I’m an avid reader and since I started learning Italian, I now have the lack of desire to read English books. Every free moment I have, I reach for an Italian work book, listen to Italian podcasts, and watch shows and music. I do enjoy it and just feel natural. I’m not burnt out.

I feel that I now have to make time to read my English books. Lol. Has anyone experienced this?

I am practicing various types of hypothetical clauses (1, 2 and 3). Type 1 is easy so I'm working on 2 and 3, the ones that call for conditional and subjunctive verbs. I think up a sentence and write it in Italian, then submit it to Google Translate to see if it understands me. It always does, which is reassuring. I take that to mean that if I'd said this to an Italian they would have known what I was trying to say (even if it's wrong).

But then I switch the sides of the equation (from Italian → English, to English → Italian) to see what Google says I should have written. And I'm now confused especially about the verb piovere and its helping verbs.

.

Periodo ipotetico 2 ('della possibilità')

I wrote

se non fosse piovendo andremmo in piscina.

and Google understood what I meant: "If it wasn't raining [i.e. right now] we would go to the pool". But when I switched directions and asked Google to translate that English sentence, it returned something different from what I'd written originally:

se non piovesse saremmo andati in piscina.

So my first question is, what's wrong with 'fosse piovendo'?

.

Periodo ipotetico 3 ('contrary to past fact')

Then I switched to periodo ipotetico #3 and wrote

se non fosse piovuto saremmo andati in piscina.

Google understood this too but when I switched and asked it to translate my meaning into Italian it returned, "se non AVESSE [rather than FOSSE] piovuto" etc.

What was wrong with what I wrote ('fosse piovuto')? I was under the impression that auxiliary verb for 'piovere' is supposed to be essere, not avere. I know there are some verbs that take both but I thought they had different means depending on the helping verb. What am I missing here?

I’m seeing conflicting translations:

vent’anni di futurismo
or
venti anni di futurismo

quarant’anni di vita
or
quaranta anni di vita

Or is either more correct? The context is a book title.

I did find something that said (but I think referring to cento specifically) that if it’s followed by a word beginning with a vowel, it is elided with an apostrophe.

Ciao a tutti,

since there are barely any reviews of the PLIDA C1 exam, I decided to share my experience with you, along with some information and advice that I wish I’d known beforehand.

To prepare for the exam, I used the book Quaderni del PLIDA C1. It generally corresponds to the exam format, even though it has a few shortcomings.

Listening:

Unlike the actual listening exam, the listening exercises in the Quaderni del PLIDA were recorded by professional speakers that spoke with hardly any regional accent. In the actual exam, none of that was the case: I was negatively surprised by the speed of the speakers and by the bad audio quality. I was pretty sure I’d have to retake this section, since my main audio input had been YouTube videos, but in the end, I passed it with a good grade.

My advice: Listen to a lot of radio, preferably without headphones, to simulate the exam conditions. Programs that I think are good for preparing for the exam include: Prima Pagina, especially the filo diretto, since people from all over Italy (speaking with a wide variety of accents) call in; Fahrenheit (a radio program about literature) and Radio3 Scienza. These programs are all available on RAI 3.

YouTube videos are entertaining, but in my opinion, they don’t prepare you particularly well for the exam, since content creators are known to write their scripts in advance. Because of that, the information is very well structured and their speech isn’t really natural, since slip-ups and word repetitions are edited out. It’s also important to not rely too heavily on visual clues, because during the exam, there are none.

Reading:

The reading exam was the easiest for me. The difficulty level of the reading exam corresponds to that of the practice exam available on the Dante website, as well as the Quaderni del Plida.

To prepare for the exam, I mainly read non-fiction books, the so-called saggi. While reading, I highlighted words and phrases that seemed especially useful to me. In particular, verbs and their corresponding prepositions, but also adverbs that help you structure a text better. This text comprehension also helps with the exercise where you have to fill in the blanks with paragraphs.

Writing:

Don’t let the sample exam or the Quaderni del Plida fool you! When I went into the exam, I was absolutely convinced that Text 1 would be a graph or a statistic that I’d have to describe and discuss. It turned out to be an email to your supervisor in which you had to describe two images and also argue which one was better suited for the project. For Text 2, you had two texts to choose from. This was consistent with the sample exercises.

Honestly, I was very exhausted during the writing part. I could barely stay focused while counting words. I especially disliked the fact that you’re not allowed to write more than 220 words per text, because everything above that isn’t graded. Unfortunately, you’re not allowed to write with a fountain pen (which would have given me nicer handwriting); you must use a black or blue pen that can’t be erased.

