun.
The word quello itself follows the rule for the definite article lo and is only used before the singular form of Italian masculine nouns that begin with s + consonant, z, ps, gn, or pn. This is similar to another adjective that ends in -lo, bello.
Quel(that) is used to modify all singular masculine nouns that begin with a consonant, except for those noted in the last paragraph.
An apostrophe and an additional letter –l are added, to make quell’ (that) for singular masculine nouns that begin with a vowel.
For the plural masculine forms of quello, the usual –i ending is used for plural masculine nouns that begin with a consonant, to make quei (those).
The word quegli(those) is used for plural masculine nouns that begin with s + consonant, z, ps, gn, or pn, and all vowels…
This is not as complicated as it seems, because again, we are following the same rules as for the masculine definite article. The summary table is below:
Kathryn Occhipinti, MD, is the author of the Conversational Italian for Travelersseries of books and a teacher of Italian for travelers to Italy in the Peoria and Chicago area. “Everything you need to know to enjoy your visit to Italy!”
Visitlearntravelitalian.com/download.html to purchase/download Conversational Italian for Travelers and find more interesting facts and helpful hints about getting around Italy!Learn how to buy train tickets online, how to make international and local telephone calls, and how to decipher Italian coffee names and restaurant menus, all while gaining the basic understanding of Italian that you will need to know to communicate easily and effectively while in Italy. —From the staff at Stella Lucente, LLC
Can you speak Italian? By now, many of you have passed the beginning stages of learning how to speak Italian and can read and comprehend quite a bit of the language. Meraviglioso!
But have you tried to take the next step to communicate in Italian fluently? Do you know the usual Italian greetings and salutations to use in an email? Can you use the subjunctive mood correctly when writing an email? As everyone knows, email is now an integral part of daily communication all over the world. For Italy, this means that the subjunctive mood is important again in daily life!
For our first Italian practice email using the subjunctive, we will follow the story of Caterina and Francesca, two Italian cousins who are living in different cities and trying to reconnect. Then we will present information about Italian greetings and salutations used in informal and formal types of written communication in Italy. We will describe how to use the verbs trovare, venire, and visitare to describe visiting people and places, how to use the Italian adverb “ci,” and how to make command forms with the verb fare. We will also talk about Italian reflexive verbs of self movement. Finally, we will compare the American and Italian school systems that play such a large part in everyday family life in America and Italy today.
A note about the Italian subjunctive mood: to express complex feelings in Italian correctly, it is important to use the Italian subjunctive mood. Using the subjunctive mood is difficult for English speakers, because we only rarely use this tense in English, and it’s something that I am always working on! This is the first blog post in the “Italian Practice” series that focuses on how to use the Italian subjunctive mood, or “il congiuntivo,” when writing an email to your family.
To review how to express one’s feelings using thesubjunctive mood and how to conjugate the subjunctive mood in the present tense, see our Speak Italian Subjunctive series.
Enjoy the first blog post in this series, “Italian Practice: Emailing Italian Families.” —Kathryn Occhipinti
How many phrases that use the subjunctive mood can you pick out of the following emails? Hint: these phrases usually include the word “che.” Look for the underlined phrases for help! And beware those phrases that sound like they should take the subjunctive but do not—these can also be found in the emails below!
Remember these examples as “anchors” in your knowledge for when you try to speak Italian and try out the subjunctive mood in your next Italian conversation!
Italian Practice Email: All about… Family An Email to Francesca
Cara cugina Francesca,
Dear Cousin Frances,
Quanto tempo è passato da quando ti sei trasferita dall’Abruzzo a Roma!
How much time has passed since you have moved from Abruzzo to Rome!
Spero che tu stia bene.
I hope that you are well.
Spero anche che tuo marito e i tuoi figli stiano bene.
I also hope that your husband and children are well.
È peccato che tu e la tua famiglia vi siate trasferiti cosi lontano da vostra cugina che vi vuole bene.
It is a shame that you and your family have moved so far from your cousin that cares for you all so much.
Come sta la piccola Eleonora?
How is little Eleanor?
Penso che Eleonora debba essere cresciuta molto.
I’m thinking that Eleanor must have grown a lot.
Penso che Eleonora abbia dieci anni, ora, no?
I think that Eleanor is 10 years old, now, no?
Mi sembra che Eleonora debba essere una bella ragazzina ora! It seems to me that Eleanor must be a beautiful little girl now!
E Giovanni, come sta? And how is John?
È probabile che Giovanni sia alto e forte e un bravo ragazzo!
I bet that (probably) John is tall and strong and a very good boy!
È incredibile che il tempo passi cosi in fretta!
It’s incredible that the time has passed so quickly!
Si dicono in inglese che “il tempo vola,” e per me è vero!
They say in English that “time flies,” and for me, it is true!
Immagino che tuo marito sia contento con il suo lavoro a Roma.
I imagine that your husband is happy with his job in Rome.
Ma non sono sicura che tu sia felice di vivere là.
But I am not sure that you are happy living there.
Forse tu sei felice di vivere in una città per un po’ di tempo, ma lo so che ti piace molto la campagna.
Maybe you are happy living for a little bit in the city, but I know that you like the country a lot.
Per me, è molto difficile vivere senza di te, mia cara cugina.
For me, it is very difficult living without you, my dearest cousin.
Mi manchi molto!
I miss you so much!
Vorrei che tu venga a trovarmi in Abruzzo quest’estate. I would like you to come and visit me in Abruzzo this summer.
Pensaci e fammi sapere. Mandami un’email. Think about it and let me know. Send me an email.
Spero che tu abbia un buon weekend! I hope that you have a good weekend!
Scrivimi presto! Write me soon!
Baci e abbracci, Kisses and hugs,
Caterina Kathy
Italian Practice Email: All about… Family A Reply Email to Caterina
Cara cugina Caterina,
Dear Cousin Kathy,
Ero molto contenta di sentire le tue notizie.
I was very happy to hear from you.
La mia famiglia sta molto bene, ed Eleonora e Giovanni sono cresciuti molto in questi due anni che siamo stati a Roma. My family is very well, and Eleanor and John have grown in these last two years that we have been in Rome.
Eleanora fa il quinto anno di scuola elementare e Giovanni fa il primo anno di liceo. Eleanor is in the 5th grade, and John is in his first year of high school.
Tutti e due sono bravi figli ed io e mio marito Giuseppe siamo molto orgogliosi di loro.
Both are good children, and my husband Joe and I are very proud of them.
Ho una buona notizia! I have good news!
Sono libera di viaggiare in Abruzzo quest’estate in agosto per Ferragosto!
I am free to travel to Abruzzo this summer in August for the Ferragosto holiday!
Mi auguro che tu abbia tempo disponibile questo Ferragosto. I hope that you have time free this Ferragosto.
Tu mi manchi molto, mia bella cugina! I miss you very much, my beautiful cousin!
Noi siamo certi di avere una buona visita. We are certain to have a wonderful visit!
Restiamo in contatto e spero di vederti presto! Stay in contact, and I hope to see you soon!
You Will Need to Know…
Phrases That Take the Italian Subjunctive Mood
Verbs in Italian can have a subjunctive mood that is used to express doubt, uncertainty, desire, or a feeling.
Certain phrases are commonly used to start a sentence in order to introduce the subjunctive mood, and these initial phrases will be in the indicative tense (the “usual” present or past tense). These initial phrases imply uncertainty and trigger the subjunctive mood in the phrase to follow. The phrase that follows will then describe what the uncertainty is about. These introductory phrases usually end with the word che, which means that. Che may also bethe endingof the last word used in the introductory phrase!
Note that the simple present or past tenses can also be used after the introductory phrases listed below, rather than the subjunctive mood, if you are speaking about a fact or something that you believe to be true. This use will make perfect sense to the Italian listener, although the subjective mood is also commonly used. Notice that when speaking about the past using these phrases, the imperfetto form of the past tense is usually used.
To review how to express one’s feelings using thesubjunctive mood and how to conjugate the subjunctive mood in the present tense, see our Speak Italian Subjunctive series.
Italian Practice: Emailing Italian Families
You Will Need to Know… Italian Greetings for Family Emails, Texts, and Letters
Now that email has become an essential way to communicate, it is important to know how to address family, friends, and work colleagues in writing. In effect, that old-fashioned way of communicating—the letter—has been resurrected in electronic form! Here are some suggestions for greetings and salutations in Italian, depending on the formality of the situation.
For family and friends, most Italian emails will begin with “Cara,” for females or “Caro” for males, meaning “Dear.” This greeting is, of course, followed by the first name of the person to whom the email is addressed. Because caro is an adjective, the ending can be modified to match the gender and number of the person it refers to, just as other adjectives are. So cara(e) is used before a female singular/plural person(s) and caro(i) before male singular/plural person(s). Carissimo(a,i,e) is a common variation and means “Dearest.” Many times, no greeting at all is used for close family and friends who communicate frequently.
A note about texting, which is even more informal than email, because texts are usually made only to friends: there is much more variation if a greeting is used, and there are many creative ways to greet someone by text in Italian. One of the most common text greetings is probably “ciao” for “hi” or “bye.” There are many common variations, such as “ciao bella” for a female, “ciao bello” for a male, or simply “bella” or “bellezza” for a female, all meaning “hello beautiful/handsome.” If texting in the day or evening, “Buon giorno” or “Buona sera” may be used as well, meaning, “Good morning/Good day” or “Good evening.”
A text is still not acceptable in most situations for a first or a formal communication, although email is now often the preferred way of establishing an initial contact in business.
Italian Practice: Emailing Italian Families
You Will Need to Know…
Italian Greetings for Formal Emails and Letters
Letters are still frequently used in Italy. Several common salutations are used when writing a formal email in Italian. These salutations have been established over many centuries of formal communication.
