1. A Day In Florence (Intermediate)

LearnItalianPod So, you took the whole day off yesterday and went to Florence with your friends… good for you! Now, back to reality, let’s take our Italian language up a step with this first intermediate level lesson. We’ll start off with some past tense verbs, so you’ll get the chance to tell us what you did yesterday in Florence. Enjoy!

Intermediate Level – Lesson Nr. 1

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20 thoughts on “1. A Day In Florence (Intermediate)”

  1. eccovi!! 😀 i grandi professori italiani!!! *clap ,clap ,clap* 😆 this lesson was great!! 😀 mi piace tantissimo!!

  4. Thank you so much for the intermediate lesson, Jane and Max. 🙂 I must say, it really helped me a lot. Excellent! I’ll be looking forward to the intermediate lessons while I review with the beginner casts….

    That lesson on Laura is a good idea. 😉

  6. Hey, nice lesson! I have a sugestion though: speak on normal velocity. I’m sure Italians don’t speak that slow, and speaking on the speed actualy spoken in Italy makes it easier to us to improve the lisening skills and the language gets a lot more beautiful too.

  7. I tried to look for the word “enjoy” in my dictionary (CD) and it gave me “godere” and “gustare” In this conversation the word “divertito” was used. Is there a major difference between these words. BTW, you guys are doing a great job. Thank you.

  8. Will, we think that the best way to translate “mi sono divertito” is as “I enjoyed myself”.

    The litteral translation of the verb “divertire” is “to amuse”, but the espression “I amused myself” is way less common that the expression “I enjoyed myself”, and the latter better renders the real meaning of the Italian sentence.

  9. Thanks you for the previous answer.
    I do have another question. In this lesson “sono divertito” is used instead “ho divertito”. For past tense, are these two verbs interchangeable? Is “sono cucinato” acceptable? Thanks you.

  10. Sono cucinato is not acceptable because the auxilliary verb of cucinare is avere so it would be ho cucinato. It was mi sono divertito because divertirsi is a reflexive verb and the auxilliary verb of all refelxive verbs is essere.

  11. ciao ,
    sono shubha mi piace tutte le lezioni . per favore auitate mi in capire imperfeto ed in passato remoto.
    aspetto per la tua risposta.
    Grazie

  12. Ciao, how great the site is! I’ve told all my friends who wish to pick up italian!

    Thank you teachers!

  14. Which is better to learn for past tense. Passato remoto or passato prossimo. which one isused more?

  16.  What is the best way to learn which verbs use avere and which use essere when denoting the past?

  17.  Kat, this doesn’t work 100% of the time, but if knowing which verbs are transitive (take a direct object, use avere) and which are intransitive (no direct object, use essere) isn’t automatic for you (and why would it be for a English-speaker?), it helps me to think about whether I need to put a preposition in front of the verb’s object. (If I do, it’s intransitive, so I use essere.) For example, tirare uses avere, because you can’t throw without throwing something! (I throw the ball.) Since I arrive IN Paris or arrive ON the train, arrivare is intransitive, so “io sono arrivata.” I hope that helps!

  19. Carissima JANE, RE. La notizia del Giorno
    Vicino alla casa della mia Nonna c’e una cittadina nominata
    Lucchio penso che meno de trentatré abitanti. Lucchio
    adverisce al lado di una montagna. Provincia di Lucca.  

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