Daniela explains what are called "indefinite modes." They are indefinite because they don't refer directly to a person or object. They commonly occur in a subordinate clause, and we need the context of the main clause to give us that information. There are three forms: the infinitive, the past participle, and the gerund.

In Italian, there's not only a past participle, as in English, there is also a present participle. Many nouns and adjectives we use every day come from this tense, as well as from the past participle.

In this segment, Daniela talks about the gerund. As you will see, in Italian, the gerund is often used by itself, whereas in English we need an extra word before it — a conjunction or preposition. We are on more familiar ground when Daniela talks about using a gerund with the verb stare (to be) to form what we call the present continuous or present progressive.

Daniela gives us some more examples of gerunds used in subordinate clauses. Asking ourselves what questions the gerund answers can help us understand its role in a sentence.

After summing up about the passive voice, Daniela goes on to talk about some other related constructions. It's important to remember that the passive is formed with transitive verbs only. But when we don't have a named subject or agent, we have a few other ways to make a sentence passive-like. One way uses the famous particella (particle) si. Si is used for so many things in Italian that it is bound to create confusion for learners, even advanced learners. Don't worry, part 3 of the lesson will explain further. Another way uses the verb andare (to go) to indicate something that must be done. Here too, the stress is on the action, not the subject or agent.

In a sentence, the main clause can stand on its own, but there can also be a subordinate or dependent clause. Today's lesson addresses the causal subordinate clause, which gives the reason for the action in the main clause. Conjunctions such as perché (because) dato che (given that) are used to join the two clauses.

Don't be scared off by fancy names of clauses and parts of speech. Daniela is just showing us different ways of saying the same thing, but sometimes one way is clearer than the other, especially when the subject changes from main to subordinate clause.

Italian has an amazingly long list of conjunctions or locutions that mean "although," "despite," and similar words. Daniela explains what a concession subordinate clause is and gives us several examples.

Daniela explains further about constructing explicit subordinate clauses and gives some examples to clarify.

To conclude the lesson on concessive subordinate clauses, we look at those constructed using the past participle of a verb or the gerund and introductory locations such as benché (though) and pure (despite), among others.

Daniela talks about two kinds of relative subordinate clauses — restrictive and explanatory — and how we punctuate them differently.

Daniela explains the relative pronouns used in forming a relative subordinate clause. She starts out with the explicit kind.

In this lesson, we look at implicit relative subordinate clauses, and how they are introduced. One of their main characteristics is that they use the infinitive of a verb, rather than a conjugated one.

Imagine being on vacation and having to fly home during the pandemic. That's what happened to Melania who got stuck in Madrid on her way home from Venezuela.

Marino and Giuditta tell us how they ended up getting Covid, and what their symptoms were.