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Italian III Tutorial

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41. To Be/Stay and to Give

Stare means to be when used in progressive tense.  If you use it with a present participle, it translates to something is happening, not something happens as with the present indicative.   Stare is also used in many health expressions, such as Come stai?  How are you?  Sto bene.  I'm fine.

Stare per plus an infinitive means "to be about to" do something.  Stavo per uscire.  I was about to go out.  Stiamo per mangiare.  We're about to eat.

And dare un esame means to take an exam rather than to give an exam.

42. Gerunds

Gerunds are formed by dropping the ending of the infinitive, and adding the following endings to the stem:

To express a progressive or continuous action, conjugate stare and add the gerund.  Sto parlando italiano is I am speaking Italian.  (As opposed to Parlo italiano I speak Italian.)  There are only a few irregular gerunds: fare-facendo (doing), dare-dando (giving), dire-dicendo (say/telling), and bere-bevendo (drinking).

Che cosa stai facendo? What are you doing?
Dove stanno andando? Where are they going?

43. Imperfect Tense

The imperfect tense is also called the past descriptive tense and corresponds to was doing or used to do in English. The imperfect is used to describe a continued or habitual action in the past, or to describe an action that was occurring in the past, while something else happened.  Time, age, weather conditions as well as mental and physical conditions are all expressed in the imperfect rather the past indefinite tense. 

The imperfect in Italian has the same ending for all three verb groups.  It is formed by dropping the -re of the infinitive and adding the following endings:

Avere is regular in the imperfect, but essere, bere, dire and fare are irregular.  The stem of essere becomes er- for io, tu, lui/lei and loro, and it does not take the v, while the stem for noi and voi is era- and it does take the v.  The stems for bere, dire and fare are derived from the old Latin infinitives, and are beve-, dice-, and face- and they take the regular endings of the imperfect.

essere		bere		dire		fare
ero	eravamo	bevevo	bevevamo	dicevo	dicevamo	facevo	facevamo
eri	eravate	bevevi	bevevate	dicevi	dicevate	facevi	facevate
era	erano	beveva	bevevano	diceva	dicevano	faceva	facevano

Avevo fame.  I was hungry.
Era tardi.  It was late.
Non diceva niente.  He wasn't saying anything.
Aspettavamo in fila.  We were waiting in line.
Prendevo sempre l'autobus.  I always take the bus.

44. Places

45. Transportation

Note:  To say by bus, car, etc., use in and leave off the il, la, and l'.

46. To Want, to Be Able to, to Have to

47. Asking Questions

The easiest way to ask a question is to simply add a question mark to the end of the statement.  

You can also put the subject at the end of the sentence.  Il ragazzo mangia la pizza becomes Mangia la pizza, il ragazzo? Is the boy eating the pizza?

Or add non è vero to the end of the statement. This literally translates as "it is not true", and can have several meanings in English, such as isn't it/he/she, aren't you/they, doesn't it/he/she, don't you/they, etc. Sei una studentessa, non è vero? You're a student, aren't you?

Or, if you're speaking to a Sardinian, you can put the verb at the end of the sentence.  Parla francese? can become Francese parla?  Does he/she speak French?

48. House and Furniture

49. Comparative and Superlative

Comparisons are expressed as follows:

Più and meno can be used with di or che.  Di is used when comparing two different things, while che is used when the comparison is between two qualities of the same thing.

Le ciliege sono più buone delle fragole.  Cherries are better than strawberries.
La mela è più verde che rossa.  The apple is more green than red.
Franco è così alto come me.  Frank is as tall as me.

The Relative Superlative compares two or more things and expresses the greatest or the least degree.  It is formed by placing the article before the comparative form of the adjective, or in front of the noun.  And instead of the preposition in, di (and its contractions), is always used with the superlative.

Le mele sono la frutta meno costosa del mondo.  Apples are the least expensive fruit in the world.
L'oro è il più prezioso dei metalli.  Gold is the most precious metal.
Questo è il palazzo più alto di Napoli.  This is the tallest building in Naples.

The Absolute Superlative expresses an extreme degree or absolute state of something without comparison.  This can be expressed in several ways in Italian.

Drop the last vowel of the adjective and add -issimo, -issima, -issimi, or -issime.
Le fragole sono dolcissime.  Strawberries are very sweet.

Place the words molto, troppo, or assai before the adjective.
Questa arancia è molto buona.  This orange is very good.

Repeat the adjective or adverb.
Lei parla piano piano.  She speaks very softly.

50. Irregular Forms

Some adverbs have irregular comparative, relative superlative, and absolute superlative forms.  The most common are:

51. Clothing

Note:  Portare means to wear, but it also means to bring.  So use mettersi for to wear or put on clothing.

52. To Wear

Note:   You don't use possessive pronouns when referring to parts of the body or clothing, but you do use the definite article.  Mi metto la maglia is I'm wearing my sweater.  

53. Future Tense

The future of regular verbs is formed by dropping the final -e of the infinitive and adding the following endings.  For -are verbs, the a is changed to an e.

Verbs ending in -care and -gare add an h after the c and g in the in order to retain the hard sounds.  Verbs ending in -ciare and -giare drop the i from their stems in the future.

Many verbs use irregular stems in the future tense, but they still use the regular endings from above:

54. Preceding Adjectives

Only a few adjectives go before the noun, the rest are placed right after it.  Bello-beautiful, buono-good, grande-large, and brutto-ugly are the most common preceding adjectives, even though they don't have to go before the noun.  Bello and buono have alternate forms when they precede a noun.

If they go after the noun, then they can be formed in the usual way.  The above forms are only for when they go before the noun.  Be aware that grande can have alternate forms before nouns too.  Grande can become gran before masculine or feminine nouns beginning with a consonant.  Or it could contract to grand' before masculine or feminine nouns beginning with a vowel.  But you do not have to use the alternate forms, whether or not you place the adjective before or after the noun.

55.  Adjectives: Feminine and Plural

Masculine to Feminine and Singular to Plural

Some adjectives have two forms, others have four.  Francese (french) has two: francese and francesi.  Nuovo (new) has four: nuovo, nuova, nuovi, and nuove.

56. More Adjectives

57. Position of Sempre and Anche

The adverb sempre (always) usually follows the verb.  Anche (also, too) always precedes the noun, pronoun or infinitive to which it refers.  When it precedes io, it becomes anch'.

Noi studiamo sempre.  We always study.
Vuole anche questo libro.  He wants that book, too.
Anch'io devo studiare.  I have to study too.

58. Sports

59. To Play

Note:  Most sports use giocare a (sport) to mean to play a sport.  They play basketball would be Giocano a pallacanestro.

60. Nature

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