There are a couple of words in particular that Italians like to repeat over and over again to forcefully encourage an action. Marika talks about these and other repeated words in the Commissioner Manara series.

To express negation, the adverb non (not) can precede not only nouns, but verbs, adjectives, pronouns, prepositions, and adverbs, as well. Daniela shows us how.

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.

In the last lesson we learned to place non (not) before the verb in a negative sentence, but when there are other words involved, it gets a bit more complicated, especially when we have object pronouns in the mix.

Daniela explains how to turn a positive statement into a negative one, and how to form a negative question and its negative answer. The magic word is non (not).

Here are some more idiomatic expressions from La Ladra. They involve music, horses, and sweets.

To finish up about relative pronouns, Daniela illustrates how we can use the adverb dove (where) to replace the relative pronoun in cui or nel quale, both of which mean "in which."

Idiomatic expressions are often difficult to translate or to find in a dictionary. Marika helps us out, using clips from La Ladra already present in Yabla's library.

These relative pronouns can be very tricky for English speakers. Daniela gives us some good reasons (with examples) to prefer the more difficult, but more specific il quale, la quale, i quali and le quali, which can all mean "that, "which," "who," or "whom," depending on the context.

Daniela introduces relative pronouns il quale, la quale, i quali and le quali (that, who, which) that are a bit tricky to use because they have to agree with the gender and number of the nouns they refer to. We need them when, otherwise, the sentence would be ambiguous.

Daniela introduces the relative pronoun "which." It's handy to know because it doesn't change according to gender or number.

Today the lesson is about Lombardy. Anna is well-prepared, but her maestra seems to be affected by la nebbia (the fog). Is it the Milanese climate? Or could it be something else?

Daniela shows us how to use the relative pronoun che. In English this can be translated as either "that," "which," or "who," depending on various English grammatical factors.

Relative pronouns — such as "who," "that," and "which" — connect a main clause to a subordinate clause, which in this case, is a relative clause. Here, relative pronouns function as pronouns and conjunctions at the same time. In Italian, some relative pronouns vary according to gender and number, and others don't. Daniela guides us through.

With the relative superlative, we compare one element with an entire group, as for example, "She is the most beautiful of all." In English we distinguish between "more" and "most," but in Italian, the presence of the article before the noun or before the comparative word is what makes the difference.