Today’s Italian grammar exercise is on ‘modi indefiniti‘.
If you’re thinking ‘what are they?’, be aware that everyone else reading probably is too.
Curious, I Googled the term and found an explanation on Italian Wikipedia.
If you’re not (yet) confident about reading Italian, here’s a rough translation:
The ‘modo indefinito’ is a form of the verb which doesn’t offer information about the subject of the verb (whether it’s the first, second or third person) or about the number of subjects (singular or plural) that the verb refers to. For this reason, indefinite verb forms are used in subordinate clauses, from which it is possible to deduce the missing elements.
Indefinite verb forms do however give information about time, insofar as they can have present and past forms. There’s no future.
In Italian the indefinite forms are the infinitive (for example “correre con te è stancante” / “running with you is tiring”), the participle, which presents the action as if it was an adjective (for example “il cioccolato fondente” / “the melting chocolate”), and the gerund, which indicates an action happening at the same time as another, or specifies ‘how’ (for example “correndo con te ho migliorato i miei tempi” / “running with you, I’ve improved my times”).
You can read the original here and, when you’ve got infinitives, gerunds and participles straight in your head, try today’s exercise here.
Careful with number 11, though!
I was convinced all the options given for that one were wrong, so after several attempts, I ran it past my Italian wife.
She assures me that the ‘correct’ answer really is correct.
As they say, ‘You learn something new every day.’ If you let yourself, that is.
Today’s free Italian grammar exercise
Online Italian Lessons Offer Update
Monday we launched a promotion on online Italian lessons. If you missed it, I’ve copied and pasted the relevant part here below, including the discount code and links to book your lessons.
A number of our existing students have already taken advantage of the offer to book future lessons at a generous discount, and we’ve had new clients signing up too, which is wonderful!
I had a nice e-mail from Gary, a CPA from California, who wrote to tell me that he’s too busy to continue with his lessons for the moment, adding this:
I did however want you to know that my instructor, Lucia Lecce, was exemplary. I’ve taken classes from well established Italian schools in San Francisco (Istituto di Cultura di S.F.) and Berkeley (Italingua) and so I have a fair sample of what’s available and how effective that way of learning was for me, and it is without a doubt that I have benefited more from Lucia’s teaching than any other instructor I have had previously. I feel fortunate to have found an instructor such as Lucia, whose energy, intelligence and imagination adds something special to the lessons.
Thanks for letting me quote you, Gary. Lucia will be delighted!
(To read some equally enthusiastic reviews about other OnlineItalianClub.com teachers, visit this page and scroll down to where you see the Reviews tab. Click that to read the latest comments.)
OK, guess that’s it for today. Gotta go teach!
But in the meantime, here’s the copy & paste I promised with details of the offer:
Here’s a discount code which’ll get you 20% off the price of 1, 5, 10 or more lessons with one of our team of experienced Italian teachers.
online_italian_lessons_20%_discount
If you’re already one of our students, go ahead and use the code to book your future lessons at a generous saving.
If not, why not try a lesson, or five, or ten, to see if you’d enjoy studying online one-to-one?
Price options for online Italian lessons are here.
Click on the package of lessons that interests you to read full details. Or use the ‘Add to cart’ button.
When you get to the shopping cart page, you’ll see a ‘Coupon code’ box.
Copy and paste the code online_italian_lessons_20%_discount into the box, then click the ‘Apply Coupon’ button.
The page will refresh.
If you SCROLL DOWN, you’ll see that the coupon is applied to reduce the total you pay for your lessons.
Once we receive a payment, Lucia, our online teaching manager will contact you to find out your needs and preferences and when you would like to take your lesson(s).
Then she’ll match you with one of our team of online teachers, who will contact you directly to introduce him/herself, and to arrange your lesson(s).
Simple as that. Any problems, Lucia will handle it. Or write to me directly, in the usual way, by replying to any of my emails, or using the address at the bottom of each page on our site.