LearnItalianPod

Maria Says:

Hi, I’ve just downloaded first episodes of your podcast and I like your choice of topics (and the voices are very nice). I’m sure it will help me in my Italian studies.

The only problem as I see it is that you speak too slow. It’s great for deciphering the unfamiliar words, but it would be much better if later (at the end of the episode, for example) you repeat all these phrases at natural speed so we could try to imitate it. Otherwise it’s impossible (for me) to grasp natural Italian intonation and to learn understanding natives when they speak fast.

Probably you’ve solved that problem in more recent episodes, which I don’t have yet. Anyway, I find your podcast very useful. Thank you.

~Maria

José Says:

Hi, i liking so much your site….can you, please have more vocabulary (as those popular words) because in the end of the 3 lesson i couldn’t deciphrated after the “ciao ciao”
is ” ci vidiamo”? Can you answer me.
Thank you !!!!
oh, my english a so bad cause i’m brazilian..kkkk

Amy Says:

Jane and Massimo,
Many thanks for your great lessons. I have a question about prepositions. I noticed from your examples that both a and in mean ‘to’. How do you know which one to use? I am guessing from your examples that you use ‘a’ when going to a city, but ‘in’ for a country? Is that correct?
Io vado a Napoli. Io vado in Italia.
But what about other place names? in montagna, al mare, in pizzeria, a casa?

LearnItalianPod.com Says:

Ciao Marvin,

The Italian prepositions are: di (of), a (at, to), da (from), in (in, to, into), con (with), su (on, over, on top of), per (for), tra, fra (between).

Keep in mind that knowing when to use which preposition can be somewhat difficult, and even after years of studying Italian you will occasionally make mistakes.

The best way to learn prepositions is not to obsess about it, and to use what makes most sense. A useful thing to do is to read a lot of Italian (see the learning center for this) so you can get a “feel” for the use of prepositions and you’ll notice that they will eventually just come.

Here are a few more examples:
a mezzanotte – at midnight
a mezzogiorno – at noon

in Italia, in Spagna, in America
(in, with singular countries, but note that for example you would say “nelle Filippine”)

a Roma, a Tokio, a Parigi
(a, with cities and towns)

Note that you will hear “Io sono a casa” as well as “Io sono in casa” – Both sentences mean “I’m home”, and they are both widely used. As said by many great teachers of Italian, the best way to learn propositions is to train the ear, get a “feel” for what’s right, and they will come.

You’ll find other lessons dealing with prepositions clicking the link below:

http://www.learnitalianpod.com/index.php?s=prepositions