A formal Italian letter will commonly begin with the Italian word for “Gentle,” which is “Gentile,” followed by a title, such as Mr., Mrs., or Miss, and then a surname. For example: Gentile Signor* Verde or Gentilissima Signora Russo. The Italian word “Egregio,” which used to mean “Esquire,” is still commonly used in very formal business communications, but in these instances, it is translated as “Dear.” “Pregiatissimo” is the most formal type of greeting and is similar to the English phrase “Dear Sir.” This greeting is only rarely used in Italy today.
This all seems simple enough, although a typical formal Italian greeting is often abbreviated and can seem a bit off-putting unless one is fluent in the abbreviations as well. Our salutations above are often written as follows: Gentile Sig. Verde and Gen.ma Sig.na Russo. The table in the next section lists the most commonly used abbreviations.
Also, in Italian, even more than in English, if one holds a professional title, such as “doctor” or “lawyer,” this title is always used as the form of address when speaking and in writing. In fact, those who have attended an Italian university or have an important job title are usually addressed by other Italians as “dottore” or “dottoressa.” A medical doctor is addressed the same way but is known specifically as “un medico” (used for men and women).
Italian Practice: Emailing Italian Families
You Will Need to Know… Commonly Used Italian Abbreviations for Business Greetings
Avv.
Avvocato
Lawyer
Dott.
Dottore
Doctor (male or female)
Dott.ssa
Dottoressa
Female Doctor
Egr.
Egregio
Dear (Esquire)
Ingegnere
Engineer
Gent.mi
Gentilissimi(e)
Dear (plural) Very Kind
Gent.mo
Gentilissimo(a)
Dear (singular) Very Kind
Preg.
Pregiatissimo
Dear
Sig.
Signor
Mister (Mr.)
Sig.na
Signorina
Miss
Sig.ra
Signorma
Misses (Mrs.)
Sig.ri
Signori
Mr. and Mrs./Messers
Spett.
Spettabile
Messers
*When signore is followed by someone’s first or last name, in writing and when addressing someone directly, the “e” from signore is dropped to form signor.
Italian Practice: Emailing Italian Families
You Will Need to Know:
Italian Salutations for Emails, Texts, and Letters
After we’ve written our email, text, or formal letter, how should we sign off? As you can imagine, this is very different depending on how close the two correspondents are. For two friends, the typical spoken salutations, “ciao” and “ci vediamo,” are commonly used for emails and texts, as are the many idiomatic expressions, such as “a presto” or “a dopo.”
For those who are close friends or family, one may send kisses as “baci,” and sometimes hugs, “abbracci,” as we do in English. You can imagine that there are many variations on this theme, such as “un bacione” for “a big kiss.”“Un bacio” or “tanti baci” are other variations and mean “a kiss” and “many kisses.” There is one big difference between salutations in English and Italian, though: Italians normally do not sign off with the word “Love,” as in “Love, Kathy.”
For business, the word “Saluti” is generally used in closing to mean “Regards.” One can also give “Un Saluto” or “Tanti Saluti.”“Cordalimente” means “Yours Truly.” “Cordali saluti” or “Distinti Saluti” are particularly polite, meaning “Kind Regards” and “Best Regards.”“Sinceramente” means “Sincerely” but is not as often used in closing an email or letter.
Commonly Used Familiar Italian Salutations
Ciao
Bye
Ci vediamo
Good bye
(Until we see each other again.)
A presto!
See you soon!
A dopo!
See you later!
Baci
Kisses
Un bacio
A kiss
Un bacione
A big kiss
Tanti baci
Lots of kisses
Baci e Abbracci
Kisses and hugs
Commonly Used Formal Italian Salutations
Saluti
Regards
Un Saluto
Regards
Cordalimente
Yours truly
Cordali Saluti
Kind regards
Distinti Saluti
Best regards
Tanti Saluti
Many regards
Sinceramente
Sincerely
Italian Practice: Emailing Italian Families
You Will Need to Know…
How to Use Trovare, Trovarsi and Visitare
Trovare means “to find”something.
When trovare is combined with the verb andare in the phrase “andare a trovare,” the meaning changes into “to go to visit” someone. An example would be, “Vado a trovare mia mamma,” which of course means, “I go to visit my mother.”
Similarly, when trovare is combined with the verb venire in the phrase “venire a trovare,” the meaning changes into “to come to visit” someone. In the email we have just read, Caterina writes, “Vorrei che tu venga a trovarmi in Abruzzo quest’estate.” She adds “mi” to the end of the verb trovare in order to specify the person who is being visited.
********************
Visitare means to visit or to see a place. For example, “Molte persone visitano l’Italia.”“Many people visit Italy.”
In a formal letter, one might use the phrase, “invitare a visitare,” to invite someone, to be a guest as in, “Vi invitiamo a visitare il nostro blog…” for, ” We kindly invite you to visit our blog.”
*********************
Let’s go back and explore a few more interesting points about the verb trovare. Trovare can also mean “to meet by chance,” or “to run into” someone, as we would say in English. Trovare sometimes means “to think/consider” and is also used to mean “to notice” in some expressions. Trovarsi is a reflexive verb that is used to describe “finding oneself” in certain situations or in a certain place.
andare a trovare
to go to visit with/to look in on/to look up
venire a trovare
to come to visit with
cercare di trovare
to try to find
trovare per caso
to happen on/to happen upon/to come across
torvare i mezzi
to find means
trovare conforto
to take comfort
trovare informazioni su
to find information (something) on
trovare la propria strada
to make your way/to take the right road
trovare la risposta
to find the answer
trovare la soluzione
to find the solution
trovare il tempo per fare
to get around to doing something
trovare il giusto equilibrio
to strike a balance
trovare (qualcosa) divertente
to find (something) amusing
trovare qualcosa
to consider something
trovare un modo
to find a way
Dove si trova?
Where is she/he/it located?
Si trova in…
(He/she/it) is located in…
Non mi trovo bene con..
I don’t get on well with…
Troviamoci dopo cena.
Let’s meet (each other) after dinner.
Italian Practice: Emailing Italian Families
You Will Need to Know: How to Use the Italian Adverb “Ci”
The phrases c’è and ci sono mean there is and there are respectively. Ci can also be used to mean here or there when referring to a specific location. The location is either understood by the speakers or will have already have been mentioned in the conversation, and ci will be used in a reply to make the conversation flow more smoothly. In these instances, the location will be introduced by a preposition (a, in, su, da) and ci will replace both the preposition and the place when given in the reply.
Ci is placed before the conjugated verb. With helping verbs dovere, potere, or volere, ci can be placed before the helping verb or attached to the infinitive.
Non ci voglio più stare.
(I) don’t want to stay here anymore.
Vai in pizzeria stasera?
(Are) (you fam.) going to a pizzeria tonight?
No, non civado.
No, (I’m) not going there.
Ci sarò.
I’ll be there.
Vuoi venire a casa mia?
(Do) (you fam.) want to come to my house?
No, non ci voglio venire.
No, (I) don’t want to come there.
No, non voglio venirci.
No, (I) don’t want to come there.
Ci is frequently used as an indirect object to reply to certain questions regarding what someone believes in. “Credere a…?” which means, “Do you believe in…?” is one of the most commonly used phrases of this type.In this case, ci replaces the phrase that is believed in. The meaning of ci would be, “in it” or “about it.”
Ci is also used as an indirect object to reply to certain questions regarding what someone thinks about. “Pensare a…?” can mean, “What do you think about…?” In this case, ci replaces the phrase that is believed in. The meaning of ci would be, “in it” or “about it.”
In other contexts, the verb pensare can be used to ask if someone is going to care of something. The subject pronoun tu will come after the verb in these questions to signify intent. For the response, ci replaces the thing that is being taken care of and the subject pronoun io is placed after the verb to signify intent. The meaning of ci in both cases is, “in it” or “about it.” “Ci penso io,” can always be used when you want to say, “I’ll do it.” or “I’ll take care of it.”
Ci is also used as part of a command in order to ask someone to believe in or think about something that has been stated previously.
Credi alla religione cristiana?
(Do)(you fam.) believe in the Christian religion?
Si, cicredo.
Yes, (I) believe in it.
Pensi di trovare un nuovo lavoro?
Are you thinking of finding a new job?
Si, ci penso ancora.
Yes, I am still thinking about it.
Caterina, ci pensi tu a comprare il latte?
Kathy, are you going to take care of buying the milk?
Ci penso io.
I’ll take care of it.
Credici!
Believe in it! (familiar command)
Pensaci!
Think about it! (familiar command)
Ci mancherebbe.
Don’t mention it. (idiomatic expression)
Finally, if we want to combine ci with a direct object pronoun in a sentence to say ,“I’ve got it,” or “I’ve got them,” referring to something in our possession, the last letter-i of ci is changed to an e. This is an expression that follows the word order “ce – direct object – verb.” See below for how this works:
Do you have the ticket in your purse?
Haiil biglietto nella tua borsa?
Yes, I have it in my purse.
Si, l’ho nella borsa.
Yes, I’ve got it.
Si, ce l’ho.
Do you have the keys to your car?
Hai le chiavialla tua macchina?
Yes, I have them.
Si, cele ho.
Italian Practice: Emailing Italian Families
You will need to know: Common Italian Command Forms with Fare
The verb fare, which means “to do,” or “to make,” often comes up when one person makes a direct request that another person do something. To ask for a favor politely, you could use the (by now, well-known) verb può with fare to make the phrase, “Può farmi un favore?” for, “Could you do me a favor?” But, more often, the familiar command form of this phrase is used; if one is instructing another person to do something, both people often know each other very well. Or, perhaps in the workplace, a superior is making a request of another worker. In this case, the commonly used phrase used would be, “Fammi un favore!” for, “Do me a favor! Piacere also works interchangeably with favore in this expression, as in, “Fammi un piacere!”
Notice that, when attaching an indirect object pronoun (except for gli), direct object pronoun, or a reflexive pronoun to the familiar command verb fa, the first letter of the pronoun is doubled. Below are some commonly used expressions which combine the command form of fare with their pronouns attached.
Fammi un favore!
Do me a favor!
Fammi un piacere!
Do me a favor!
Fatti vedere!
Come and see me! (lit. Make yourself seen!)
