If you don't check your meters and tell the electric and gas companies how much you have consumed, they make an estimate. Sometimes this means you get a nasty surprise at the end of the year, when they work things out, and figure out how much you owe in order to square accounts. This is called il conguaglio.

No one likes paying bills, ma vanno pagate (but they have to be paid). Marika goes over some of the most common utilities and special taxes you have to pay if you live in Italy.

When you rent out a house to someone or rent a house from someone, it's important to know who's who. Marika explains how it works.

There are plenty of Italians living in Germany. Cettina from Sicily interviews Alfonso, also from Sicily, as it turns out. Here are some easy questions and answers for when you meet someone for the first time.

Although the si passivante (passivizing si) is a kind of si impersonale, it has some very specific differences. Daniela explains them and provides some examples.

Giuditta and Marino give us details about what life was like in isolation. Challenging for sure, but with some good aspects, too!

Are you ready for the passive voice? In many ways, the Italian passive works as it does in English. If we have a subject, a transitive verb and a direct object, we can form either an active phrase or a passive one. But there are some rules, and Daniela sets out to explain them.

Marika introduces a mini-series devoted to the story of a family that has decided to share their Covid-19 experience.

Daniela gives us various examples of how to close a formal letter as well as the complimentary closing that precedes the signature. As you will see, these are quite different from the ones in English letters. We then recap the parts of a formal letter.

Holiday wishes from the Yabla Italian team.

What do we call the people we are writing to if they are professionals? Daniela gives us some answers. And she gives us some practical examples about how to actually begin writing the body of the letter.

As you shall see, Italian has a range of salutations at the beginning of formal or business letters, where various adjectives are used in place of "dear." Not only that! They also have curious abbreviations to be familiar with.

Knowing how to write a formal letter is very important, especially if we are looking for a job, making a complaint, or even just trying to get some information. Daniela shows us how.

Even informal letters have a certain form. The words we choose to open and close the letter set the tone. Daniela gives us some examples of how to open and close a friendly letter.

If you're not sure how to write a letter to your new Italian friend, Daniela is here to help. She tells us the parts of a letter and some options for the greeting and the salutation.