Day: June 22, 2018

You can use the preposition da with an infinitive in Italian to talk about something that has to be done, or that is worth doing. Join Coffee Break Italian hosts Francesca and Mark for this first episode of our new series, Walk, Talk and Learn Italian.

This episode is based on an advert Mark sees in Milan: Hai un immobile da affittare? Dovevivo, il tuo inquilino ideale. This phrase means “Do you have a property to rent out? Dovevivo, your ideal tenant.” As Francesca explains, da + infinitive can be translated in a number of ways. For example, in the phrase ho molto da fare, you can simply translate da as “to”: “I have lots do to”. In other examples, da takes on the meaning of “it’s worth doing something”, for example, Milano è una città da vedere: Milan is a city worth seeing. All will be explained in this episode of Walk, Talk and Learn!

As we WALK around the streets of Italy, we’ll TALK about the language we see around us, and you’ll LEARN more Italian! Walk, Talk and Learn! Welcome to this new series from the Coffee Break Italian team in which we’ll be helping you build your understanding of Italian and increase your vocabulary through our regular videos. In each episode of Walk, Talk and Learn, we’ll be focusing on a word or phrase in a sentence which we’ve found on a poster, an advert or a menu we’ve found out and about in the streets of Italy.