Fatti sentire!
Call me! (lit. Make yourself heard!)
Fallo!
Do it!
Fammi can also be used in an idiomatic way, with the meaning, “let me,” when followed by an infinitive verb, such as, “Fammi vedere,” for, “Let me see,” or, “Fammi chiamare,” for, “Let me call.”
Fammi vedere…
Let me see…
Fammi chiamare…
Let me call…
Two additional commonly used familiar commands with indirect object pronouns involve the verbs dire and dare:
Dimmi!
Tell me!
Dammi!
Give me!
Italian Practice: Emailing Italian Families
You Will Need to Know:
Italian Reflexive Verbs for Self-Movement
Italian reflexive verbs can be tricky for the English speaker because there are many situations where reflexive verbs are used in Italian but not in English. In these cases, we must learn to think in Italian! If we think in Italian, using reflexive verbs to refer to where one has moved to or from or to describe a change in one’s feelings does make sense.
We have already talked about the most common reflexive verbs in the second blog post in the Speak Italian! series, Speak Italian: All About… What I Am Doing! This blog post describes activities of daily living, which are the most common activities that use the Italian reflexive verbs.
Other activities of today’s “modern daily living” include interrupting one’s life at a certain location and starting life again in a different location. In this blog post, for instance, one cousin moves from Abruzzo to Rome. It makes sense, then, that the verb for the act of movingoneself is reflexive: trasferirsi, which can mean “to move (oneself) from town to another town” and “to transfer (oneself).”
Following this logic, the more general verbs “to move”(muoversi) or “to stop” (fermarsi) are also reflexive when they refer to an action that is being performed by a person.
Avvicinarsi a (to approach) alontanarsi da (to go away from/distance oneself from) are also included in the table below.
trasferirsi
to move (oneself), as in relocate towns; transfer towns or job
muoversi
to move (oneself) from one place to another
spostarsi
to move (oneself) from one place to another, relocate
dirigersi
to go over/head over somewhere
avvicinarsi a
to approach
allontarsi da
to go away from/distance oneself from
fermarsi
to stop (oneself)
Here is the way this works: if I have moved (myself) from one place to another and want to talk about this, I use the reflexive pronoun for myself (mi) with the conjugated verb for the first person, and then I say where I have moved. If someone else has moved (themselves), and I want to talk about this, I use the other corresponding reflexive pronoun (ti, si, ci, vi, si)/verb conjugation and then the location.
A few pointers are useful to remember.
When talking about a move we have made, we will be speaking in the past tense and will need to use the passato prossimo past tense verb form for this one-time event. All reflexive passato prossimo verbs use essere as the helping verb with the past participle. Females will need to change the passato prossimo ending from an “o” to “a” when referring to themselves.
Also, remember to leave out the subject pronoun (io, tu, Lei/lei/lui, noi, voi, loro) unless it is necessary for clarification.
Finally, remember how to use prepositions when talking about a location—“a” for cities and small islands and “in” for countries, regions, states in the United States, and large islands like Sicily.
All of this is easier than it sounds once you give it a try!
Mi sono trasferito(a) a New York.*
I moved/have moved to New York City.
Ti sei trasferito(a) nello stato di New York due anni fa, corretto?
You moved/have moved to New York State two years ago, correct?
Lui si è trasferito in America la settimana scorsa. He moved/has moved to America last week.
Lei si è trasferita in America la settimana scorsa. She moved/has moved to America last week.
Ci siamo trasferiti a Roma per un lavoro molto importante. We transferred/were transferred to Rome for a very important job.
Vi siete trasferite alla scuola di Marymount Internazionale a Roma. You all (girls) transferred/have transferred to the Marymount International School in Rome.
Loro si sono trasferiti in Italia per la loro società. They transferred/have transferred to Italy for their company.
Finally, it should be noted that there are other ways of describing a person’s move from one place to another that do not involve reflexive verbs. To emphasize that one has moved from an old house to a new one, the phrase cambiare casa is used. To describe moving furniture from one’s old house to the new house (i.e., to move things), the nonreflexive verb traslocare is used.
The Italian school system is similar to the U.S. school system. School years are divided into primary, middle, and secondary, or “high” school years. College is referred to as “university,” and in the past, a “university degree” entailed 6 years of education, similar to a master’s degree in the United States. Some 4-year university degrees are now also available in Italy. Below is a comparative list of the American and Italian school systems with the number of years children spend in each level.
For elementary school, if a child is in the 1st through 5th years of school:
Anna va alla scuola elementare. Anna goes to the grade school.
Anna è in prima (classe) elementare. (seconda, terza, quarta, quinta classe)
Anna fa il primo anno di scuola elementare. (secondo, terzo, quarto, quinto anno) Anna is in the first year/1st grade of elementary school. (second, third, fourth, fifth year/2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th grade)
For middle school, if a child is in the 6th through 8th years of school:
Anna va alla scuola secondaria. or Anna va alla scuola media. Anna goes to junior high school. or Anna goes to middle school.
Anna è in prima (classe) media. (seconda, terza classe)
Anna fa il primo anno di scuola media. (secondo, terzo anno) Anna is in the first year/6th grade of middle school. (second, third year/7th, 8th grade)
For high school, if a child is in the 9th through 13th years of school, we can use similar phrases. Notice that there is no special title like “freshman, sophomore, junior, senior” for high school.
Anna va alla scuola superiore. or Anna va al liceo. Anna goes to high school.
Anna è in prima (classe) liceo. (seconda, terza, quarta, quinta classe)
Anna fa il primo anno di liceo. (secondo, terzo, quarto, quinto anno) Anna is in the first year/9th grade of high school. (second, third, fourth, fifth year/10th, 11th, 12th, 13th grade)
Kathryn Occhipinti, MD, is the author of the Conversational Italian for Travelersseries of books and a teacher of Italian for travelers to Italy in the Peoria and Chicago area. “Everything you need to know to enjoy your visit to Italy!”
Visitlearntravelitalian.com/download.html to purchase/download Conversational Italian for Travelers and find more interesting facts and helpful hints about getting around Italy!Learn how to buy train tickets online, how to make international and local telephone calls, and how to decipher Italian coffee names and restaurant menus, all while gaining the basic understanding of Italian that you will need to know to communicate easily and effectively while in Italy. —From the staff at Stella Lucente, LLC
Italian Subjunctive Mood Practice: Emailing Italian Families
Can you speak Italian? By now, many of you have passed the beginning stages of learning how to speak Italian and can read and comprehend quite a bit of the language. Meraviglioso!
But have you tried to take the next step to speak Italian fluently? Can you talk about all the things that are nearest and dearest to your heart in Italian? Can you speak Italian the way you would speak in your native language, with complex and varied sentences? This is more difficult than it may seem at first, and it’s something that I am always working on! This series will focus on the situations that have come up most frequently in my everyday conversations with Italian instructors and friends. The “Speak Italian” blog series willfocus on the type of sentence structure and vocabulary we all need to remember to be more fluent when we speak Italian!
To take that giant step from simple beginning sentences to more complex and fluid sentences in Italian, we must know many things; in this segment, we will discuss how to use possessive adjectives in Italian, phrases for storytelling, reciprocal reflexive verbs, and the special ways to say we love and miss someone using the Italian verbs volere and mancare!
In the “Speak Italian” blog series, a short essay or dialogue in Italian will be presented about a commonly used topic of conversation. Then, we will review the Italian grammar that is necessary to talk about the particular topic in detail. And finally, the same material will be presented in Italian and English, with blanks for the reader to fill in with descriptions from his or her own life! Remember these examples about yourself as “anchors” in your knowledge for when you must speak Italian in your next conversation!
Enjoy the third topic in this series, “Speak Italian: A Story About… Love!” —Kathryn Occhipinti
In every life, we experience many types of love—country, family, and of course, one’s own true love. So it is important to learn the special Italian phrases to speak about what we love. I’ve adapted the story of one of my grandmothers, who emigrated from Italy in the 1920s, into a short essay about her struggles in Italy and in America, and the love that she was able to find in her life. Of course, this material has been adapted to be a learning tool, and this essay is not meant to be a complete biography.
While reading about my grandmother’s three great loves—her countries, her family, and her husband—think about yourself and what you truly love. Read the grammar section if you like. Then, use the blank spaces in the form that follows to fill in the Italian for your own life!
Speak Italian: A Story About… Love!
When I was young, when I was about 7 years old, I asked my grandmother to tell me her story. And this is what she said to me:
Da bambina, quando avevo cerca sette anni, ho chiesto a mia nonna di raccontarmi la sua storia.
E questo è quello che mi ha detto:
My story is a story of many great loves. When I was young, I lived in Sicily, and I loved my town Ragusa very much. Ragusa is on top of a big mountain but is also near the sea. Every day I could see the sunrise and the sunset over the south of Sicily, and it was very beautiful! I loved Sicily very much!
La mia storia è una storia di tanti grandi amori. Quando ero giovane, ho vissuto in Sicilia e mi piaceva molto il mio paese che si chiama Ragusa. Ragusa è sopra una grande montagna ma è anche vicino al mare. Ogni giorno potevo vedere l’alba e il tramonto sopra il sud della Sicilia ed era molto bello! Mi piaceva molto la Sicilia!
I had five brothers and sisters—two brothers and three sisters. I was the oldest in the family, and when I was 12 years old, I had to leave school. I had to help my mother take care of my sisters and my brothers. Before I went to bed, every night I said to my mother, “Do you love me?” And my mother replied, “I love you very much!”
Avevo cinque fratelli—due fratelli e tre sorelle. Ero la più grande nella famiglia e quando avevo dodici anni ho dovuto lasciare la scuola. Ho dovuto aiutare mia mamma a prendersi cura delle mie sorelle e dei miei fratelli. Prima di andare a letto, ogni notte dicevo a mia mamma, “Mi vuoi bene?” E mia madre diceva, “Ti voglio molto bene!”
