Yabla Italian
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592 lessons found

Expressions to know: a pennello and a fagiolo

in Tuscany, we can say that beans are a favorite dish for Florentines, especially, so the...

When you find a new word you've never heard

indicating that the word likely comes from a verb, since -ente is an ending for the present participle of some...

Italian words beginning with a followed by a double letter

we've seen addosso (like accanto) as both a preposition and as an adverb. It is not important to know which part...

Using the infinitive to give a command

Part 7  Play Caption   But there is another common way to form an imperative in certain circumstances. When a command...

Che è meglio adds a little something to a command

When you want to reinforce a command, such as fermati (stop), stai zitto (shut up), vai...

Words with a superfluous S prefix

comes to mind is sdoppiare, when talking about duplicating a cassette or media platform, even though sdoppiare...

Turning over a new leaf with voltare pagina

e frutta marcia. So here we have a painter, as you see, who designs dry leaves and...

Fidanzato: Engaged or having a boy/girlfriend?

have," where as essere is not. Here is an example from another crime-show interview about a murder. This time the detective used the...

A descriptive expression: tutto d'un pezzo

Without opening a new chapter, we'll mention another word to describe a person of integrity. Here, the speaker has...

A short-lived province in Tuscany: Apuania

bene (so far so good), a movie about a group of friends that just graduated from...

What's a fumetto?

Diabolik - Part 3  Play Caption     "Fumettology" is a documentary about various popular Italian fumetti.   The first episode is...

Urgente: a cognate with a little-used verb

present participle of the verb urgere. There are a great many present participles of verbs used as adjectives. They always end in -ante or...

Il carro: a noun that pulls its weight

car, a jalopy.    La carrozza  Here, we are talking about a carriage, such as a stagecoach, but carrozza is also used...

A tale of 2 related adverbs: a malapena and appena

In the next example, the context is a bit different, as we are talking about the number of bottles of wine a...

Lo scarpariello (A Humble Pasta Dish Fit for a King)

long word ending in ello, there is a good chance it's an elaboration of a pre-existing word. Can you detect...

Let's Explain the Expression andare incontro a

If, rather than a pronoun, I use a noun (la difficoltà) as an object, as in the next examples, then I will...

Cognates Featuring à in Italian and "y" in English

some nouns you don't have to think about too much. These end in à, an A with an accent. In all these...

Poi: A Short Word That Carries a Big Punch

poi from now on:   Siamo una cinquantina There are about fifty of us e siamo tutti pronti ad avere, and we are ready to have, d'ora...

Farcela: a pronominal verb to have in your toolkit

has to do with keeping up. There are a whole lot of things this pronominal verb...

Baracca: a colorful way to talk about lots of different things

word is baracca. It's a humble word about a humble place, but Italians use the word...

Fare (to do, to make), a top Italian verb

from a conversation. This next one is from an interview. It's a bit trickier and uses the subjunctive after che (that). Questo rapporto ha fatto sì...

Innanzitutto (a long word that is no big deal)

or "all."   What might not jump out as a word is innanzi.  It means "in front of"...

Svolgere: a useful but mysterious verb

of the verb svoltare (to change directions, to turn) there are some similarities, so this can be a bit confusing.   Another confusing thing Both the non-reflexive and the...

Per conto mio: a double meaning

We've talked various times about the noun il conto. It can refer...
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