Instantly Italy

Italian speaking practice and grammar tutoring

[Italian Grammar] Uscire, Lasciare or Partire? How To Say To Leave in Italian

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English speakers always have a hard time when they need to say ‘to leave’ in Italian.

In fact, English has just one verb to express that concept, while Italian has at least three different verbs: uscire, lasciare, and partire. I have seen my students struggle a bit with that, and I thought it could be useful to write a post about this aspect of the Italian language.

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[Italian Vocabulary] 10 Words That You Can Only Hear in Liguria

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I was 19 the first time I realized that some of the words I was using every day were quite unique. 

It was my first day at college and I was unpacking my suitcase when I asked my roommate “Scusami, dov’è la rumenta?”. She gave me a weird look and she told me she had no idea what I was talking about.

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[Italian Grammar] Verbs That Can Have Both Auxiliaries

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Did you know that some Italian verbs can use both essere and avere as auxiliaries?

This is something that drives my students crazy, and so I thought it could be another interesting topic for a blog post. As I always do for this type of post, I have also created two downloadable PDF files for you to keep for future reference.

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[Italian Grammar] The Conditional and How to Express the Future in the Past in Italian

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It’s time for a new grammar lesson and this time it is about the conditional in Italian.

As I always do when I select topics for this section of my blog, I have picked this specific aspect of the Italian language because I have noticed some of my students struggle with it a little bit, especially with the use of the conditional to express the future in the past.

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[Advent Calendar] Italian verbs to be used at Christmas

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Instantly Italy’s Advent Calendar is almost over and it’s been a blast!

I started the tradition of the Advent Calendar last year with a series of videos about the Italian traditions for Christmas: it was so much fun that I simply had to do it again. The topic I chose for this year is Italian verbs that could be used during the Christmas season.

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[Italian Grammar] How To Use Bene, Buono, Bravo and Bello

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I have been helping students practice their Italian for quite a while now.  

And by doing so, I have noticed some recurring patterns: students tend to make the same mistakes and usually struggle with more or less the same grammar topics.

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[Italian Vocabulary] Common Latin Phrases Used in Everyday Italian

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My husband has developed a small obsession with Latin, lately.

He is not a scholar nor has any knowledge of the language, he just finds that Latin is a more elegant and austere language than Italian so he throws Latin words here and there, in his conversation.

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[Italian Grammar] The difference between conoscere and sapere

Subscribe to the Vespa rides and get full access to Your Italian Toolbox, a library of language learning materials that you can use to practice Italian.

Sometimes the trickiest grammar topics are the ones that seem really simple. 

For example, the use of imperfetto and passato prossimo is taught towards the beginning of the Italian grammar learning experience but, as I have tried to explain in an old post of mine, it is one of the trickiest aspects of Italian.

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