And at Ragusa, there was also a boy named Peter who was 2 years older than me. Peter grew up on the same street as my family. When he became older, Peter was tall and handsome, a good person, and was very nice to me. I loved him. I became his girlfriend, but in secret.
Ed a Ragusa c’era anche un ragazzo che si chiamava Pietro che aveva due anni più di me. Pietro è cresciuto nella stessa strada della mia famiglia. Da grande, Pietro è diventato alto e bello, bravo, ed era molto simpatico con me. L’amavo. Sono diventata la sua ragazza, ma in segreto.
Peter’s father, Paul, was also a good person and decided to make a better life for his family and go to America. In 1916, when Peter was 16 years old, Paul brought the family to America. There was a lot of work for Paul, who was a bricklayer and helped to build many buildings that are still well known in New York today. Peter’s father made a lot of money, and the family was very well off.
Il padre di Pietro, Paolo, era anche una persona perbene e ha deciso di migliorare la vita della sua famiglia e di andare in America. Nel millenovecentosedici, quando Pietro aveva sedici anni, Paolo ha portato la famiglia in America. C’era molto lavoro per Paolo, chi era un muratore e ha aiutato a costruire tanti palazzi ancora ben conosciuti a New York oggi. Il padre di Pietro ha fatto tanti soldi e la famiglia stava molto bene.
Peter also worked every day and learned his father’s trade. But Peter was not happy. He wrote me in many letters that New York was ugly. He missed his beautiful Sicily. He missed me! In Sicily, I missed Peter!
Anche Pietro lavorava ogni giorno e imparava il mestiere da suo padre. Ma, Pietro non era contento. Lui mi ha scritto in tante lettere che New York era brutta. A lui mancava la sua bella Sicilia. Anche, io gli mancavo! Mentre in Sicilia, mi mancava Pietro!
This continued for many years.
Continuava cosi per tanti anni.
Finally, Peter wrote a letter to my father and asked him to take me to America to get married (marry me).
Finalmente, Pietro ha scritto una lettera a mio padre e l’ha chiesto di portarmi in America per sposarmi.
At first, my father had said, “Absolutely not!”
Al inizio, mio padre ha detto, “Assolutamente no!”
But I wanted to go to America and marry Peter. I loved Peter very much. Every day, I cried. I did not eat anything. My mother said to my father, “How sad Maria is! You must take her to America!”
Ma volevo andare in America e sposarmi con Pietro. L’amavo tanto. Ogni giorno, piangevo. Non mangiavo niente. Mia madre ha detto a mio padre, “Come triste è Maria! Devi portarla in America!”
And finally, he did it!
E finalmente, lui l’ho fatto!
Peter and I were married, and we had three children: two boys and one girl. We moved to a small town north of New York City, where there are mountains and it is very pretty.
Pietro ed io ci siamo sposati e abbiamo avuto tre figli: due figli maschi e una figla femmina. Abbiamo traslocati a un piccolo paese a nord di New York, dove ci sono le montagne ed è molto bello.
Today, I feel very fortunate and happy because I have my three great loves: my new country, my husband, and my family!
Oggi, mi sento molto fortunata e contena perché ho i miei tre grandi amori: il mio paese nuovo, mio marito, e la mia famiglia!
How to Use Italian Possessive Adjectives to Describe Things
The definite article (il, la, i, or le) must be added before the possessive adjective when we describe the things that we possess. In this case, both the definite article and the possessive adjective will match the gender and number of the noun that is being modified. Remember, in Italian, we do not think about who is doing the possessing, but about what is being possessed!
Singular
Plural
ilmio/la mia
my
i miei/le mie
il tuo/la tua
your (familiar) singular
i tuoi/le tue
il suo*/la sua*
your (polite)* singular
his, her, its
i suoi*/le sue*
ilnostro/la nostra
our
i nostri/le nostre
il vostro/la vostra
your (familiar) plural
i vostri/le vostre
il loro/la loro
their
i loro*/le loro*
*For “polite your,” simply capitalize, as in, “ilSuo amico” or “la Sua amica.”
It should be noted that the definite article can be omitted if the speaker wants to emphasize ownership of a particular thing when using the verb essere. If someone wants to stress his ownership of a car, for instance, he would simply say, “È mia” for “(It) is mine,” and omit the definite article la and the word macchina. In English, we use mine instead of my, ours instead of our, and yours instead of your after the verb “to be” in a similar way. This is called the stressed form of the possessive adjective.
Also, the expression “a casa mia,” with the possessive adjective placed alone, after the noun, is idiomatic and means “at/to my house.” The other possessive forms can be used as well with this phrase, as in “a casa tua” (at your house) or “a casa sua” (at his/her house).And it can always be “colpa mia,” or “my fault.”
Speak Italian: You Will Need to Know…
How to Use Italian Possessive Adjectives with Family Members
When speaking of only one family member, do not use the definite article!
mio cugino = my cousin
When speaking of more than one family member, the definite article must be used.
i miei cugini =my cousins
If using an adjective to describe family members, the definite article must be used.
“Caterina è la mia cara cugina.” =“Kathy is my dear cousin.”
Singular and Plural Possessive Adjectives for Family
mio/mia
my
i miei/le mie
tuo/tua
your (familiar) singular
i tuoi/le tue
suo/sua
your (polite) singular/his/her/its
i suoi/le sue
nostro/nostra
our
i nostri/le nostre
vostro/vostra
your (familiar) plural
i vostri/le vostre
illoro/la loro
their
i loro/le loro
La Mia Famiglia Femminile/Female Members of My Family
mia madre
my mother
(la) mia mamma
my mom
mia sorella
my sister(s)
le mie sorelle
mia nonna
my grandmother(s)
le mie nonne
mia zia
my aunt(s)
le mie zie
mia figlia
my daughter(s)
le mie figlie
mia cugina
my female cousin(s)
le mie cugine
La Mia Famiglia Maschile/Male Members of My Family
mio padre
my father
(il) mio papà
my dad
mio fratello
my brother(s)
i miei fratelli
mio nonno
my grandfather(s)
i miei nonni
mio zio
my uncle(s)
i miei zii
mio figlio
my son(s)
i miei figli
mio cugino
my cousin(s)
i miei cugini
Always use il mio fidanzato or la mia fidanzata for a boyfriend/fiancé or girlfriend/fiancée who are not yet part of the family! This also applies to la mia ex moglie and il mio ex marito, my ex-wife and my ex-husband.
If a pet, or animale domestico, such as a cat or a dog, is a part of your family, use the definite article when referring to them. So, my cat or my dog would be il mio gato or il mio cane. The endings of the nouns that refer to animals do not need to be changed to match their gender. But, if it is important to emphasize that you have a male or a female animal, see below:
il gato
il mio gato
the cat
my cat (any gender or a male cat)
il mio gato
il mio gato maschio
the male cat
my male cat
la mia gata
la mia gata femmina
the female cat
my female cat
il cane
il mio cane
the dog
my dog (any gender or a male dog)
il mio cane
il mio cane maschio
the male dog
my male dog
la mia cagna
la mia cagna femmina
the female dog
my female dog
When speaking in Italian of two family members or objects of the same gender and number, link them with the word “and,” which is “e” in Italian. The possessive pronoun does not need to be repeated. That said, the tendency in Italian is to repeat the possessive pronoun anyway.
The possessive pronoun must be used for each person/thing linked with the word “and” when the gender or number of the person/thing differs.
Note that in English, it is not necessary to repeat the word “my,” although “my” can be repeated to emphasize that one is speaking of two different types of groups.
mio fratello e cugino or mio fratello e mio cugino
my brother and cousin
mio fratello e mia sorella
my brother and sister
mio fratello e i miei cugini
my brother and my cousins
Speak Italian: You Will Need to Know…
How to Talk about Siblings and Children
When talking about siblings in Italian, the idea is expressed with the Italian plural word fratelli. This masculine plural noun refers to a group of all male siblings and to a group of both male and female siblings. Therefore, the number of brothers and sisters must be specified in the next sentence—and all endings changed into either masculine or feminine.
Remember to use unfratello for one male sibling and unasorella for one female sibling.
Ho due fratelli.
I have two siblings (brothers and sisters or just brothers).
Ho un fratello e una sorella.
I have one brother and one sister.
Remember to use fratelli for a group of brothers and sorelle for a group of sisters.
Ho cinque fratelli.
I have five siblings (brothers and sisters or just brothers).
Ho due fratelli e tre sorelle.
I have two brothers and three sisters.
When talking about one’s own or someone else’s children in Italian, the idea is expressed with the Italian plural word figli (which otherwise means sons). This masculine word refers to a group of all male children and to a group of both male and female children. It then becomes necessary to use additional nouns to categorize the children as male or female in the next sentence, and all endings must be changed into either masculine or feminine.
Remember to use unofiglio maschio for one male child and unafiglia femmina for one female child.
Ho due figli.
I have two children./I have two boys and girls.
Ho un figlio maschio e una figlia femmina.
I have one boy and one girl.
Remember to use figli maschi for a group of male children and figlie femmine for a group of female children.
Ho cinque figli.
I have five children./I have five boys and girls.
Ho due figli maschi e tre figlie femmine.
I have two brothers and three sisters.
Speak Italian: You Will Need to Know…
When to use “Che” to Connect Phrases in Italian
“Che” has many meanings in Italian,and is used in many ways. This little word will come up often in spoken and written Italian. The first and probably most important meaning that is found in most every dictionary, though, is the conjunctive “that.” While in English, many times we leave out the word “that” when linking two phrases together to make a complex sentence, in Italian this word can almost never be omitted.
A couple of important examples were underlined in are dialogue to make this point and are reprinted here. Learning how and when to incorporate “che” into an Italian sentence will take one a long way to becoming fluent in Italian, so listen closely for this word!
To link the phrase “this is what” to a second phrase.
E questo è quello che mi ha detto: And this is what (that) she said to me:
2. To mention something or someone and then give its actual name.
Mi piaceva molto il mio paese che si chiama Ragusa. ( Italian: I loved my town very much that is called Ragusa.)
I loved my town Ragusa very much.
