ILGUR: Italian Language, Grammar and Usage Resource

ILGUR Spring Cleaning

Mar

2013

In the coming months, we will be doing a massive re-edit of the site that will eventually include an online e-book that can be purchased from the site. Please be patient as we re-launch the site. Those of you who are email subscribers should continue to receive updates as lessons and exercises are republished. Thanks ...

#008: Passive / Passivo

May

2013

The passive voice (la forma passiva) is a construction in which the direct object becomes the subject and the subject becomes the agent. The passive voice is used with transitive verbs (that is, verbs that take a direct object). Intransitive verbs such as venire, sembrare, arrivare, dormire, etc. cannot be used passively because they do ...

#007: Understanding verbs — andare and venire

Apr

2013

Andare and venire are two of the most important verbs in Italian, and they creep up in conversation and in reading quite a bit. However, it wasn’t until recently when I used them incorrectly during an Italian conversation class, that I thought that it was a good topic to discuss. In English, we’re pretty loose ...

#006: Understanding verbs — dare

Apr

2013

Dare means to give (it also can mean to show when referring to a movie, film, etc.). The past participle is dato. Dare takes avere in the passato prossimo. It is irregular in the present tense and is conjugated as follows (note the accent on the third person, singular): io do tu dai lui/lei/Lei dà noi diamo voi ...

#005: Time expressions and the preposition, di

Apr

2013

The preposition, di, is used in many time expressions: di pomeriggio, del pomeriggio in the afternoon di sera in the evening di notte at night, nights di mattino (often, del mattino), di mattina in the morning di buon’ora early di giorno in the daytime d’inverno in the winter d’estate in the summer d’autunno in the ...

#004: “Taking Pictures” in Italian / Fare foto in italiano

Apr

2013

This post will help learners of Italian to learn and understand the differences in how to say “to take pictures” in Italian, such as with a camera. This is an important lesson that might seem simple and obvious to many, but it is important to remember that when learning a language that we can’t simply ...