Italian Grammar Mini-Guide, Pt. 2

I’m learning Mandarin Chinese right now with my daughter, and it’s been an excellent reminder of what I found useful while learning Italian. 

Years ago, I wrote a mini-guide for Italian grammar to help me get a big-picture perspective on how I might express myself in a variety of ways. 

Instead of keeping it in a PDF, I’ve updated it and am publishing it for you here :)

This is part 2, and you can find part 1 here. It’s not extensive into each tense by any means, but it does give you an idea of how you would express yourself in different ways and which tense to use to do so.

Also, heads up: I don’t go over the basics like how to conjugate verbs, what it means if a verb is regular or irregular, or pronunciation here. If you want to dive deeper into each topic, I link more in-depth articles below each section.

Buono studio!

---

How to use the reflexive tense

When you express actions that affect yourself, you tend to use the reflexive tense in Italian. 

These verbs typically end in “si” like “lavarsi - to wash oneself”.

• Mi lavo. - I wash myself.

• Harry e Cho si baciano. – Harry and Cho kiss each other.

• Katniss si sente male. – Katniss feels sick. (The Hunger Games will do that to you).

To find out more about this mysterious tense, go here: Present Tense Reflexive Verbs in Italian

How to talk about something that happened in the past