Speak Italian: You Will Need to Know…
When to use “Che” to Connect Phrases in Italian
“Che” has many meanings in Italian,and is used in many ways. Below are two more uses for the Italian word che, with two different meanings.
Che is also commonly used as an interrogative expression meaning, “What?”“Che?” “Che cosa?” and “Cosa?” all mean “What?” in Italian, and are used interchangeably. Two of the most commonly spoken phrases where che is used this way are below:
Che succede?
What’s happening?
Che è successo?
What happened?
And by now you have no doubt heard the exclamation, “Che bello!” which means, “How beautiful!” or “How wonderful!” from anyone who has seen the rolling hills of the Italian countryside or a famous work of Italian art or architecture. Additional examples are listed below. In short, che when used in an exclamation of this type takes on the meaning of how. Of course, “Com’è bello?” means “How beautiful is it?” since the word come is the most often used to mean how in most other situations.
Che bello!
How beautiful!
How wonderful!
Che brutta (figura)!
How ugly!
How terrible!
Che fortuna!
How lucky!
What good fortune!
Speak Italian: You Will Need to Know…
How to Say “I Love You” in Italian
“Ti voglio bene” is an idiomatic expression in Italian, which translates roughly as, “I wish you well,” or better, “I care for you.” It originates from the verb volersi, which takes on a different meaning than the verb volere. The meaning of this verb is not easily translated into English, but is used often in Italy for many different situations.
“Ti voglio bene” is an old expression that is still used for platonic forms of caring and loving among family members and close friends in Italy today. The expression can be used between a boyfriend and a girlfriend and is also used between a husband and a wife. Watch some older Italian movies, and you will hear this expression often!
Mi voui bene?
Do you care for/about me?
Ti voglio bene.
I care for/about you.
The verb amare, which means “to love,” is reserved for romantic love—that one true love held between fiancée and fiancé, wife and husband.
Mi ami?
Do you love me?
Ti amo.
I love you.
Ti amo per sempre.
I will always love you.
Finally, some phrases for when you have fallen out of love:
Non ti voglio più bene.
I don’t like/care for you anymore.
Non ti amo più.
I don’t love you anymore.
Speak Italian: You Will Need to Know…
Common Phrases to Begin a Story Paragraph
Da giovane…
When I was young…
Da grande…
When I grew up…
Quando ero più vecchio(a)…
When I was older…
Nel 1928…
In 1928…
C’era una volta…
Una volta c’era…
Once upon a time…
In the past there was… / Once there was…
Allora…
In those days…
Per prima cosa…
For the first thing…
Dapprima…
Initially…
Prima…/Poi…
First…/Then…
Prima o poi…
Sooner or later…
Fin dall’inizio…
From the beginning…
Da ora in poi…
From now on…
Da allora in poi…
From then on…
From that moment on…
Speak Italian: You Will Need to Know…
Verbs That Take the Preposition “A”
Some Italian verbs need to be followed by the Italian word “a,” which in this case means “to,” before the addition of an infinitive verb to make a complete sentence. This may seem a little redundant at first, because in English, a verb in its infinitive form already includes the word “to.” To the Italian speaker, though, it is natural to insert the word a after the verbs on the list that follows—the phrases just sound correct this way.
Two important phrases to remember that use this rule are “andare a trovare” (“to go to visit”) and “venire a trovare”(“to come to visit”), which are used when visiting a person. The noun visitare can be used when you want to speak about a place you are visiting.
Don’t memorize this list, but instead try to listen for the “a” when these phrases come up in conversation, and soon it will become natural for you, also, to say these phrases correctly.
aiutare
to help
Aiuto mia mamma a … cucinare la cena.
andare
to go
Vado a … trovare mio cugino Pietro in Italia.
cominciare
to start
Comincio a … cucinare la cena.
divertirsi
to enjoy oneself
Mi divertito a … suonare il violino.
imparare
to learn
Tutti imparano a … parlare italiano.
insegnare
to teach
Lei insegna a … parlare la lingua francese.
invitare
to invite
Lui l’invita a … mangiare al ristorante.
mandare
to send
Io mando Pietro a … prendere una pizza.
prepararsi
to get ready
Mi preparo a … viaggiare in Italia.
venire
to come
Caterina viene a … trovare i suoi cugini.
Speak Italian: You Will Need to Know…
Reciprocal Reflexive Verbs, Including Sposarsi
Reciprocal reflexive verbs are used in the special situation when two people perform the same action together; this will make both people the subjectof the action. Therefore, the reciprocal reflexive verbs are conjugated in their plural form, using the plural subject and reflexive pronouns: (noi) ci, (voi) vi, or (loro) si. For conversation, the noi and loro forms will be the most important to remember. To express this type of situation in English, we simply add the phrase “each other,” after the verb.
Here is how this verb form works: for instance, everyone knows that “Ci vediamo” means “We (will) see each other.” So if the speaker is involved in the action with someone else—we are doing the action—use the noi verb conjugation and put ci in front of the verb.
Another common phrase is “Si abbracciano e si baciano,” which means “They hug and kiss each other.” If two people are being talked about—they are doing the action—use the loro verb conjugation and put si in front of the verb.
A quick word about sposarsi. It is one of those reflexive verbs that translates as “to get” married. We talked about these “to get” verbs in the last blog in this series. So if a person wants to say, “I want to get married” in Italian, this would be “(Io) voglio sposarmi.”
As we know, the subject pronouns are almost always omitted in conversation, and this applies to reciprocal reflexive verbs as well—hence the parentheses in the examples that follow!
Io e Francesca ci vogliamo bene.
Frances and I care for each other very much.
(Noi) Ci sposiamo oggi.
We (will) marry each other today.
(Noi) Ci scriviamo ogni giorno.
We write each other every day.
(Noi) Ci vediamo al teatro.
We (will) see each other at the theater.
(Noi) Ci vogliamo bene.
We love each other very much.
Caterina e Zia Rosa si salutano.
Kathy and Aunt Rose greet each other.
Michele e Francesca si volgiono bene.
Michael and Frances care for each other very much.
(Loro) si vogliono bene.
(They) care for each other very much.
(Loro) Si incontrano.
They meet each other.
(Loro) Si telefonano ogni giorno.
They telephone each other every day.
Listed below are verbs that commonly use the reciprocal reflexive form:
abbracciarsi
to hug each other
aiutarsi
to help each other
amarsi
to love each other
baciarsi
to kiss each other
chiamarsi
to call each other
conoscersi
to get to know each other
fidanzarsi
to become engaged
guardarsi
to look at each other
incontrarsi
to meet each other (planned meeting)
odiarsi
to hate each other
parlarsi
to speak to each other
salutarsi
to greet each other
scriversi
to write each other
sposarsi
to marry each other
telefonarsi
to call each other
trovarsi
to meet each other
vedersi
to see each other
Speak Italian: You Will Need to Know…
Passato Prossimo Verbs That Take Essere
Here is a list of the most common action verbs that take essere when forming the passato prossimo, which is the verb form used to describe going from one place to another or “passing through” life—growing/living/dying. The infinitive form is in the first column, and the corresponding past participle is listed in the third column; notice that some past participles will be regular and others irregular.
It should also be noted that all reflexive verbs, as well as piacere, take essere.
accadere
to happen
accaduto(a)(i,e)
happened
andare
to go
andato(a)(i,e)
went
arrivare
to arrive
arrivato(a)(i,e)
arrived
cadere
to fall
caduto(a)(i,e)
fell
cambiare
to change
cambiato(a)(i,e)
changed
cominciare+
to begin
cominciato(a)(i,e)
began
diventare
to become
diventato(a)(i,e)
became
entrare
to enter
entrato(a)(i,e)
entered
finire+
to finish
finito(a)(i,e)
finished
iniziare+
to begin
iniziato(a)(i,e)
began
morire
to die
morto(a)(i,e)
dead
nascere
to be born
nato(a)(i,e)
born
partire
to leave
partito(a)(i,e)
left
passare*
to pass through
passato(a)(i,e)
past
piacere
to be pleasing to
piaciuto(a)(i,e)
pleased
restare
to remain
restato(a)(i,e)
remained
rompere
to break
rotto(a)(i,e)
broken
salire*
to go up
salito(a)(i,e)
went up
scendere*
to do down
sceso(a)(i,e)
went down
succedere
to happen
successo(a)(i,e)
happened
uscire
to go out
uscito(a)(i,e)
went out
venire
to come
venuto(a)(i,e)
came
+Some verbs, such as cominciare, finire, and iniziare, take avereexcept when the subject is a thing, rather than a person. So as we have learned in Chapter 11 of Conversational Italian for Travelers, “Io ho finito il libro,” “Tu hai finito il libro,” and “Lei/lui ha finito il libro,” but “Il film è finito,” for “The film is finished.” Notice that in the last example, the verb itself completes the sentence and refers back to the subject. (Finire is categorized as transitive in all of the examples except the last, when it is intransitive, but don’t worry about these terms!)
*Some verbs, such as passare, scendere, and salire take avere when used with a direct object, as in “Io ho sceso le scale” for “I have gone down the stairs.” Otherwise, they use essere: “Lui è sceso” for “He has gotten off.”
Grammar Point: Reflexive Verbs with the Passato Prossimo
All reflexive verbs form the passato prossimo with essere. Simply put the reflexive pronoun beforeessere and follow essere with the past participle as usual. Remember to change the ending of the past participle to reflect the gender of the person doing the action. See the example below with divertirsi (to enjoy oneself).With all the good times a visitor to Italy can expect, divertirsi is an essential verb to know in several different tenses!
Notice that the translation in English uses the verb to have, while Italian uses to be. So remember to think in Italian in this case!
Essersi divertito/To Have Enjoyed Oneself
io
mi sono
divertito(a)
I have enjoyed myself.
I enjoyed myself.
tu
ti sei
divertito(a)
You (familiar) have enjoyed yourself.
You (familiar) enjoyed yourself.
Lei/lei/lui
si è
divertito(a)
You (polite)/she/he have/has enjoyed herself/himself.
