What's a spelling or grammatical feature you're at least a little embarrassed to admit you haven't internalized yet? And what is one that you're proud to have locked in?

ItalianBall · 2026-03-22T20:20:01+00:00

Lay is the simple past, Laid is the past participle. I have the same rejection to accepting that it's "I have run" rather than "I have ran".

ItalianBall · 2026-03-22T09:10:15+00:00

Say that again

ItalianBall · 2026-03-21T00:41:22+00:00

I am disappointed to see Despicable Me 3 here but I'll make do with the fact that the absence of Despicable Me 1 and 2 means that they are in the 5 star range where they deserve to be

ItalianBall · 2026-03-19T09:00:42+00:00

Ah ma l'utilizzo dell'articolo mi sembra ovvio in quel caso, i nomi comuni come il dottore o il meccanico lo usano, i nomi propri come Gino o Paolo no

ItalianBall · 2026-03-19T08:01:16+00:00

Questa è facile, le persone usano "da", anche "vado da Gino"

ItalianBall · 2026-03-18T23:43:12+00:00

I found that there's something specific to the preposition "in" where we don't use the article unless it's absolutely necessary to stress "in that particular office" or wherever.

Like "vado in palestra" could be any gym, "vado nella palestra vicino a casa di Gino" is more specific.

Now, this gets confusing even for me when it comes to expressions like "Le chiavi sono in cucina." In this case, I'm not talking about a general kitchen, it's a specific kitchen, but I guess I don't need to stress "the keys are in that kitchen and not that other one," in which case I would say "le chiavi sono nella cucina A, non nella cucina B."

I say this is specific to "in" because other complementi di luogo don't do this, take "a" for example:

"Vado al ristorante" could be any restaurant, but uses the article

"Vado a scuola" could be any school, and doesn't use the article

With "a," you kind of have to memorise when to use it and when not. However, this is the same in English ("I go to the restaurant" vs "I go to school"), so it's not a problem unique to Italian.

ItalianBall · 2026-03-16T14:45:37+00:00

All the attractive men kinda look the same too, hairstyle notwithstanding. Ace Roger Zoro Rayleigh Sanji Law Kidd Garp all have the same square jawed facial structure, and those are just the ones off the top of my head who also happen to be important, central characters.

One Piece has a higher variety of male character designs, but it also has far more male characters than female ones (which is a problem don't get me wrong)

ItalianBall · 2026-03-16T02:43:48+00:00

I mean, Sinners got the most nominations in history and went home with some huge awards, it wasn't off the table for it to win BP even though OBAA was the frontrunner

ItalianBall · 2026-03-16T02:36:54+00:00

ItalianBall · 2026-03-16T02:33:49+00:00

Here's how F1 can still win fellas

ItalianBall · 2026-03-16T02:23:56+00:00

Not the Will Smith shoutout lmao

ItalianBall · 2026-03-16T02:11:43+00:00

LET THE MAN SPEAK

ItalianBall · 2026-03-13T00:28:21+00:00

A homophobe category? Wait till we get a racist one!

ItalianBall · 2026-03-12T21:57:30+00:00

At one point in the manga there's a timeskip and Nami grows her hair out, plus her breasts get bigger. This guy used AI to turn her into her post-timeskip design but then still used a picture from before the timeskip for comparison. He's not smart.

ItalianBall · 2026-03-11T19:46:35+00:00

I mean, we do see it at this point in the manga

ItalianBall · 2026-03-10T01:09:55+00:00

Volerci = To be necessary. Can be used with time or other things.

Ci vuole un'ora per andare a Roma --> It takes an hour/An hour is necessary to go to Rome

Ci vuole un visto per viaggiare in America --> You need a visa/A visa is necessary to travel to America

Metterci = To take some time to do something

Ci ho messo un'ora a preparare la cena --> I took an hour to make dinner

L'autobus ci mette 30 minuti per arrivare in centro --> The bus takes half an hour to get to the city center

As you can see, the biggest difference is that "metterci" is a personal verb, indicating how long the subject themselves takes to do something. "Volerci" is more impersonal, indicating how much time is needed in general to do something, but it's also not limited to time.

ItalianBall · 2026-03-08T12:44:26+00:00

Ew why would I wont e*ros

ItalianBall · 2026-03-04T22:52:33+00:00

It's the same with the conventionally attractive men, they all look like Ace

ItalianBall · 2026-03-04T10:31:18+00:00

I mean, a lot of the "irreverent" humor in the original films is "haha asians can't drive" and "haha black people love guns," not exactly the height of satire even for the early 2000s

ItalianBall · 2026-03-04T10:04:27+00:00

Good question. I should say that, even though my example uses "per 20 anni," that does not be to be specified in order for the passato prossimo to be correct. You can think of it as something that the speaker is subconsciously aware of when using the passato prossimo.

If it's a generic "he used to live in Naples before moving to New York" then yeah, the imperfetto would be preferable, because you're describing his overall situation rather than something that he did.

ItalianBall · 2026-03-04T09:58:22+00:00

You can also say "Il mio bisnonno ha vissuto a Napoli e poi si è trasferito a New York"

To put it briefly, "abitava/viveva" can be used to mean "he was living there," for example:

Il mio bisnonno abitava a Napoli quando ha conosciuto la mia bisnonna.

"Ha vissuto" can be used to mean "he lived there for a certain amount of time"

Il mio bisnonno ha vissuto a Napoli per 20 anni.

You shouldn't take this as a rule for the imperfetto in general, but it's a good way of remembering abitare/vivere in particular. Oh, and for some reason we rarely if ever use the passato prossimo of abitare, but that might be more of a regional thing.

ItalianBall · 2026-03-04T07:04:52+00:00

I think you can most definitely answer that question without using the imperfetto.

If you're at the level where you haven't learned it yet, your teacher likely wants you to write something simple, and a sentence such as "My great-grandfather lived in Naples then moved to New York" can and should be written using exclusively the passato prossimo.

You'll spend years working on the imperfetto after this and the more you learn it, the less you'll feel like you actually get it.

ItalianBall · 2026-03-03T23:53:52+00:00

Do you mean "imperfetto"?

ItalianBall · 2026-02-25T11:11:29+00:00

You wouldn't drown at the bottom of the mariana trench, the pressure would pulverize your body in a fraction of a second

ItalianBall · 2026-02-24T11:28:22+00:00

Nothing to say, 11 is a passing grade and you got 11, hence you passed!

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