The Italian language has multiple verbs that, on the surface, appear to have the same function, but the way in which they are used can be quite different. The reason for this is rooted in their etymology and development which, over time, has changed how these verbs are used today. One the most misleading verb …
Ciao and arrivederci are two of the most well-known Italian greetings – in fact, even those who have had zero contact with the Italian language before tend to be familiar with these terms. The difficulty for beginners is knowing when it is appropriate to use ciao as opposed to arrivederci and vice versa. In this …
Italian and Spanish are both Romance languages developed out from Latin. The two linguistic entities share an extensive vocabulary and even their verb conjugations follow similar rules. Memorising the words and their spelling can be tricky, however, especially for a novice learner, given that some of words are written similarly or in exactly the same …
One of the cardinal rules Italian learners are taught from day one is that possessive adjectives always require a definite article, or the equivalent of “the” in Italian, when they precede the noun being modified. For example: il suo vicino = his/her neighbour (literally: the his/her neighbour) la mia casa = my house (literally: the …
Italian learners can easily get confused regarding the use of the words meglio and migliore. Indeed, both can be translated with the words “better” and “best”. When you learn these words in Italian, you should also be careful about the role the words have in the sentence (adverb, adjective or noun). Based on this, you …
One of the most frequent “comparison” questions we receive on this website concerns the difference between the words tra and fra in Italian. Tra and Fra – What do they mean? Tra and fra are both Italian prepositions that translate in numerous ways in English including between, among, in, within, away, through and into. Yes, …