You (polite)/she/he enjoyed herself/himself.
noi
ci siamo
divertiti(e)
We have enjoyed ourselves.
We enjoyed ourselves.
voi
vi siete
divertiti(e)
You all have enjoyed yourselves.
You all enjoyed yourselves.
loro
si sono
divertiti(e)
They have enjoyed themselves.
They enjoyed themselves.
Grammar Point: Modal Verbs with Essere and the Passato Prossimo
We have seen how to use the modal verbs dovere, potere, and volere if the passato prossimo is formed with avere. The sequence to use is the same with essere; essere is conjugated to reflect the speaker, the past participle of the modal verb is added, and then the infinitive of the verb finishes the verb phrase.
There is one catch, though. Remember that we must change the past participle of the verbs that follow essere to reflect the gender of the speaker. In this case, the past participle is formed from the modal verb, so the ending of the modal verb must change!
Pietro è voluto partire alle sei stasera.
Peter wanted to leave at 6 tonight.
Caterina è dovuta andare a fare la spesa ieri.
Kathy had to go grocery shopping yesterday.
Speak Italian: You Will Need to Know…
When to Use the Passato Prossimo versus the Imperfetto
Here is a table to clarify the differences of the uses of the passato prossimo and the imperfetto past tense verb forms. Both will describe actions or events that have taken place in the past. The circumstances that surround each event determine the form to use. When narrating a story, use the imperfetto.
Passato Prossimo Imperfetto
Past action that took place once.
Past action that was habitual; done several times.
Stamattina ho telefonato a mia mamma. This morning I called my mother.
Telefonavo a mia mamma ogni mattina. I used to call my mother every day.
Past action that was performed a specific number of times.
Past action that took place over an extended period of time.
Sono andata dal medico per tre giorni di fila. I went to the doctor for 3 days in a row.
Andavo dal medico raramente quando ero giovane. I went to the doctor rarely when I was young.
Past action that was performed within a definite time period.
Past action that was performed within an indefinite time period, without a specific beginning and ending mentioned.
L’anno scorso è andato a scuola. Last year he went to school.
Da giovane, andava volentieri a scuola. When he was young, he used to go to school gladly.
Past states of being/having of a person or a thing in a specific time frame.
Past states of being/having of a person or a thing
(essere or avere used alone).
Ieri ho avuto fame tutto il giorno.
Yesterday I had hunger all day long. (English: I was hungry.)
Caterina è stata molto felice il giorno del suo compleanno.
Kathy was very happy on her birthday.
Io avevo fame. I used to have/had hunger. (English: I used to be/was hungry.) Caterina era felice. Kathy used to be/was happy.
In a compound sentence that involves two actions performed in the past, the completed action (usually given second) uses the passato prossimo.In a compound sentence that involves two actions performed in the past, the setting, or the ongoing situation (usually given first), uses the imperfetto.
Mentre nostro figlio dormiva, abbiamo guidato per molte ore.
While our son was sleeping, we drove for many hours.
Speak Italian: You Will Need to Know…
How to Conjugate and Use Mancare
The verb mancare has many meanings: to miss/to lose/to lack/to be lacking/to omit/to fail. Mancare is used to convey the idea of “to miss someone” very commonly in conversational Italian, so it is important to learn the conjugation and sentence structure for this verb.
To start off, you should know that the sentence structure used for mancare is the same as for the verb piacere (see the second blog in this series). In English, we say the subject of the sentence misses someone using the direct object (example: I miss John), whereas in Italian, this phrase is turned around and the subject is the person who is being missed.
The sentence structure in Italian can use the disjunctive pronoun.
example “I miss John”: John is missing to me. =Giovanni manca a me.
But more often, the Italian sentence uses the indirect object pronoun placed before the verb.
example “I miss John”: (John) to me is missing. = (Giovanni) Mi manca.
To make matters more confusing to the English speaker, the subject of the sentence—which can be somebody’s name, a subject pronoun, a place, or even an object—can be left out entirely as long as it is known from the context, as we see above.
But, in most cases the subject is then added to the end of the sentence for clarification.
example: “I miss John”: To me is missing John. = Mi manca Giovanni.
Think about this a bit and then read the present tense conjugation below. Notice that the tu and noi forms are irregular. These are marked with an asterisk.
Mancare/To Be Missing (To)
io
manco
I am missing (to…)
tu
manchi*
you (fam.) are missing (to…)
Lei
lei/lui
manca
you (polite) are missing (to…)
she/he/it is missing (to…)
noi
manchiamo*
we are missing (to…)
voi
mancate
you all are missing (to…)
loro
mancano
they are missing (to…)
The past tense of mancare is regular in the passato prossimo and takes essere. The passato prossimo form is often used. Consider the phrase “I missed you!” This implies that a definite period of absence has passed, and now the individuals are able to finally talk about their feelings. This is the past tense form for mancare that is most commonly used during conversation.
See below for the passato prossimo conjugation of mancare:
sono sei, è, with mancato(a)
siamo, siete sono with mancati(e)
The imperfetto form of mancare is regular as well, and is used most often for narration, as in our example story. In this case, the reference is to a nonspecific amount of time that people missed each other in the past.
See below for the imperfetto conjugation of mancare:
mancavo, mancavi, mancava
mancavamo, mancavate, mancavano
The sentences below give some common examples of how to use the verb mancare, first in present tense and then in past tense, with the passato prossimo. For easier understanding, the subject pronouns are included in parentheses, but remember that they are most often left out of the sentence, unless needed for clarification.
Everyone has a story to tell about themselves. What would you like others to know about what you find important in life? What are your great loves? Fill in the blanks in the Italian sentences in the exercise below, using examples from your own life.
Speak Italian: A Story about… Your Great Loves!
When I was young, when I was about 7 years old, I asked my grandmother to tell me her story. And this is what she said to me:
Da bambina, quando avevo ___________________ anni, ho chiesto di raccontarmi la sua storia.
E questo è quello che mi ha detto:
My story is a story of many great loves. When I was young, I lived in Sicily, and I loved my town of Ragusa very much. Ragusa is on top of a big mountain but is also near the sea. Every day I could see the sunrise and the sunset over the south of Sicily, and it was very beautiful! I loved Sicily very much!
La mia storia è una storia di________________________________________________________________.
Quando ero , ho vissuto e mi piaceva molto il mio paese che si chiama ______________________________________________________________________ È_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Ogni giorno potevo vedere ____________________________________________________ed era molto bello! Mi piaceva molto___________________________________________________________________________________!
I had five brothers and sisters—two brothers and three sisters. I was the oldest in the family, and when I was 12 years old, I had to leave school. I had to help my mother take care of my sisters and my brothers. Before I went to bed, every night I said to my mother, “Do you love me?” And my mother replied, “I love you very much!”
Avevo __________________________fratelli—_____________________fratelli e ______________________sorelle. Ero ______________________________________________________nella famiglia e quando avevo dodici anni _____________________________________________________________________________________________________.
Ho dovuto aiutare ______________________________________________________________________________. Prima di andare a letto, ogni notte dicevo a mia mamma, “Mi vuoli bene?” E mia madre diceva, “Ti voglio molto bene!”
And at Ragusa, there was also a boy named Peter who was 2 years older than me. Peter grew up on the same street as my family. When he became older, Peter was tall and handsome, a good person, and was very nice to me. I loved him. I became his girlfriend, but in secret.
Ed a Ragusa c’era anche un ragazzo(a) che si chiamava______________________________che aveva __________________anni più di me. ___________________________è cresciuto nella stessa strada della mia famiglia.
Da grande, _________________è diventato(a)_______________________________________________________, ed era molto simpatico con me. L’amavo(a). Sono diventata(o) la sua ragazza(o), ma in segreto.
Peter’s father, Paul, was also a good person and decided to make a better life for his family and go to America. In 1916, when Peter was 16 years old, Paul brought the family to America. There was a lot of work for Paul, who was a bricklayer and helped to build many buildings that are still well known in New York today. Peter’s father made a lot of money, and the family was very well off.
Il padre di _______________, Paolo, era anche una persona per bene e ha deciso di migliorare la vita della sua famiglia e di andare in America. Nel _____________________________________________, quando ____________________________aveva __________________anni, Paolo ha portato la famiglia in America. C’era molto lavoro per Paolo, chi era _________________________________e ha aiutato a ____________________________________________________________________________________________________. Il padre di ___________________________ha fatto tanti soldi e la famiglia stava molto bene.
Peter also worked every day and learned his father’s trade. But Peter was not happy. He wrote me in many letters that New York was ugly. He missed his beautiful Sicily. He missed me! In Sicily, I missed Peter!
Anche _______________________lavorava ogni giorno e imparava il mestiere da suo padre. Ma, _________________________non era contento. Lui(Lei) mi ha scritto in tante lettere che _________________________era brutta. A lui(lei) mancava la sua bella Sicilia.
Anche, io gli(le) mancavo! Mentre in ________________________, mi mancava ____________________!
This continued for many years.
Continuava cosi per tanti anni.
Finally, Peter wrote a letter to my father and asked him to take me to America to get married (marry me).
Finalmente, _____________________ha scritto una lettera a __________________e
l’ha chiesto di portarmi in America per sposarmi.
At first, my father had said, “Absolutely not!”
Al inizio, ____________________________________________________________________________________________.
But I wanted to go to America and marry Peter. I loved Peter very much. Every day, I cried. I did not eat anything. My mother said to my father, “How sad Maria is! You must take her to America!”
Ma volevo andare in America e sposarmi con _______________________. L’amavo tanto.
Ogni giorno, ___________________________________________________________________________________.
Mia madre ha detto a mio padre, “Come triste è _____________________!
Devi portarla(lo) in America!”
And finally, he did it!
E finalmente, lui l’ho fatto!
Peter and I were married, and we had three children—two boys and one girl. We moved to a small town north of New York City, where there are mountains and it is very pretty.
