Easy Italian: Elementary Level

By Carmine Albanese

The second volume of the Easy Italian series aims at helping you thoroughly understand Italian grammar with lots of examples and exercises, acquire new vocabulary and new communication skills that will allow you to interact with mother tongue Italians in a wider range of situations.

All the dialogues and the vocabulary lists that you’ll find in this book are also available online on www.italianglot.com for you to listen to (and download).

You'll also be able to use a self-evaluation system so that you'll know at the end of each lesson, if you need to go back and review it or if you're ready to move on to the next step. Half way through this course and then again at the end of it, a test will allow you to check your level and make sure that you've achieved the results you were aiming for.

If you can already speak and understand basic Italian or you've completed the beginner's course, you can take the next step with this elementary level.
By the end of this course you will be able to understand sentences and frequently used expressions related to areas of most immediate relevance (e.g. basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, employment), communicate on familiar and routine matters, describe in simple terms aspects of your background, your past experiences, and matters in areas of immediate need and you will be able to develop the following communication skills and talk about these topics:

• Memories and habits in the past
• Describe people, things and situations in the past
• The weather
• Clothes and accessories
• Science and Technology
• The seasons and the months of the year
• Holidays and celebrations
• Media and communication
• Health issues and healthy lifestyles
• Jobs and professions
• Cooking and food
• Giving and receiving directions
• Animals
• Making comparisons

So let's start ! Study a bit every day and have fun !

• Language: English
• Publisher: Carmine Albanese
• Release date: Jun 6, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463056691

Carmine Albanese

Carmine Albanese was born in Naples, Italy in 1971. He's a qualified English teacher and maintains a YouTube channel where he also teaches Italian. He has always been interested in language learning and linguistics. He speaks seven languages and he likes to share the learning techniques that he has found to be the most effective with his students.

Book preview

Carmine Albanese

Easy Italian

Elementary level

© 2018

Table of Contents

Introduction

Lesson 1: Fairy Tales

Lesson 2: Memories

Lesson 3: What's the weather like ?

Lesson 4: Shopping for clothes

Lesson 5: Shopping for more clothes

Lesson 6: Science and technology

Lesson 7: The months and the seasons

Lesson 8: Communication

Lesson 9: Celebrations

Lesson 10: Let's review

Lesson 11: Health

Lesson 12: Professions

Lesson 13: Cooking

Lesson 14: Moving around

Lesson 15: Animal kingdom

Lesson 16: One Last Effort

Introduction

The second volume of the Easy Italian series aims at helping you thoroughly understand Italian grammar with lots of examples and exercises, acquire new vocabulary and new communication skills that will allow you to interact with mother tongue Italians in a wider range of situations.

As usual, all the dialogues and the vocabulary lists that you’ll find in this book are also available on www.italianglot.com for you to listen to (and download).

Italian A1 - listen

Whenever you see this symbol, you will know that you can find audio and video aids about a specific topic.

You'll also be able to use a self-evaluation system so that you'll know at the end of each lesson, if you need to go back and review it or if you're ready to move on to the next step. Half way through this course and then again at the end of it, a test will allow you to check your level and make sure that you've achieved the results you were aiming for.

If you can already speak and understand basic Italian or you've completed the beginner's course, you can take the next step with this elementary level.

By the end of this course you will be able to understand sentences and frequently used expressions related to areas of most immediate relevance (e.g. basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, employment), communicate on familiar and routine matters, describe in simple terms aspects of your background, your past experiences, and matters in areas of immediate need and you will be able to develop the following communication skills and talk about these topics:

Memories and habits in the past

Describe people, things and situations in the past

The weather

Clothes and accessories

Science and Technology

The seasons and the months of the year

Holidays and celebrations

Media and communication

Health issues and healthy lifestyles

Jobs and professions

Cooking and food

Giving and receiving directions

Animals

Making comparisons

So let's start ! Study a bit every day and have fun !

Abbreviations

Let's see all the abbreviations that you can find in this book and what they mean:

n.: noun

A noun is anything that you can talk about or think of. You can talk about a car, a person, love, a cat. So these words are all nouns.

You can't talk about red, but you can talk about the color red. So the word color is a noun, but not the word red (which is actually an adjective).

You can't talk about slowly - maybe that's the way someone talks or walks - but slowly can't be a topic of conversation, so it is not a noun (it's actually an adverb).

