Italian speaking practice and grammar tutoring
As you may already know if you have read other posts of the Books about Italy section of this blog, I really like reading and I strongly believe that literature is an amazing way to dive deeper into the culture of a country.
Two weeks ago I wrote a blog post focusing on the Italian nouns that derive from books and theatre plays, today I am exploring the same topic but with a focus on adjectives.
I couldn’t sleep, a few nights ago, and I started thinking about our (ex)Prime Minister – not exactly the right thought to go back to sleep, I know – and I said to myself: “È proprio un azzeccagarbugli“. This weird word comes from Alessandro Manzoni’s I promessi sposi and made me think of all the Italian words that have similar origins.
I have seen many students struggle with this topic. In some cases, they were even advanced students who could use the congiuntivo quite confidently, for example, but would still stumble upon the choice of when to use imperfetto or passato prossimo.
I cannot tell you how many times I have heard this sentence. This is what a lot of people tell me when they contact me for speaking practice but it is also what I am told by my students and what I read in comments and messages here and there.
