Daniela teaches Italian in a classroom, complete with blackboard, chalk, eraser, and students. Her lessons are very popular and people love her spontaneity and teaching style. She addresses grammatical topics one by one, geared to both beginning and intermediate level students.
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
What's the difference between infatti and in effetti? It's easy to confuse them, and as a matter of fact, we often translate both with "in fact" or "actually." Daniela explains the difference and gives us a long list of synonyms you may also hear Italians use.
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
When do we use infatti and when do we use in effetti? It mostly comes down to the quantity of doubt involved.
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
Daniela gives us some examples to compare infatti (in fact) and in effetti (in effect, actually). She also assures us that infatti is never really wrong.
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
Daniela uses the lesson's final segment to highlight the differences between infatti [in fact, indeed] and in effetti [in fact, in effect, effectively]. She also draws distinctions between the expression in effetti and the word effetto.
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
Ormai (already, by now, at this point, by this time) is a wonderful word Italians use all the time. However, its definition isn't always easy to pin down. Daniela tells us about three nuances of the word and gives us a host of examples.
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
This wonderful word may be one of the first ones you learn while traveling in Italy. It's incredibly useful as a one-word answer and in many cases, very easy to use. Daniela explains everything we need to know. See also this lesson in English about magari.
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
Just as infatti (in fact) has become one word made up of in and fatti, so also has affatti (totally) succumbed to the same fate. But here, there's a catch. It can have two opposing meanings, so you have to be careful. Daniela explains.
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
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.
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
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.
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
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.
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
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.
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
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.
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
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.
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
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.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
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.
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