You can't talk about going, but you can talk about the act of going or the intention of going. So the words act and intention are nouns, while going is a verb.

adj.: adjective

An adjective is a quality that describes a noun. We said that the word red is an adjective, because it can describe a car (a red car) or an apple (a red apple). The word my is also an adjective because it can describe words like car or apple too (my car, my apple).

m.: masculine

f.: feminine

s.: singular

pl.: plural

Nouns and adjectives in Italian have a gender (masculine or feminine) and a number (singular or plural).

pr.: pronoun

A pronoun is a word that can replace a noun. So if we change the sentence John eats an apple to He eats an apple, the word He is replacing the noun John, but it's still referring to a person whose name is John, so He is a pronoun.

v.: verb

A verb describes an action (to go) or a state (to be). A noun can perform an action and in that case it's defined as the subject of the sentence. In the sentence John greets a man, it's John who's performing the action (he's greeting someone), so John is the subject of the sentence. The man is directly receiving the effects of the action performed by John and so the noun man is defined as the direct object of the sentence. 

If we change the sentence to He greets him, we now have pronouns instead of nouns, but they still have the same functions:

He is the subject and performs the action and him is the direct object and receives the action. For this reason, we call he a subject pronoun and him a direct object pronoun.

adv.: adverb

An adverb is a quality that describes an action. So while adjectives describe nouns, adverbs describe verbs. If we say I talk slowly, the adverb slowly is describing the way I talk and it's adding information to the verb talk.

Lesson 1: Fairy Tales

Talking about how things used to be in the past

Section 1.1

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Italian A1 - listen   A fairy tale

C'era una volta...

Italian_A2_Lesson_01_101_dialogue_eb

C'era una volta (1) una strega buona. Nelle favole le streghe sono spesso cattive, ma la strega Genoveffa era buona.

Purtroppo (2) Genoveffa era anche molto brutta.

« Ricordo (3) quando ero una bella principessa, (4) prima dell' incantesimo, (5) e tutti erano miei amici. Eravamo così felici nel villaggio» (6) - pensava (7) Genoveffa.

Ma adesso nessuno era tranquillo. (8) Erano spaventati. (9)

E i bambini non erano più allegri come prima. (10)

Genoveffa era triste perché la gente (11) la giudicava (12) solo per il suo aspetto. (13)

Per fortuna, (14) non era per tutti così... (15)

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(1) c'era una volta: once upon a time

Literally: there was once...

This is how all Italian fairy tales begin. Era is the imperfetto tense of the verb essere (to be) that we'll learn in this lesson.

(2) purtroppo: unfortunately

(3) ricordo: I remember

Ricordare: to remember; to remind.

Ricordarsi: to remember.

Both the reflexive and the non-reflexive version of this verb means to remember and you can use either of them, because there's no real difference in their meaning: 

Ricordo quando era giovane: I remember when she was young

Mi ricordo quando era giovane: I remember when she was young

We can only use the verb ricordare, though, if we mean to remind:

Ti ricordo che devi pagarmi: I remind you that you have to pay me.

(4) principessa: princess

In a royal family, we can find:

il re: the king

la regina: the queen

il principe: the prince

la principessa: the princess

(5) prima dell'incantesimo: before the magic spell

Prima is followed by the preposition di when it means before something:

prima della pioggia: before the rain

When prima is used as an adverb of time, it's not followed by a preposition and in this case it's translated as first or earlier:

prima mangiamo e poi usciamo: first we eat and then we go out

l'ho visto prima: I saw him earlier

(6) villaggio: village, small town

(7) pensava: she used to think, she thought

This is the imperfetto tense of the verb pensare. We'll learn all about it soon.

(8) tranquillo: calm, relaxed

(9) spaventati: scared, frightened

(10) i bambini non erano più allegri come prima: kids were not as cheerful as (they used to be) once anymore

In this context prima can be translated as once and it refers to the good times before the magic spell.

(11) la gente: people

In Italian la gente is always singular:

la gente parla troppo: people talk too much

(12) la giudicava: used to judge her

Giudicare: to judge.

Giudicava is the imperfetto tense of this verb.