_______________________ed io ci siamo sposati e abbiamo avuto _______________________figli—____________________figli maschi e _______________figla femmina. Abbiamo traslocati a _______________________________________________, dove ci sono ____________________________________ ed è molto bello.
Today, I feel very fortunate and happy because I have my three great loves: my new country, my husband, and my family!
Oggi, mi sento molto fortunata e contena perché ho i miei tre grandi amori: ______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Conversational Italian for Travelers Just the Important Phrases (with Restaurant Vocabulary and Idiomatic Expressions) is YOUR traveling companion in Italy! All the Italian phrases you need to know to enjoy your trip to Italy are right here and fit right into your pocket or purse.
Kathryn Occhipinti, MD, is the author of the Conversational Italian for Travelersseries of books and a teacher of Italian for travelers to Italy in the Peoria and Chicago area. “Everything you need to know to enjoy your visit to Italy!”
Visitlearntravelitalian.com/download.html to purchase/download Conversational Italian for Travelers and find more interesting facts and helpful hints about getting around Italy!Learn how to buy train tickets online, how to make international and local telephone calls, and how to decipher Italian coffee names and restaurant menus, all while gaining the basic understanding of Italian that you will need to know to communicate easily and effectively while in Italy. —From the staff at Stella Lucente, LLC
Can you speak Italian? By now, many of you have passed the beginning stages of learning how to speak Italian and can read and comprehend quite a bit of the language. Meraviglioso!
But have you tried to take the next step to speak Italian fluently? Can you introduce yourself and talk about yourself in Italian? Can you speak Italian the way you would speak in your native language, with complex and varied sentences? This is more difficult that it may seem at first, and it’s something that I am always working on!
This series will focus on the situations that come have come up most frequently in my everyday conversations with Italian instructors and friends. The “Speak Italian” blog series willfocus on the type of sentence structure and vocabulary we all need to remember to be more fluent when we speak Italian!
To take that giant step from simple beginning sentences to more complex and fluid sentences in Italian, we must know many things; in this segment, we will discuss the grammar of complex sentences, prepositions, topic-related grammar, and present and past tense verbs!
In the “Speak Italian” blog series, a short essay or dialogue in Italian will be presented about a commonly used topic of conversation. Then, we will review the Italian grammar that is necessary to talk about the particular topic in detail. And finally, the same material will be presented in Italian and English, with blanks for the reader to fill in with descriptions from his or her own life!
Remember these examples about yourself as “anchors” in your knowledge for when you must speak Italian in your next conversation!
Enjoy the first topic in this series, “Speak Italian: All About…Me!” —Kathryn Occhipinti
Here is a short description of my origins, family, and work. Note some names/places have been changed to protect privacy. The essay is meant to be an example piece for others, rather than a complete biography.
While reading my history, think about yourself and what you would like other people to know about you. Read the grammar section if you like. Then, use the blank spaces in the form that follows to fill in the Italian for your own life!
Speak Italian: All About… Me!
Mi chiamo Caterina Occhipinti.
Io sono italo-americana.
Sono (una) madre e (una) scrittrice.
Dove sono nata e ho vissuto.* Where was born and have lived:
La mia famiglia viene dall’Italia. Sono venuti in America nel 1916.
My family is from (lit. comes from) Italy. They came to America in 1916.
Vengo dalgli Stati Uniti. Abito in America. Sono di Brooklyn.
I am from the United States. I live in America. I am from Brooklyn.
Sono nata a Brooklyn, a Long Island, vicino a New York City. Ora, abito a Chicago.
I was born in Brooklyn, on Long Island, near to New York City. Now, I live in Chicago.
Ho anche vissuto* a Boston, in California, e in Florida.
I have also lived in Boston, in California, and in Florida.
*In the past, “ho vissuto” was commonly used in Italy and can still be heard today to describe where one has lived. It is now felt by some Italian linguists that the helping verb essere should be used to express this idea – in other words, that “sono vissuto(a)” is more correct. However, please keep in mind that language is a “living thing” and often the line between right and wrong depends mostly on what people actually say every day. Even among linguists which form to use is controversial!
La mia educazione: My education:
Mi sono trasferita da New York a Boston per l’università.
I moved from New York to Boston for college.
Ero una studentessa all’Università di Boston.
I was a student at Boston University.
Ho frequentato l’Università di Boston per un programma speciale per gli studenti di medicina.
I went to Boston University for a special program for medical students.
Ho ricevuto una laurea in “medical science” ed inglese dall’Università di Boston.
I received a degree in “medical science” and in English from Boston University.
Ho frequentato la scuola di medicina all’Univeristà di Boston per due anni ed anche a Mount Sinai a New York.
I went to medical school at Boston University for two years and also at Mount Sinai in New York.
Ho ricevuto una laurea in medicina dal Mount Sinai a New York nel 1987.
I received a degree in medicine from Mount Sinai in New York in 1987.
I miei figli: My children:
Sono la madre di due figli, Maria e Giovanni.
I am the mother of two children, Mary and John.
Maria ha diciannove anni e Giovanni ha quattordici anni.
Mary is 19 years old and John is 14 years old.
Maria studia affari all’università di Urbana in Illinois e Giovanni studia alla scuola superiore a Peoria in Illinois.
Mary studies business at the University of Urbana in Illinois and John studies at middle school in Peoria in Illinois.
Il mio lavoro—instruttrice e scrittrice: My work – instructor and writer
Sono un’istruttrice d’italiano.
I am an Italian language instructor.
Ero l’insegnante d’italiano per l’Italian-American Society of Peoria (la Società Italo-Americana di Peoria). Ed ora insegno anche l’italiano nella zona di Chicago.
I was the Italian teacher for the Italian-American Society of Peoria. And now I also teach Italian in the Chicago area.
Insegno l’italiano agli americani che vogliono viaggiare in Italia. Offro lezioni di gruppo e lezioni private.
I teach the Italian language to Americans that want to travel to Italy. I offer group lessons and private lessons.
Ho scritto un libro che si chiama Conversational Italian for Travelers. Questo libro è un libro di testo e ha quattrocentosessantasei pagine!
I have written a book called Conversational Italian for Travelers. This book is a textbook and has 466 pages!
Ho anche scritto un libro di esercizi, intitolato Audio Dialogue Practice Book. Gli esercizi sono per gli studenti principanti (Vol. 1) ed anche per gli studenti intermedi (Vol 2).
I have also written a book of exercises entitled Audio Dialogue Practice Book. The exercises are for beginning students (Vol. 1) and also for intermediate students (Volume 2).
Gli studenti principanti dovrebbero usare Vol. 1 e gli studenti intermedi dovrebbero usare Vol. 2 dell’Audio Dialogue Practice Book. The beginning students should use Vol. 1 and the intermediate students should use Vol.2 of the ’Audio Dialogue Practice Books.
Dal mio libro di testo, ho scritto tre brevi libri, si chiamano Just the Grammar, Just the Verbs, e Just the Important Phrases. From my textbook, I have written three short books called Just the Grammar, Just the Verbs, e Just the Important Phrases.
Il mio lavoro—medico: My work – physician:
Sono (un) medico. Sono (una) radiologa.
I am a physician. I am a radiologist.
Mi occupo di medicina. Mi occupo di radiologia.
My work is medicine. My work is radiology.
Faccio medicina. Faccio radiologia.
I practice medicine. I practice radiology.
Inoltre io leggo/interpreto gli esami di MRI (risonanza magnetica) per una società che si trova in California. La società in California mi manda gli esami di MRI da interpretare via computer.
Furthermore, I read/interpret MRI exams for a company from California. The company in California sends me the MRI exams for interpretation on my computer.
How to Make Complex Sentences with “and” and “at” in Italian
(1) The English word “and” is the letter “e” in Italian.
When speaking in Italian, and linking one phrase to another using e, if the first word of the second phrase begins with the letter e as well, add the letter d to the Italian “and” to make “ed.”
(2) This rule is also used for the Italian word “a,” which means “to.”
If the word that follows the Italian a also begins with the letter a, add the letter d to the Italian word for “to” make “ad.”
(3) It is optional to use this rule if the Italian words e or a come before Italian words that begin with other vowels (i.e., vowels that are not identical to the Italian words for “and” or “to”).
That said, the letter d is commonly added to e or a before words that begin with any vowel in the next phrase.
Speak Italian: You Will Need to Know…
Grammar Rules for Anche, Sempre, and Inoltre
Use of anche(also) and sempre (always):
(1) Present tense: anche and semprefollow the verb.
(2) Past tense imperfetto: anche and semprefollowthe imperfetto verb.
(3) Past tense passato prossimo: anche and semprecan follow the compound verb of the passato prossimo.
Example: Ho detto anche che la ragazza era bella.
(4) Option with the passato prossimo or any other compound verb tense:
anche and semprecan go betweenavere/essere and the past participle.
Example: Ho anche detto che la ragazza era bella.
(5) Anche and sempre belong before a person’s name if you are starting a sentence with their name or a pronoun (she = lei, he = lui).
Example: Anche Franco viene al cinema stasera.
Use of inoltre (also, furthermore, moreover):
When starting a sentence, begin with inoltre for emphasis.
Speak Italian: You Will Need to Know…
Grammar Rules for the Prepositions a (to) and in (in) Regarding Cities, Regions/States, Islands, and Countries
When Americans travel, we travel to a place: to Italy, to Rome, to the northeast. Italians travel directly in(in) a country, region, or large island, but to (a) a city, town, or small island. (In Italian, the word for in is the same as in English… in!) For instance, one may live in America, but a Chicago. By convention, the definite article (the) (il, la, gli, or l’) is used to refer to countries, except when talking about traveling directly into them!
Speak Italian: You Will Need to Know…
How to Describe where You Are from
There are two ways to ask/tell where someone is from in Italian:
di + dove + essere
from + where + to be
Da + dove + venire
from + where + to come
In Italian, when the verb to be (essere) is used, the idea of from is expressed with di, as in, “From where are you?”In proper English, of course, we would say, “Where are you from?” The answer in Italian will also use di and will usually be followed by the town of one’s birth. Notice that the subject pronoun io(I) is usually left out of the answer, as it is understood from the ending of the verb.
