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.

Living conditions were so different at the time of the cave dwellings. Imagine having a mule and rabbits running around the house! The government eventually put a stop to this type of dwelling, and much was gained, but much was lost. On the other hand, people had to live somewhere. The Civita, the oldest part of Matera, filled up quickly around the imposing cathedral, and there was no more room for building houses.

Even though he is no longer leading the company, Adriano is as active as ever. Events come together that motivate him to put his theories into practice.

Tizzone, owner of the beauty center, enjoys his tanning session, providing Eva and her friends with the opportunity to carry out their plan. But as usual, they can't plan for everything!

Sardi and Toscani are nervous about choosing the godparents for little Valeria's baptism. Later, Toscani gets lucky about finding some evidence. When speaking to Raimondi about it, he almost comes out with a colloquial expression but thinks better of it. The complete idiomatic expression would have been una botta di culo [a stroke of the butt]. Culo [ass] is often used to mean "luck," either good or bad. So he had a stroke of luck, or, in modern language, "he got lucky."

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.

We see the inside of house built into the rock. It is fascinating to learn how families coped with the problems of water, humidity, and cramped quarters.

Adriano decides to leave running the factory to Marcello and goes off on his own to work on his other projects. But country roads are dangerous in the pouring rain...

Eva hides at the beauty center in order to spy on Biagini. In the meantime, Lorenzo and Dante have a man-to-man talk.

They still don't really have a lead, but Manara is convinced the two murders — Viazzi and Ponti — are connected. They have to look into Ponti's past.

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).

We enter a fascinating church carved right into the rock: the Church of the Madonna di Idris. There are some surprising discoveries awaiting us.

Adriano is very happy with how things have been going for the new Olivetti portable typewriter, but his siblings and partners in the business are not so happy. For one thing, they don't like not seeing any of the profits.