(13) per il suo aspetto: for her looks; based on her looks

(14) per fortuna: luckily

(15) non era per tutti così: it wasn't like this for everyone

Così means so before an adjective:

È così intelligente: he's so smart

but it can also be translated as like this, this way after a verb:

Parla così: he talks this way

Italian A1 - listen   Focus on vocabulary

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c'era una volta = once upon a time

C'era una volta una strega buona = There was once a good witch.

cattivo = evil, wicked

cattiveria = wickedness

Nelle favole le streghe sono spesso cattive = In fairy tales witches are often evil.

felice = happy

felicità = happiness

Eravamo così felici nel villaggio = We were so happy in the village

infelice = unhappy

infelicità = unhappiness

La cattiveria della gente mi rende infelice = People's wickedness makes (renders) me unhappy.

allegro = cheerful

allegria = cheerfulness

E i bambini non erano più allegri come prima = And kids were not as cheerful as (they used to be) once anymore.

triste = sad

tristezza = sadness

Genoveffa era triste perché la gente la giudicava solo per il suo aspetto = Genoveffa was sad because people judged her only by her appearance.

debole = weak

debolezza = weakness

Le fate nel bosco erano deboli e indifese = The fairies in the woods were weak and defenseless.

forte = strong

forza = strength; force

Gli gnomi del villaggio erano piccoli, ma forti = The gnomes in the village were small, but strong.

lento = slow

lentezza = slowness

In passato i carri erano lenti = In the past carts were slow.

veloce = fast

velocità = speed

Oggi i mezzi di trasporto sono molto veloci = Today means of transportation are very fast.

fortunato = lucky

fortuna = luck; fortune

In passato la vita era semplice. Eravamo fortunati = In the past life was simple. We were lucky.

sfortunato = unlucky

sfortuna = bad luck

Uno specchio rotto porta sfortuna = A broken mirror brings bad luck

Italian A1 - listen  Grammar

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Abstract nouns

In Italian, nouns that refer to abstract concepts are usually used in combination with their definite article:

La fortuna aiuta i coraggiosi = Luck helps the brave

L'amore è un bellissimo sentimento = Love is a beautiful feeling

Some of these nouns are formed from their corresponding adjectives by dropping the last vowel and by adding some specific endings (lento - lentezza). Sometimes we need to slightly modify the adjective before adding these endings (buono - bontà; forte - forza).

The most common endings for abstract nouns are:

-eria

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-ità

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-ezza

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-ia

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Italian A1 - listen   The imperfetto tense

The imperfetto tense is called imperfect because it refers to a not perfectly defined period of time of the past. We can't establish exactly when something happened or when this period of time started and ended. So we can use the imperfect tense to:

describe conditions and situations as they were/used to be in the past: Quando ero piccolo, ero sempre allegro = When I was little, I used to be always cheerful

In this example, we're referring to our childhood (quando ero piccolo...), which is a period of time with no clear starting and ending point and that's why we use the imperfect tense.

This tense is often used to describe people and situations in stories, novels and fairy tales to set the background for some events that happened in that context: era una giornata fredda e piovosa, quando... = It was a cold and rainy day, when...

Italian A1 - listen   The imperfetto tense of the verb essere (to be)

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Io ero forte quando ero giovane = I used to be strong, when I was young

Eri anche tu alla festa ieri ? = Were you also at the party yesterday ? (1)

Era infelice una volta, ma adesso è felice = He used to be unhappy once, but now he's happy

Eravamo così deboli quando eravamo malati = We were so weak when we were ill

Dove eravate ieri sera ? = Where were you guys yesterday evening ? (1)

I bambini non erano tranquilli. Erano spaventati = Children were not relaxed. They were scared.

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(1) Although it may seem that we're talking about a specific time in the past (yesterday / yesterday evening), by using the imperfetto tense we are referring to an undefined period of time with no definite beginning or ending: the whole time you were out or the whole time you were at the party (it's not clear or specified how long their night out or the party lasted).

Let's review the imperfetto tense of the verb essere (to be):

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Exercises

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Italian A1 - learn  Exercise 1.1

Without looking at the list of words you've just seen, match each word with the right meaning:

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Italian A1 - learn  Exercise 1.2

Write the adjective with the opposite meaning:

1. ________  (fortunato)

2. ________  (lento)

3. ________  (allegro)

4. ________  (forte)

5. ________  (buono)

6. ________  (felice)

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Italian A1 - learn  Exercise 1.3

Write the abstract noun deriving from the adjective in brackets. For example: buono → bontà.

1. ________  (lento)

2. ________  (forte)

3. ________  (fortunato)

4. ________  (veloce)

5. ________  (debole)

6. ________  (sfortunato)

7. ________  (triste)

8. ________  (felice)

9. ________  (buono)

10. ________ (allegro)

11. ________ (cattivo)

12. ________ (infelice)

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Italian A1 - learn  Exercise 1.4

Complete these sentences with the imperfetto tense of the verb essere:

1. La vita ____ semplice una volta.

2. Dove ____ tu e la tua amica ?

3. Io ____ veloce, quando ____ giovane. Adesso sono lento.

4. Io e tua mamma _____ forti negli anni '60. _____ felici allora. [anni '60 = the 60s]

5. - Com'____ tu da giovane ?

