Yabla Italian
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582 lessons found

Venire doesn't just mean "to come"

done, or things that are done on a continuing basis, and we use andare when we're talking about things that have to get done.  If I...

Getting fed up with stufare

servono i riscaldamenti perché l'anziano stufa! In a house where an elderly person lives there's no need for...

Being non-specific with da + infinitive

We can use the preposition da (from, to, at) and the infinitive of a verb. Let's look at some examples.    Hai...

Making do with arrangiarsi

verb is accontentarsi, which we have talked about in another lesson. It can also be translated with...

Ci mancherebbe!

be one step closer to becoming fluent. And that's what Yabla is all about... ...

Getting personal with the reflexive

the same way as a reflexive one, and has that personal feel to it (it's all about me!).   If it were truly reflexive, I...

The basics of reflexive verbs

infinitive of fare, in this case, has all the trappings of a reflexive verb, that tell-tale si at the end of the infinitive: Pietro vuole farsi...

Talking about the weather in Italian

especially these days, the weather can be capriccioso (mischievous) and imprevedibile (unpredictable). As a result, knowing how to talk about the weather like an Italian can be...

Breathing in Italian : Let us count the ways Part 3: breathless

have to run around doing 10 things at once, and you're on a time crunch. Stavo sempre a cercare lavoro,...

How does Italian work?

siete (you are) loro sono (they are)   A tricky thing about pronouns and verbs One of the trickiest things about Italian...

What's the problem?

question. It's clear there is no problem at all. But sometimes, it has a touch of irony and implies there's more to it. In a...

Making choices in Italian part 2

is that when you use it as an adjective, you need a definite article after it and before the (plural) noun, as in the...

Making choices in Italian, Part 1

wine, but I don't know if Marika and I will drink at lunch or not. Captions 22-23, Anna e...

Another way to be happy

recently had a question from a learner about a conversation between Domenico Modugno and his girlfriend Franca in the TV movie...

What Does Su Mean?

storia semplice sul gelato, ma molto interessante. And I'll tell you a few simple stories about ice cream, but very interesting. Caption 10,...

Exercises Using Mancare

get the idea, not to necessarily be precise about all the words. Use mancare in your Italian translation, and just get the gist of things when translating...

More about Mancare : When Something Is Lacking

struggling to be able to use it and translate it correctly. It twists the brain a bit.   To grasp it better, it may...

Italian Ways to Think about Things

Have This Feeling... - Sapere Part 1 This is a lesson about yet another way to say "I think..." And it doesn't need the subjunctive!   Riflettere When...

Managing with farcela

means the same thing as ci, (to it/him/her," "at it/him/her," "about it.") but when there is a direct object with it, ci changes to...

Does discutere mean "discuss?"

they had. They might well be talking about an argument.   Another way to tell that discutere means "to...

Catching up with Un medico in famiglia

that in fact, Cettina is not Polish at all, but Neapolitan. Once she has come out about this, things change for the better. She...

Il gusto — the sense of taste

furniture, etc. In this next example, it's all about a tie someone wears to a wedding. Eh,...

L'olfatto — the sense of smell

sense of smell and how to talk about smelling things and how things smell, since it works a bit differently than it does in English....

Dolci: What do Italians mean by that?

ask you (to find out your preference at the moment): Dolce o salato? Dolce is an adjective meaning "sweet," "mild," and other things, but in terms of food,...