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This month I want to approach a topic we always hear about and even learn about, but when it comes to actually putting it into practice, we all fall for it – false friends! Let’s first review what these false friends are. False friends are those words that in Italian sound or look close to an English word, make us think that they mean the same thin...

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Hello and happy 2023! The new year has started and we are all busy making our buoni propositi – new year’s resolutions. This month, I’ll take advantage of the new year to show some expressions – and superstitions connected to them! – Italians use in this occasion. Let’s see some! Probably the most common expression is anno nuovo, vita nuova – new y...

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Since the holidays are approaching, and winter along with them, I thought it would be a good idea to discuss the color white. Since we are all always hoping for a white Christmas, snow-covered beautiful landscapes, let’s talk about Italian expressions with the color “white.”  When talking about white and snow, most Italian cannot help but think abo...

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Ciao! Today’s grammar topic is verbs and prepositions. In particular, I’ll be focusing on common mistakes English speakers make while speaking Italian due to the different ways the two language use prepositions (but this is true also for Italians when speaking English!). Let’s take a look!  One of the mistakes I always hear has to do with the verb...

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It’s October and once again it’s time for the Settimana della lingua italiana nel mondo, the Week of Italian Language in the World. The Settimana della lingua italiana nel mondo is a worldwide event that takes place every year and has the goal of promoting the Italian language abroad. It’s organized by all the major institutions for the Italian lan...

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A few days ago, we’ve witnessed an historical event: the death of Queen Elizabeth II. Whether we are monarchists or not, the death of the longest-reigning monarch in British history holds great importance worldwide. This month I decided to honor this monumental event with some vocabulary related to the topic. First of all, let’s see a few basic ter...

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This month, I would like to remember a great linguist, philologist and historian of the Italian language that has suddenly passed away last month, Luca Serianni. He was an honorary member of the Casa di Dante in Rome, an academic of the Accademia della Crusca (an association that gathers linguists and philologists of the Italian language) and the A...

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Hello everyone! Summer has finally come, July has begun, and we are ready to continue learning about the months in Italian. Last we left off, we ended with giugno, so it is now time to learn the remaining six months.  Let’s start with July, luglio. During Roman time, luglio was originally called quintilis, but it was changed to Iūlius to honor Juli...

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Hello dear Italian enthusiasts, today I want to talk about something simple, that sometimes is looked over: how to respond to a grazie. It’s such a simple and common part of the speech, however, it is often dismissed with a simple bookish answer and people get confused when they first encounter daily Italian responses. Let’s take a look. The first...

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And we’re back with our grammar lesson. Today we are going to look at specific expressions, in particular the difference in use between anche io and anche a me and anche tu and anche a te. Let’s go! I have to take first a step back and take a look at what io, tu, me and te are. Both io and me refer to the pronoun “I.” Io is the English equivalent o...

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