    - ____ bello, magro e sempre allegro.

6. Il signor e la signora Rossi non ____ in casa ieri. La signora Rossi ____ fuori a fare spese e suo marito ____ in ufficio.

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Italian A1 - learn  Exercise 1.5

In the following sentences, change the verb essere from the present tense to the imperfetto tense:

1. Io sono a casa, quando tu sei al lavoro

2. Siamo fortunati perché siete dei buoni amici

3. Le fate sono felici di vivere nel bosco

4. Sei una strega buona o cattiva ?

5. I bambini sono sempre allegri

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Italian A1 - learn  Exercise 1.6

Complete the fairy tale with the imperfetto tense of the verb essere:

1. C'____ una volta una strega buona.

2. Nelle favole le streghe sono spesso cattive, ma la strega Genoveffa ___ buona.

3. Purtroppo Genoveffa ____ anche molto brutta. 

4. «Ricordo quando ____ una bella principessa, prima dell' incantesimo,

5. e tutti _____ miei amici.

6. (noi) ______ così felici nel villaggio» - pensava Genoveffa.

7. Ma adesso nessuno ____ tranquillo.

8. Tutti ______ spaventati.

9. E i bambini non _____ più allegri come prima.

10. Genoveffa ___ triste perché la gente la giudicava solo per il suo aspetto.

11. Per fortuna, non ____ per tutti così...

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Solutions

Exercise 1.1:  1d - 2h - 3c - 4f - 5a - 6k - 7i - 8b - 9e - 10g - 11j

[Assign 3 points for each correct answer]

Exercise 1.2:  1. sfortunato - 2. veloce - 3. triste - 4. debole - 5. cattivo - 6. infelice

[Assign 4 points for each correct answer]

Exercise 1.3:  1. lentezza - 2. forza - 3. fortuna - 4. velocità - 5. debolezza - 6. sfortuna - 7. tristezza - 8. felicità - 9. bontà - 10. allegria - 11. cattiveria - 12. infelicità

[Assign 4 points for each correct answer]

Exercise 1.4:  1. era - 2. eravate - 3. ero / ero - 4. eravamo / eravamo - 5. eri / ero - 6. erano / era / era

[Assign 4 points for each correct form of the verb]

Exercise 1.5:  1. Io ero a casa, quando tu eri al lavoro - 2. Eravamo fortunati perché eravate dei buoni amici - 3. Le fate erano felici di vivere nel bosco - 4. Eri una strega buona o cattiva ? - 5. I bambini erano sempre allegri

[Assign 4 points for each correct sentence]

Exercise 1.6:  1. era - 2. era - 3. era - 4. ero - 5. erano - 6. eravamo - 7. era - 8. erano - 9. erano - 10. era - 11. era

[Assign 4 points for each correct answer] 

Scores: Add up your scores and keep the result until the end of this lesson for your final evaluation.

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Section 1.2

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Italian-A1-listen   A fairy tale

Aveva una piccola casetta di legno

Italian_A2_Lesson_01_102_dialogue_eb

Genoveffa non era più (1) nel villaggio con gli altri abitanti del regno (2), ma da sola nel bosco (3). Qui aveva una piccola casetta di legno (4). Non era certamente un palazzo reale (5), ma aveva un bel camino (6) per le giornate fredde, un letto comodo con un materasso di paglia (7) e un tavolo sempre pieno di cose buone da mangiare (8). Sul pavimento (9) c'era un grande tappeto (10) e il tetto (11) aveva delle tegole ricoperte di muschio. (12)

Intorno alla (13) casetta c'erano tanti alberi di quercia (14) che avevano dei rami molto lunghi (15) e sul retro (16) Genoveffa aveva un pozzo con un'acqua fresca (17) molto buona.

E poi il bosco aveva tante sorprese... (18)

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(1) non era più: wasn't anymore

(2) abitanti del regno: inhabitants of the kingdom

(3) da sola nel bosco: by herself in the woods

Da solo: alone; by oneself

(4) aveva una piccola casetta di legno: she had a little wooden house

Aveva is the imperfect tense of the verb avere (to have) which we'll learn in this chapter. 

casa + -etta: casetta.

