Basic Italian: A Grammar and Workbook

5 Quando? Quando means ‘when’: 6 Perché? Perché means ‘why’: Come mai has a similar meaning, corresponding to the English ‘how c ...

8 Quale? Quale means ‘which’ (or sometimes ‘what’). It is used either as an adjective or as a pronoun, and therefore agrees with ...

Exercise 1 Complete the sentences with chi or che/cosa/che cosa as appropriate. Examples: ——— mi cerca?: chi; ——— fate?: che/cos ...

Exercise 3 Complete the sentences with the correct form of quanto. Examples: ———— anni hai?: quanti; ———— costa questa maglietta ...

UNIT TEN Indirect object pronouns (1) 1 We saw in Unit 7 that a direct object is the person or thing that the verb directly impa ...

The third person plural pronoun gli is used for both masculine and feminine. For the third person plural, loro can be used inste ...

Formal form 5 The indirect object pronouns used for the formal form are Le for the singular (for both women and men) and Vi for ...

Exercise 3 Rewrite the sentences, changing the position of the pronoun. Example: Li devi comprare: Devi comprarli. Exercise 4 Co ...

Exercise 5 Translate into Italian: 1 Can you [sing.] tell Lucia that I want to speak to her? 2 As soon as I arrive in Rome I’ll ...

UNIT ELEVEN Piacere and similar verbs 1 Piacere corresponds to ‘to like’, but it is used in a different way from its English cou ...

Plural noun or pronoun 3 The negative is formed by putting non before the pronoun: 4 As usual, for the polite form in the singul ...

7 There are other verbs which are used in the same way as piacere: mancare (to miss) [lit. ‘to be lacking/missing’]; servire (to ...

Exercise 3 Write sentences expressing your taste. Example: cavalli: (Non) mi piacciono i cavalli. 1 la frutta; 2 il calcio; 3 le ...

7 Quello che dici mi (sembrare) interessante. 8 Mi (servire) delle scarpe nuove. 9 Quale di quei due libri ti (parere) migliore? ...

UNIT TWELVE The present perfect tense Use of the present perfect 1 The present perfect (‘passato prossimo’) is one of the two mo ...

As the examples confirm, the ‘passato prossimo’ may correspond to either the simple past or the present perfect in English. But ...

4 In Italian, as in most languages, many verbs have an irregular past parti- ciple, which is best learned by heart and with use. ...

6 As can be seen, when the present perfect is formed with avere the past participle does not change; but when the present perfec ...

Present perfect of avere and essere 7 Avere forms the present perfect with the auxiliary avere: Essere forms the present perfect ...

To help in choosing the right auxiliary, here is a list of common verbs which form the present perfect with essere: These verbs ...