LearnItalianPod

Marino Says:

Mi piace il nome del protagonista… Italo! E’ veramente un nome comune in Italia?

Nessa Says:

Questa nuova leziona é molto buona grazie. Mi piace il quiz and the glossary but would still love if you would give gender of nouns
baci

Bill Says:

 In the expanded vocabulary section is the entry, “L’insegnante sta guardando me. Si’, mi sta guardando.”. The translation for the second sentence is “Yes, he is looking at me.” What in these two statements tell me the teacher is male?
Thanks

Signe Says:

 Concerning Direct object pronouns, this example is given: Hai preparato la presentazione per oggi? Si, la ho preparata.
Why is it “la ho preparata” and not “preparato”?

Bill Says:

 Does the PP always agree in gender for both those verbs conjugated with essere and avere? Is it - “Maria ha preparato la torta” or “Maria ha preparata la torta”? I thought it was only those conjugated with essere.

Daniel Says:

I’ve never seen the word ‘che’ being used in expressions like “Che si fa tardi”, “Che perdi il treno”, “Che mentre ti fai la doccia”, etc. It sounds a bit weird/redundant, at least to me. Does ‘che’ affect the meaning or its use is just emphatic?

Grazie in anticipo e Buon Natale!

Andy Says:

Hi Jane e Massimo. This is a great way of easing us gently towards the advanced level. I have a question I think I know the answer but need to be sure: the direct object pronoun for someone you don’t know very well is ‘la’ so if I’m talking to a man I can say non preoccuparla. Is that right? It sounds so strange to me after years of learning french and being told that ‘la’ is for women! 
Also, for Nessa, I’ve got an idea: at the time when you learn the gender, think of it in a masculine or feminine light according to its gender, so ‘la Chiave’ might be remembered as a glittering key to Cinderalla’s coach, ‘una jeep’ might be a pink jeep but ‘il mare’ could be thought of as a stormy sea. This was not my idea- it was used by a man who learnt lots of languages and I’ve started trying it. Andy

Penny Says:

In numero 7 nel quiz, perche’ si usa trovato, y non trovati?

LearnItalianPod.com Says:

Penny, excellent question. Italians say “Io ho trovato loro = li ho trovati” and “Io ho trovato voi = vi ho trovato AND vi ho trovati” (google the sentence “vi ho trovato” and “vi ho trovati” and you will see more or less the same number of results). But if you try the same search with “vi hanno trovato” and “vi hanno trovati”, you’ll see that there’s a huge difference between the two - what Italians say is “vi hanno trovato”.

Gin Lang, “me” and “te” are both direct objects, so they never take “a”.