If you’ve been taking lessons for me for a while, you should be pretty familiar with the choice of the auxiliary verb in the passato prossimo tense. However, there are a few verbs that are tricky and use both auxiliaries, depending on the...
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I often ask my students how their weekend was or a particular event I knew they had, and the answer always gets very confusing. This is where we step into one of the many cultural aspects of the language. The question, “how was it?” and the...
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There is a lot of confusion with the word “time” since in Italian there are three words that it translates into: ora, tempo and volta. Ora means “hour” and “now,” although in English it also translates as “time.” It is used to refer to a: –...
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The verbs “prendere” and “portare” have two different meanings, to take/get and to bring respectively. However, there is one use that confuses many students because the english uses the same verb while in Italian we use...
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Let’s learn! Potere vs. Riuscire The verbs potere and riuscire both mean “can” and “to able to”; however, they are almost never interchangeable. Potere is used when the subject has a choice on whether he/she is...
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One topic that confuses many students is the word “some” and the difference between “qualche” and “alcuni/e.” While they both mean “some” to indicate a small quantity, there are some important...
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We get asked the difference between the verbs “essere” and “stare” all the time and, as always, while there are rules, there are also many times in which the two are interchangeable and things can get confusing. Main uses...
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