Piccola casetta: little house. Even if the suffix -etta already implies that the house is small, we can still use the adjective piccola (little) to stress the point that the house is very small or very nice and cosy.

Di legno: wooden. Remember that in Italian we use the preposition di to specify the material that something is made of: di vetro (glass), di ferro (iron), d'argento (silver), d'oro (gold), etc.

(5) palazzo reale: royal palace

(6) camino: fireplace

The word camino can be used both for the fireplace inside a house and the chimney up on the roof.

(7) materasso di paglia: straw mattress

(8) pieno di cose buone da mangiare: full of good things to eat

(9) sul pavimento: on the floor

(10) tappeto: carpet

(11) tetto: roof

(12) tegole ricoperte di muschio: roof tiles covered with moss

(13) intorno alla: around the

(14) alberi di quercia: oak trees

We can either use the word quercia - querce (oak - oaks) or the phrase albero di followed by the tree name in its singular form: albero di quercia - alberi di quercia (oak tree - oak trees), albero di ciliegio - alberi di ciliegio (cherry tree - cherry trees).

In Italian, most tree names are masculine (except for trees like la quercia) while their fruits are often feminine: la ciliegia (the cherry) - il ciliegio (the cherry tree), l'arancia (the orange) - l'arancio (the orange tree), la pera (the pear) - il pero (the pear tree), la mela (the apple) - il melo (the apple tree), etc.

(15) rami molto lunghi: very long branches

(16) sul retro: in the back

The term retro is often used for the back side of a house, a store or a vehicle. We can also use it for the back side of a painting (il retro del quadro), a sheet of paper (il retro del foglio), a door (il retro della porta), etc.

(17) acqua fresca: cool water

The word fresco can mean fresh:

pesce fresco: fresh fish

pane fresco: freshly baked bread

but also cool as in moderately cold:

acqua fresca: cool water

fa fresco oggi: it's a crisp day today

warning   fresh water, as opposed to salty water (acqua salata), is translated as acqua dolce in Italian.

(18) tante sorprese: many surprises

Italian A1 - listen   Focus on vocabulary

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bosco = woods

Nel bosco c'era una casetta di legno = In the woods there was a small wooden house.

legno = wood

Il legno è un materiale per costruire case, mobili e molti altri oggetti = Wood is a material to build houses, furniture and many more objects.

legna = firewood

In inverno raccogliamo la legna nel bosco per la stufa a legna = In the winter we gather firewood in the woods for the wood-burning stove.

La legna brucia nel camino = The wood burns in the fireplace.

albero = tree

ramo = branch

radice = root

Un albero ha un tronco, tanti rami in alto e tante radici in basso = A tree has a trunk, many branches at the top and many roots at the bottom.

cespuglio = bush

bacca = berry

Nella foresta c'erano cespugli con diversi tipi di bacche = In the forest there were bushes with different types of berries.

lampone = raspberry

mirtillo = blueberry; cranberry

mora = blackberry

Grammar

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Italian A1 - listen   The imperfetto tense of the verb avere (to have)

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Avevo una casa con un caminetto tanti anni fa = I used to have a house with a small fireplace many years ago.

Non avevi una stufa a gas ? O era una stufa elettrica ? = Didn't you use to have a gas heater ? Or was it an electric heater ?

Aveva paura di vivere da solo nel bosco = He was afraid of living alone in the woods.

Sul retro avevamo un giardino con fiori, piante e cespugli = In the back we used to have a yard with flowers, plants and bushes

Avevate un pavimento con mattonelle di ceramica o un parquet di legno ? = Did you have a floor with ceramic tiles or a wooden parquet ?

Sulla tavola avevano tante bacche: mirtilli, lamponi e fragole di bosco = On the table they had many berries: blueberries, raspberries and wild strawberries.

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Let's review the imperfetto tense of the verb avere (to have):

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Exercises

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Italian-A1-learn  Exercise 1.7

Match each word with the right meaning:

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Italian A1 - learn  Exercise 1.8

Complete these sentences with the right word:

1. Il parquet è un tipo di pavimento di ______.  (legna/bosco/legno)

2. Prima dell'inverno raccogliamo ______ per il camino. (la legna/il legno/gli alberi)

3. In quel negozio vendono mobili di ______ di quercia. (albero/legno/legna)

4. Nel ____ c'erano molti alberi di quercia.  (legno/legna/bosco)

5. Nel pozzo l'acqua era molto ______.  (dolce/fresca/calda)

6. L'acqua di fiume è _____ e quella di mare è salata. (fredda/fresca/dolce)

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Italian A1 - learn  Exercise 1.9