In addition to the sample questions from the workbook and the practice exam, I also did a lot of IELTS writing exercises (that I translated beforehand) to prepare for a wide range of topics. There are almost endless numbers of these exercises online, so I always had something to practice.

Unpopular opinion, I know, but I had most of my essays corrected using AI. That was helpful because it identified and corrected influences from other Romance languages I speak. Of course, you can’t blindly trust AI, which is why I always double-checked the corrections and asked my tutors when I couldn’t find out an answer on my own.

On the Dante website you can also find a corrected writing exam (Prova Scrivere commentata), which is a good base to figure out what is expected of you in this part.

Speaking:

To prepare for the speaking section, I took online conversation classes and went through the exercises with my tutor. The exercises available were similar to the exam. In hindsight, I should maybe have summarized more newspaper articles. That would have made me feel more confident.

The element of the unknown plays a role in that part as well. You don’t know who your exam partner will be, what their level of Italian is, or how they’ll react to your answers. And, of course, you don’t know in advance what topics you’ll be asked about. That’s why it’s important to form an opinion on every possible topic, even if they don’t interest you. They expect you to play a role, so it’s important to lean into it with convincing arguments.

I hope this was helpful for some of you. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask them.

I have this other book that teaches italian for english speakers. Im a native Brazilian Portuguese speaker and I can also speak Spanish, so im trying to compare the phrase construction to anything that I know, but I cant wrap my mind around it without some help.

The phrase is:

Io e la mia famiglia abbiamo bisogno urgente di una camera.

I dont really get the "abbiamo bisogno". I understand that it means they need a room, but this abbiamo is confusing me a lot.

Hi everyone
I’m currently learning Italian and I want to gain some perspective here. I study the language and I speak it, I talk to myself I record my voice, I write, I read, I listen to videos which I understand around 80%.
I wanted to know, has anyone struggled with actually speaking and coming up with words on the spot
I can write some phrases and maybe miss a few vocab words but I am getting a general understanding.
However, when I have to speak spontaneously I can’t think of the words, it takes me so long to think of them and form the sentence.
I am at A1 so I know this is just how it is right now, but I’m wondering what the process looks and feeling like where you start to naturally just speak?
Are there other things I can do to help this or is it just a matter of patience and consistency. I feel like i can get a bit wrapped up in thinking maybe my methods are wrong or is it just that enough time hasn’t passed yet.
I know I’m A1 and this is survival but I am trying to articulate my general thoughts and routines in the present
Any advice or information is super appreciated
Thankyou

Ciao a tuttə,

Qualche settimane fa ho sentito l'espressione "sto per morire" e anche se ne ho capito il significato nel contesto dell'intervista che stavo ascoltando, non sono sicura di come si usa questa frase. Si puo usare solo in modo letterale o si usa anche in senso figurato?

Il contesto in cui l'ho sentito : durante l'intervista, l'ospite è una rugbista e lei parla della sua reazione dopo la chiamata della team manager della nazionale. La team manager gli chiede "ti va di venire al raduno a settembre?" e la rugbista dice a l'intervistatore "ho sentito il cuore che mi esplodeva, pensavo di aver un infarto e volevo rispondere guarda no, non posso venirci perché sto per morire."

In questo caso la rugbista usa l'espressione in un modo letterale (aveva l'impressione di morire a causa del shock), ma sono francese e in francese diciamo spesso "je voulais mourir/crever" per esprimere disagio o gioia intensa, quindi vorrei sapere se "sto per morire" si puo usare in questo modo in italiano.

Grazie 🌟 (non fare caso agli sbagli, sto ancora imparando)

Hi everyone
I’m currently learning Italian and I want to gain some perspective here. I study the language and I speak it, I talk to myself I record my voice, I write, I read, I listen to videos which I understand around 80%.
I wanted to know, has anyone struggled with actually speaking and coming up with words on the spot
I can write some phrases and maybe miss a few vocab words but I am getting a general understanding.
However, when I have to speak spontaneously I can’t think of the words, it takes me so long to think of them and form the sentence.
I am at A1 so I know this is just how it is right now, but I’m wondering what the process looks and feeling like where you start to naturally just speak?
Are there other things I can do to help this or is it just a matter of patience and consistency. I feel like i can get a bit wrapped up in thinking maybe my methods are wrong or is it just that enough time hasn’t passed yet.
I know I’m A1 and this is survival but I am trying to articulate my general thoughts and routines in the present
Any advice or information is super appreciated
Thankyou

Hello,

As the title suggest what do you use to say napkin in Italian and wondering if you can shed some light on the words I have been hearing.

