Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
Daniela illustrates other ways of forming the absolute superlative for adjectives in Italian. These include repeating an adjective twice, the placement of a prefix before an adjective, and a list of words, such as "exceedingly," used in conjunction with an adjective.
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
Anna knows all about Tuscany, one of her favorite regions. Tuscany was very important for the evolution of the Italian language, and is one of the areas of Italy most frequented by tourists.
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.
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
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.
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
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.
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
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.
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
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?
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
Daniela introduces the relative pronoun "which." It's handy to know because it doesn't change according to gender or number.
Difficulty: Newbie
Italy
Marika shows us what materials she uses in her small home office. Whether you work or go to school, these terms will come in handy.
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
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.
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
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.
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
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.
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
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."
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
Here are some more idiomatic expressions from La Ladra. They involve music, horses, and sweets.
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
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).
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