Knowing how to write a formal letter is very important, especially if we are looking for a job, making a complaint, or even just trying to get some information. Daniela shows us how.

As you shall see, Italian has a range of salutations at the beginning of formal or business letters, where various adjectives are used in place of "dear." Not only that! They also have curious abbreviations to be familiar with.

What do we call the people we are writing to if they are professionals? Daniela gives us some answers. And she gives us some practical examples about how to actually begin writing the body of the letter.

Daniela gives us various examples of how to close a formal letter as well as the complimentary closing that precedes the signature. As you will see, these are quite different from the ones in English letters. We then recap the parts of a formal letter.

Are you ready for the passive voice? In many ways, the Italian passive works as it does in English. If we have a subject, a transitive verb and a direct object, we can form either an active phrase or a passive one. But there are some rules, and Daniela sets out to explain them.

Although the si passivante (passivizing si) is a kind of si impersonale, it has some very specific differences. Daniela explains them and provides some examples.

Daniela talks about explicit and implicit causal subordinate clauses.

Another kind of subordinate clause is the temporal subordinate. One way we introduce it is with conjunctions having to do with time, such as "while," "when," and "as long as." There are other ways to form a temporal subordinate clause, and Daniela explains them.

There is a certain kind of subordinate clause, called a "clause of purpose," that basically answers the question, "to what end?" Italian has a number of conjunctions that can be translated as "so that," and they take the subjunctive in most cases. So this kind of subordinate clause can be tricky.

Daniela tells us about comparatives used in subordinate clauses. There are three kinds: majority, minority, and equality.

In this part of the lesson about subordinate clauses, Daniela talks about analogies or hypothetical situations. The English equivalent would be when we say, "as if..."

See how Alessandra Obert creatively decorates a table for a country lunch. Her clear speech is easy to follow. Presented by uChef.

When winter passes, the cuckoo starts singing and the air becomes infused with spring fragrances, and with love.

Cettina and Alex show us how they decorate their Christmas tree.

Cettina shows us how to make a very basic nativity scene.