Di dov’è Lei?
Where are you (pol.) from?
Di dove sei?
Where are you (fam.) from?
Sono di Chicago.
(I) am from Chicago.
The action verb venire is usually used in conversation when someone is visiting or has moved to a new place. When replying to a question that uses this phrase, use the io form of venire, which is vengo and da for from, followed by a city, town, region/state, or country. Also, remember that when speaking of a region, state, or country, the definite article (il, lo, la, l’, gli) must be used. The preposition da is then combined with the definite article to make dal, dallo, dall’, dalla, or dagli, which means “from the.” For now, don’t worry about these rules. Just look up and remember the correct way to say where you are living in case you are asked!
Da dove viene?/Da dove vieni?
Where do you come from? (pol.)/(fam.)
Vengo dall’America.
(I) come from America./I am from America.
Vengo dagli Stati Uniti.
(I) come from the United States.
Vengo dall’Illinois.
(I) come from Illinois.
Vengo dalla California.
(I) come from California.
Vengo dal New Jersey.
(I) come from New Jersey.
Vengo da Chicago.
(I) come from Chicago.
Speak Italian: You Will Need to Know…
Your Nationality
To explain where we are from, we must use adjectives that identify our country of origin. For men, adjectives of nationality end in –o and change to an –i in the plural, and for women, these same adjectives end in –a and change to –e in the plural. So, a man from Italy is italiano, but a woman is italiana.
Adjectives of nationality that have only one form for both men and women usually end in –ese.
What to do if the adjective describing nationality ends in an –e? Well, use the same –e ending for both men and women, and for the plural, change the letter –e to an –i.
Adjectives of nationality always follow the noun and are not capitalized. Or you can just state your nationality directly after the verb sono to make the sentence “I am…”
Da dove viene?/Da dove vieni?
Where do you come from? (pol.)/(fam.)
Vengo dall’America.
(I) come from America./I am from America.
Vengo dagli Stati Uniti.
(I) come from the United States.
Sono americano(a).
(I) am American.
Speak Italian: You Will Need to Know…
How to State Your Age in Italian
Perhaps the most commonly asked question of someone is how old they are. In English, we say, “How old are you?” using the verb to be, as a statement of fact. But Italians look at this question as the number of years accumulated during a lifetime (and maybe the wisdom accumulated during these years?), so they use the verb to have, avere.The question in Italian is, “Quanti anni hai?” or literally, “How many years do you have?” This is not really an idiomatic expression, but just another way of looking at things.
Quanti anni hai?
How old are you? (lit. How many years do you have?)
After this question is asked of you, the response will also use the verb avere, and you will respond:
Io ho anni.
I have years.
There are a couple of rules that are necessary to make conversation flow more easily in Italian:
The tens (20, 30, 40, etc.) drop their last vowel before the word anni. In this case, the expression would be:
Io ho vent’anni.
I have 20 years.
Io ho trent’anni.
I have 30 years.
Io ho quarant’anni.
I have 40 years.
All numbers that end in uno (21, 31, 41, etc.) drop the final –o before a noun that starts with a vowel. So, if you are 21, 31, or 41 years old, your reply would be as follows:
Io ho ventun’anni.
I have 21 years.
Io ho trentun’anni.
I have 31 years.
Io ho quarantun’anni.
I have 41 years.
No need to remember all these rules—just look up and commit to memory your age and the ages of your immediate family members for now!
Speak Italian: You Will Need to Know…
Present Tense Verbs
Endings for Regular –are, –ere, –ire, and –ire (isco)* Verbs
Drop the –are, -ere, and -ire endings from the Italian infinitive verb and add the endings below for the present tense. Reflexive verbs drop their –arsi, ersi, and -irsi endings and then are conjugated in the same way. Always add the corresponding reflexive pronoun before each conjugated form of a reflexive verb.
Infinitive
Present
Reflexive
Pronouns
–are
–ere
–ire
ire (isco)
*capire
*finire
*preferire
io
mi
o
o
o
isco
tu
ti
i
i
i
isci
Lei/lei/lui
si
a
e
e
isce
noi
ci
iamo
iamo
iamo
iamo
voi
vi
ate
ete
ite
ite
loro
si
ano
ono
ono
iscono
*Common –ire (isco) verbs are listed—there are many others!
Speak Italian: You Will Need to Know…
Present Tense Verbs
Conjugated Forms of Auxiliary Verbs Essere and Avere
Auxiliary
Verbs
Essere
(to be)
Avere
(to have)
io
sono
I am
ho
I have
tu
sei
you (fam.) are
hai
you (fam.) have
Lei/lei/lui
è
you (pol.) are
he is/she is
ha
you (pol.) have
he has/she has
noi
siamo
we are
abbiamo
we have
voi
siete
you all are
avete
you all have
loro
sono
they are
hanno
they have
Speak Italian: You Will Need to Know…
Past Tense: Passato Prossimo
Auxiliary
Verbs
Essere
(to be)
Essere
Passato Prossimo
Avere
(to have)
Avere
Passato
Prossimo
io
sono
+stato(a)
ho
+avuto
tu
sei
+stato(a)
hai
+avuto
Lei/lei/lui
è
+stato(a)
ha
+avuto
noi
siamo
+stati(e)
abbiamo
+avuto
voi
siete
+stati(e)
avete
+avuto
loro
sono
+stati(e)
hanno
+avuto
Past Tense
Passato Prossimo
Avere
(to have)
–are
past participle
–ere
past
participle
–ire
past
participle
io
ho
+ato
+uto
+ito
tu
hai
+ato
+uto
+ito
Lei/lei/lui
ha
+ato
+uto
+ito
noi
abbiamo
+ato
+uto
+ito
voi
avete
+ato
+uto
+ito
loro
hanno
+ato
+uto
+ito
Past Tense
Passato Prossimo
Essere
(to be)
–are
past participle
–ere
past
participle
–ire
past
participle
io
sono
+ato(a)
+uto(a)
+ito(a)
tu
sei
+ato(a)
+uto(a)
+ito(a)
Lei/lei/lui
è
+ato(a)
+uto(a)
+ito(a)
noi
siamo
+ati(e)
+uti(e)
+iti(e)
voi
siete
+ati(e)
+uti(e)
+iti(e)
loro
sono
+ati(e)
+uti(e)
+iti(e)
Speak Italian: You Will Need to Know…
Past Tense: Imperfetto
Drop the –re ending from the Italian infinitive verb and add the endings below for the imperfetto past tense. Reflexive verbs drop their –rsi, ending and then are conjugated in the same way. Remember to always add the corresponding reflexive pronoun before each conjugated form of a reflexive verb.
Verb
Endings
Past Tense
Imperfetto
io
vo
tu
vi
Lei/lei/lui
va
noi
vamo
voi
vate
loro
vano
The auxiliary verb avere is regular but essere is irregular in the imperfetto past tense.
Everyone has a story to tell about themselves. What would you like others to know about you and your family? Fill in the blanks in the Italian sentences in the exercise below, using examples from your own life.
(Loro) Sono venuti in America nel (year family came to America) _________.
(Io)Sono di(town/city of birth) _____________________________________________________.
Vengo da(country of birth with definite article l, ll’, gli or lla ) _____________________________________________________.
Abito in(country where you live) _____________________________________.
Sono nato(a)a(town/city of birth) ________________________________________________________________.
vicino a(nearest large city) _________________________________________.
Ora, vivo a(city currently living in)____________________________________.
Ho anche vissuto/Sono anche vissuto(a)** a(other town/city you have lived in)_____________________________________________. in(other state/region you have lived in)_____________________________________________.
**Choose the past tense form you feel most comfortable with, as which form to use is controversial, as mentioned in the first section of this blog.
******************************
Il mio/La mia educazione:
Ho ricevuto un diploma dalla scuola superiore(name of high school) ________________________________________________________________.
Ho ricevuto la mia certificazione di(name of trade) _______________________________________________.
Mi sono trasferito(a) da(town/city) _____________________ a(town/city) _____________________________ per(college/university/work, marriage, etc.) ____________________________________________________________.
Ero uno studente/una studentessa all’Università di(town/city) _______________________________________________________.
Ho frequentato l’Università di(town/city) ________________________________________________________________
Ho ricevuto una laurea in(university degree) ________________________________________________________________
dall’Università di(name of university/town/city)________________________ nel(year)_____________________________.
Ho frequentato la scuola di(higher education/professional school)__________________________________________________________ al(university name)________________________________________________ per(number of years attended)____________________ anni ed anche a(any other school attended) _______________________________________________________________.
Ho ricevuto una laurea in(profession)_______________________________ dal(professional school)___________________________________________ nel(year)_______________________________.
******************************
I miei figli:
Sono la madre/il padre di(number of children)________ figli:(names of children):________________________________________________________
(Name of child)_______________________ ha(age of child) _____anni/mesi
(un anno/ un mese) e(names and ages of additional children) _________________________________________________________
*Remember that the indefinite article(un, uno, una, un’) is optional when describing a profession/what it is that you do!
******************************
Tell a little bit about what you have done and what you do in Italian!____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
******************************
Conversational Italian for Travelers Just the Important Phrases (with Restaurant Vocabulary and Idiomatic Expressions) is YOUR traveling companion in Italy! All the Italian phrases you need to know to enjoy your trip to Italy are right here and fit right into your pocket or purse.
Kathryn Occhipinti, MD, is the author of the Conversational Italian for Travelersseries of books and a teacher of Italian for travelers to Italy in the Peoria and Chicago area. “Everything you need to know to enjoy your visit to Italy!”
Visitlearntravelitalian.com/download.html to purchase/download Conversational Italian for Travelers and find more interesting facts and helpful hints about getting around Italy!Learn how to buy train tickets online, how to make international and local telephone calls, and how to decipher Italian coffee names and restaurant menus, all while gaining the basic understanding of Italian that you will need to know to communicate easily and effectively while in Italy. —From the staff at Stella Lucente, LLC