Romeo and Juliet meet, hug, kiss, and fall in love. They comfort each other, admire each other, and get married—but not without some help from reciprocal reflexive verbs! These verbs express a recip
In Italian, to express an action that began in the past and is still going on in the present, use the verb in the present tense + da + length of time. This construction does not exist in English, wher
A sentence is usually made negative in Italian by placing the word non in front of the verb:Francesca voule dormire. (Francesca wants to sleep.)Francesca non voule dormire. (Francesca doesn’t want t
Your grade school English teacher told you repeatedly that you couldn’t use more than one negative word in the same sentence. In Italian, though, the double negative is the acceptable format, and ev
L’articolo partitivo (partitive article) is used to indicate imprecise or approximate quantities. It appears before singular nouns (del miele, del caffè, del burro) as well as before plural nouns o
Italian and English differ in their usage of adjectives. Italian descriptive adjectives are usually placed after the noun they modify, and with which they agree in gender and number.COMMON ITALIAN ADJ
In general Italian adjectives follow the noun:è una lingua difficile. (It is a difficult language.)Marina è una ragazza generosa. (Marina is a generous girl.)Certain common adjectives, however, gene
The infinitives of all regular verbs in Italian end in -are, -ere, or -ire and are referred to as first, second, or third conjugation verbs, respectively. In English, the infinitive (l’infinito) con
The Italian present tense (presente) is happening right now. It’s a simple tense—that is, the verb form consists of one word only. The present tense of a regular Italian verb is formed by dropping
When forming the passato prossimo, which auxiliary verb should be used—avere or essere? How do you decide? Compound tenses such as the passato prossimo are formed with the present indicative of the