Complete these sentences with the imperfect tense of the verb avere:

1. La casa _____ un pozzo sul retro e querce tutto intorno.

2. Gli abitanti del villaggio _____ paura di Genoveffa.

3. Quanta legna _____, quando eravate in montagna ?

4. Sto leggendo questo libro, perché non _____ sonno.

5. Quando eravamo piccoli, _______ un pesce rosso e un gatto.

6. Tu non _____ lezione di storia oggi a scuola ?

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Italian A1 - learn  Exercise 1.10

Complete these sentences with the verb essere or avere in the imperfect tense:

1. Io non ____ molto forte, quando ____ dieci anni.

2. I bambini _____ paura delle streghe.

3. C'___ una volta una principessa. La principessa _____ lunghi capelli biondi.

4. Tu ____ da solo nel bosco o _____ degli amici ?

5. Gli abitanti del regno _____ felici prima dell'incantesimo.

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Italian A1 - learn  Exercise 1.11

In the following sentences, change the verb avere from the present tense to the imperfetto tense:

1. Io ho un libro di favole nella valigia.

2. Hai una stufa elettrica o a gas ?

3. Noi abbiamo dell'acqua fresca nel pozzo. 

4. Gli alberi hanno lunghi rami e lunghe radici.

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Solutions

Exercise 1.7:  1f - 2n - 3i - 4b - 5e - 6k - 7a - 8d - 9h - 10c - 11m - 12g - 13j - 14l

[Assign 3 points for each correct answer]

Exercise 1.8:  1. legno - 2. la legna - 3. legno - 4. bosco - 5. fresca - 6. dolce

[Assign 3 points for each correct answer]

Exercise 1.9:  1. aveva - 2. avevano - 3. avevate - 4. avevo - 5. avevamo - 6. avevi

[Assign 4 points for each correct answer]

Exercise 1.10:  1. ero / avevo - 2. avevano - 3. era / aveva - 4. eri / avevi - 5. erano

[Assign 4 points for each correct form of the verb]

Exercise 1.11:  1. Io avevo un libro di favole nella valigia - 2. Avevi una stufa elettrica o a gas ? - 3. Noi avevamo dell'acqua fresca nel pozzo - 4. Gli alberi avevano lunghi rami e lunghe radici.

[Assign 4 points for each correct form of the verb]

Scores: Add up your scores and keep the result until the end of this lesson for your final evaluation.

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Section 1.3

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Italian A1 - listen   A fairy tale

E vissero tutti felici e contenti

Italian_A2_Lesson_01_103_dialogue_eb

Anche se (1) gli uomini e le donne del villaggio avevano paura di Genoveffa e nessuno le parlava, (2)

Genoveffa non era sola. Aveva molti amici.

Nella foresta abitavano infatti anche fate, gnomi e molti animali.

Le fate portavano spesso regali (3) a Genoveffa.

Quando tornava a casa, trovava spesso un pacco (4) davanti alla porta.

La regina (5) delle fate le preparava ogni giorno la colazione, il pranzo e la cena con la sua bacchetta magica. (6)

Gli gnomi si occupavano del suo giardino e innaffiavano i suoi fiori tutte le sere. (7)

E gli animali trovavano sempre il modo di far sorridere Genoveffa, (8) quando piangeva o era triste.

«Sono la strega brutta più fortunata del mondo» - pensava Genoveffa.

E visse per sempre felice e contenta. (9)

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(1) anche se: even if

(2) nessuno le parlava: no one would talk to her

Parlava is the imperfetto tense of the verb parlare. In this section we'll see the imperfetto tense of are verbs. Check the vocabulary list below for all the new verbs in this fairy tale.

(3) le fate portavano spesso regali: the fairies used to bring gifts often

(4) pacco: parcel

(5) la regina: the queen

(6) la sua bacchetta magica: her magic wand

(7) tutte le sere: every evening

To say that something takes place every night we can use either one of these two expressions:

tutte le sere: every evening (literally: all the evenings)

ogni sera: every evening

(8) di far sorridere Genoveffa: to make Genoveffa smile

We use the verb fare followed by the infinitive of another verb in expressions like:

Lei mi fa ridere = She makes me laugh

Non mi fanno entrare = They don't let me in

Facciamo innaffiare i fiori a lui = We have him water the flowers

Gli faccio mettere in ordine la sua stanza = I'll get him to tidy up his room

(9) e visse per sempre felice e