Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Italian has an amazingly long list of conjunctions or locutions that mean "although," "despite," and similar words. Daniela explains what a concession subordinate clause is and gives us several examples.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Don't be scared off by fancy names of clauses and parts of speech. Daniela is just showing us different ways of saying the same thing, but sometimes one way is clearer than the other, especially when the subject changes from main to subordinate clause.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
In a sentence, the main clause can stand on its own, but there can also be a subordinate or dependent clause. Today's lesson addresses the causal subordinate clause, which gives the reason for the action in the main clause. Conjunctions such as perché (because) dato che (given that) are used to join the two clauses.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
After summing up about the passive voice, Daniela goes on to talk about some other related constructions. It's important to remember that the passive is formed with transitive verbs only. But when we don't have a named subject or agent, we have a few other ways to make a sentence passive-like. One way uses the famous particella (particle) si. Si is used for so many things in Italian that it is bound to create confusion for learners, even advanced learners. Don't worry, part 3 of the lesson will explain further. Another way uses the verb andare (to go) to indicate something that must be done. Here too, the stress is on the action, not the subject or agent.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Adopting an animal is a serious undertaking! Marika is fully aware of that fact and in this final segment, she gets down to the nitty-gritty of keeping cats at home.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Marika shows us a series of items that make it easier to have cats in the house. In order to discourage the cats from destroying the furniture, rugs, and curtains, there are some handy remedies.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
What accessories do we need when we take a kitten into the family? Some are just for kittens themselves, and others are for us humans. Marika makes introductions.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Adopting a dog means going through several steps. Marika describes what she and her family went through in attempting to realize their dream of having a puppy.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Marika shares some of her childhood with us, specifically, her experience of having a puppy grow up beside her as part of the family. Now she has children of her own, and wants to give them that same special experience.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Daniela gives us some more examples of gerunds used in subordinate clauses. Asking ourselves what questions the gerund answers can help us understand its role in a sentence.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
In this segment, Daniela talks about the gerund. As you will see, in Italian, the gerund is often used by itself, whereas in English we need an extra word before it — a conjunction or preposition. We are on more familiar ground when Daniela talks about using a gerund with the verb stare (to be) to form what we call the present continuous or present progressive.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
In Italian, there's not only a past participle, as in English, there is also a present participle. Many nouns and adjectives we use every day come from this tense, as well as from the past participle.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Daniela explains what are called "indefinite modes." They are indefinite because they don't refer directly to a person or object. They commonly occur in a subordinate clause, and we need the context of the main clause to give us that information. There are three forms: the infinitive, the past participle, and the gerund.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
The popular TV series Commissioner Manara takes place in Tuscany, so in this video, Marika explains some of the peculiarities of Tuscan speech. She also gives some important tips about using articles when referring to family members.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Daniela discusses how journalists and the mass media often tack on -issimo to nouns and adverbial expressions, something which is not strictly correct but is prevalent nonetheless.
Are you sure you want to delete this comment? You will not be able to recover it.