Today’s free grammar exercise is on ‘verbi pronomiali‘.
If you know what they are, click here to test your mettle.
But if you’ve no idea what I’m talking about, not to worry. Check out these resources on our site first:
And there are plenty of other exercises available. Find them in our alphabetical Grammar Exercises Index. Scroll down to ‘V’, obviously.
While I was trying out today’s exercise (9/12 at first attempt…), I noticed an interesting word that I’d recently heard someone use in conversation, ‘infischiarsene’. Here’s a definition from the Corriere della sera’s Italian dictionary:
infischiarsene[in-fi-schiàr-se-ne] v.rifl. (me ne infìschio ecc.) [sogg-v-prep.arg]
• fam. Disinteressarsi, non curarsi per nulla di qlcu. o qlco.: me ne infischio di te
I guess the root verb would be ‘fischiare‘ (to whistle), so the pronominale version would therefore translate as ‘caring so little for something you whistle at it’. Or as Wordreference.com puts it, ‘not to give a damn about something.’
If you’ve read this far, that’s probably NOT your attitude to Italian grammar, though.
However, I always like to remind people that studying grammar is not the be all and end all of learning a language, and may not help as much as you’d hope when it comes to speaking and understanding what others say to you.
A few days ago, Raphael wrote with a question about precisely this:
I am trying to learn how to speak Italian fluently and am really impressed with your website. My level is A1 but I am still confused on the aspect of listening segment of your site. Is it that I have to finish my normal vocabulary and grammar exercise first?
To which I replied:
Listening is fundamental at any level, even for beginners.
If you browse the A1 listening page here http://onlineitalianclub.com/a1-elementary-italian-listening-comprehension-exercises/ you’ll probably find a lot of the material is too hard for you.
But usually there’s a transcript, so you can read and listen at the same time.
So think of the listening work you do as exposure to the language, giving your brain context in which the grammar and vocabulary that you actively study when you’re not doing listening practice can then grow.
Regarding whether you understand or not, any time you’re listening to others speaking, or watching TV, you lack control over the content. So getting used to filling in the gaps is an essential skill.
Hope that gives you some ideas!
By the way, check out our other site, which is specifcally for beginners: http://dontspeakitalian.com There you’ll find ten listening practice exercises, and ten dialogues (bottom of the menu on the right hand side of the page.)
Coming soon!
Here’s a heads up for you.
Italians are coming back from their summer holidays right about now (the autostrade were packed yesterday…)
Which means we’ll soon have our team of online Italian teachers thirsting for action again!
So, next week, there’ll be a special offer on online Italian lessons.
The last promotion of this type was in January so this is a rare opportunity for new students to try studying one-to-online, and for existing clients to stock up with enough lessons to last them until the next one, which isn’t due until 2016!
You can find prices and details of online lessons options in our shop.
But don’t buy yet – remember, next week there’ll be a discount!
Instead, take some time to consider how studying one-to-one with an online Italian teacher might support your progress with the language.
Most people take a lesson a week, which is a great way to get answers to all your grammar questions and/or focus on speaking and listening with a native-speaker.
But how often and when you study is completely flexible, according to your needs and budget.
Full details of the offer on Monday 31st August!