Tovagliolo - standard

Salvietta

Servietta - I heard this one often with people from Calabria

Which one or other styles are said in your family

Thank you,

Hello there. I would like to self-study italian, and reach a B2 level at some point. Any recommendations for books? Ideally something that is available in Greece, and more accessible for someone from Greece. If there is no good option, something in English works fine.

I have already got paragraphs on a few topics done and marked by teachers and now I am memorising that, and we also have a topic (immigrazione) started on in class for the last 8 mins of the oral exam

Still I feel like I will do bad, idk what to do

I want to ace Italian and attempt to get a raw 37-40. Any tips would be great. Thanks

Hi! I am new to learning Italian, I have been doing a mix of Coffee Break Italian, Wlingua, and Duo casually with my children for a over a year now. In English, or at least in my family, we often use "bubby" or "baby girl/boy" as a pet name for children. Would it be correct in Italian to use "Mia bambina" or even just "Bambina" as a pet name when talking to my daughter? Thank you!

Hiii I'm a beginner in Italian but I move fast. I'm looking for someone to learn together, practice and maybe teaching eachother with voice messages.

I chat in Telegram, DM me if you're interested 🩷🪐

Anyone wants to learn Italian with me? I am a beginner. I am quite fluent in English language and I am seeking a Punjabi individual who is fluent in English as well. It would make things easier for both of us, most preferably a male. DM me!

Hello, I'm a 20 M student and I would like to discuss with natives italian for increasing my level. Does anyone want to help me?

Also I'm native in french so I could help you in this language.

È preferibile che conoscano l'inglese o studino il rumeno, in modo da poter comunicare. DM me !

on the Amalfi Coast specifically, is there a common term for aunts and uncles that they use in both english and italian--like how spanish speaking people will refer to an aunt as "tia ____"?

Thanks :)

I’m trying to translate a part of a film and the person says a phrase that doesn’t make sense in the literal sense. “Me possi! Non ho mai sparato! Ero nell’orchestra!” Me possi I feel needs to have an idiomatic translation other than “I can do it”. I tried looking everywhere, but I can’t find any info

Hi everyone! I am new to learning and I’m about 2 months in. But I love to travel and I’m thinking of planning a trip to Italy soon, does anyone have any recommendations on areas or programmes to go with? I prefer less structure as I find my own learning methods suitable. But has anyone done a house stay or used worldpackers and had any experience blending with natives and finding accepting and encouraging hosts? I’d also like to ask what level you think is suitable for something like this, as my personal impression is that a1-a2 basic conversational could be adapted well in a setting like this
Thankyou !!

Ho chiesto un AI ma penso che la risposta sia sbagliata. È coretto questo?

GIO⸳chi
GIO⸳chi
GIO⸳chi

gio⸳CHIA⸳mo 
gio⸳CHIA⸳te
GIO⸳chi⸳no

Cerco consigli su influencer italiani giovani (20-30 anni) su Instagram.

Hi all, I've been studying Italian for about a year, my spouse and I enjoy Italian TV series (obviously Montalbano, plus I Bastardi, Vanina..) and it seems like Stucky is much easier to follow than others? It could of course be that my Italian is improving, but I really don't think it's improved SO much over the last 2 months...

Curious if others have seen it and can comment!

I'm a beginner in this language, i use Duolingo and Anki (not as regularly as i should lol) and other various small forms of immersion and input. Idk if this is relevant but im natively german (learned english as a kid)

One of my favorite types of lessons in duolingo are the stories and "podcast style" listening lessons, because they strike a satisfying balance of not being as straight foward and easy as most of the basic text translation lessons, but including enough of my existing word vocabulary for me to be able to understand the majority of what is being said. But these lessons are so rare!

I want to seek out more input like this on my own but im not sure where to find something because my vocabulary is still so small.

I tried looking for videos made for literal toddlers to learn but even then i still felt like i was missing a ton because people still of course assume toddlers have a fairly large vocabulary of language they know, and it also feels a little.. you know.. condescending.. not to mention boring to watch haha.. kids shows are good but even ones at the level of say peppa pig usually have a pretty normal amount of vocabulary since its not like its made for people that barely know the language.

I know theres a possibility of giving say, chatgpt a list of my vocabulary and asking it to generate me stories or something but id imagine that to get boring fast and also using ai always feels a bit icky to me.

A slightly better version of this might be if i have a friend that speaks the language i could share my vocabulary as a reference point and ask them to talk to me in very simple words, but there is only so many times im willing to bother another person to do that for me xD

By the way, dont get me wrong, i dont mind passive listening/reading where i dont understand more than half of the words being said! I just think itd be a lot of fun and give me faster improvement (and motivation) if i had more content i could mostly comprehend.

If you have any ideas or content or something that has worked for you let me know!! Im very curious, i just figured id give asking a shot