on 18-Dec-2016 (Sun)

Abstract noun One which refers to a concept or quality rather than a person or object. Examples are: la felicità ‘happiness’; la miseria ‘poverty’.

Active construction An active construction is a sentence in which the subject of the sentence is the person carrying out the action, or the event taking place (as opposed to a passive construction where the subject is the person affected by the action): mio marito fuma troppo ‘my husband smokes too much’; gli ospiti rimangono fino a sabato ‘the guests are staying until Saturday’. A verb can therefore have an active form (chiudiamo la porta a mezzanotte ‘we shut the door at midnight’) or a passive form (la porta viene chiusa a mezzanotte ‘the door is shut at midnight’).

Adjectives describe or give information about a noun. They can be descriptive (such as grande ‘big’, bianco ‘white’, vecchio ‘old’, italiano ‘Italian’), demonstrative (questo ‘this’, quel ‘that’), indefinite (qualche ‘some’, alcuni ‘some, a few’, certo ‘certain’), interrogative (quale ‘which’, quanto ‘how much, many’) or possessive (mio ‘my’, tuo ‘your’, etc.): alcuni nostri amici ‘some friends of ours’; la vecchia casa in campagna ‘the old house in the country’.

Adverbs give information about a verb, saying, for example, how something is done: bene ‘well’; male ‘badly’; subito ‘immediately’; cortesemente ‘politely’. They can also add further information about an adjective or another adverb: tanto stanco ‘so tired’; poco bene ‘not very well’; molto male ‘very badly’.

In Italian, adjectives, articles and in some cases past participles have to ‘agree’ with the noun or pronoun they accompany or refer to. This means that their form varies according to whether the noun/pronoun is masculine or feminine (gender) and whether it is singular or plural (number): la casa bianca ‘the white house’; i miei sandali sono rotti ‘my sandals are broken’; loro sono andati ‘they went’

Italian has three types of article: the definite article il, lo (etc.) ‘the’; the indefinite article un, una (etc.) ‘a’; and the partitive dei, delle, degli (etc.) ‘some, any’. (For example: il ragazzo ‘the boy’; una lezione ‘a lesson’; dei bambini ‘some children’.)

Auxiliary verbs such as avere, essere are used in combination with the past participle to form compound tenses, both active (Ho mangiato ‘I have eaten’, siamo andati ‘we have gone’) and passive (è stato licenziato ‘he was sacked’). See also modal auxiliaries.

A clause is a section or part of a sentence that contains a subject and a verb. Complex sentences are made up of a series of clauses. The main clause (or clauses) is the part of a sentence that makes sense on its own and does not depend on any other element in the sentence. A subordinate clause always depends on another clause, and is often introduced by a conjunction such as che. There are different types of subordinate clause, for example: relative clauses, Ho visto il ragazzo che piace a mia sorella ‘I saw the boy that my sister likes’; or purpose clauses, Ha portato la macchina dal meccanico perché controllasse i freni ‘I took the car to the mechanic so that he could check the brakes’.

When one person, object or activity is compared with another a comparative form is used: mia figlia nuota meglio della sua ‘my daughter swims better than hers’; la pasta napoletana è migliore di quella siciliana ‘Neapolitan pasta is better than Sicilian pasta’.

A compound noun is a noun formed by joining together one or more words, either nouns or other parts of speech: asciugamano ‘a towel’ (verb asciugare ‘to dry’ + noun mano ‘hand’); capotreno ‘chief guard on train’ (noun capo ‘chief’ + noun treno ‘train’).

Compound tenses are tenses consisting of more than one element. In Italian, the compound tenses are formed by the auxiliary avere or essere, and the past participle: ho mangiato troppo ‘I have eaten too much’; siamo andati a casa ‘we went home’. See also Simple tenses.

The conditional is not strictly a tense, but a verb mood. It can be used on its own, particularly as a polite way of expressing a request: Le dispiacerebbe aprire la finestra? ‘Would you mind opening the window?’. It can also be used in conditional sentences, where the meaning of the main sentence is dependent on some condition being fulfilled: Andrei in vacanza anch’io, se avessi tempo ‘I would go on holiday too if I had the time’.

This refers to the way in which verb forms change according to the person, tense or mood: (io) vado ‘I go’; (noi) andremo ‘we will go’; le ragazze sono andate ‘the girls went’; voleva che io andassi a casa sua ‘he wanted me to go to his house’; etc. The word conjugation is also used to mean the regular patterns of verbs ending in -are, -ere, -ire to which verbs belong.

A linking or joining word, usually linking two words, phrases or clauses within a sentence: Marco e Davide ‘Marco and Davide’; con amore ma con disciplina ‘with love but with discipline’; sono andata a letto perché ero stanca ‘I went to bed because I was tired’; i giudici dicono che bisogna cambiare la legge ‘the judges say that the law should be changed’. Conjunctions can either be coordinating, linking two phrases or clauses of equal weight, or subordinating, linking a main clause and subordinate clause.

A noun is countable if it can normally be used in both singular and plural, and take the indefinite article un, una (etc.): un bicchiere ‘a glass’; una pizza ‘a pizza’. Whereas an uncountable noun is one which is not normally found in the plural (e.g. zucchero ‘sugar’) or an abstract noun (such as tristezza ‘sadness’).

This means the way in which nouns and adjectives decline (in other words, change their endings according to whether they are singular or plural, masculine or femi- nine): un ragazzo ‘a boy’; una ragazza ‘a girl’; due ragazzi ‘two boys’; due ragazze ‘two girls’. This pattern of endings is known as the declension.

A demonstrative adjective or a pronoun is one which demonstrates or indicates the person or object being talked about: questo carrello ‘this trolley’; quel professore ‘that teacher’; quelle tagliatelle ‘those tagliatelle’.

A direct object, whether noun or pronoun, is one which is directly affected by the action or event. A direct object can be living or inanimate. It is always used with a transitive verb: i miei figli hanno mangiato tutti i cioccolatini ‘my sons ate all the chocolates’; li ho visti in città ieri sera ‘I saw them in town yesterday evening’

A verb that has a subject and is complete in itself, as opposed to infinitives or participles, which have to depend on another verb: ieri siamo andati in piscina ‘yesterday we went to the swimming pool’; domani i ragazzi torneranno a scuola ‘tomorrow the kids will go back to school’.

All nouns in Italian have a gender: they are either masculine or feminine, even if they are inanimate objects. Even where living beings are concerned, grammatical gender is not always the same as natural gender: una tigre ‘a tiger’ (either sex unless specified); un ippopotamo ‘a hippopotamus’. Gender is important since it determines the form of noun, the article and adjective.

A gerund is a verb form ending in -ando or -endo: parlando ‘speaking’; sorridendo ‘smiling’; finendo ‘finishing’. The gerund is most often used in Italian along with the verb stare to express a continuous action or event: sto finendo ‘I’m just finishing’; stavano ancora mangiando ‘they were still eating’. The nearest equivalent in English is the ‘-ing’ form but it is not used in exactly the same way.

An idiomatic expression is one that cannot normally be translated literally, for exam- ple ubriaco fradicio literally ‘soaking drunk’ but more idiomatically ‘dead drunk’.

The imperative mood is the verb mood used to express orders, commands or instructions: state fermi ‘keep still’; si accomodi ‘sit down’; andiamo ‘let’s go’. (See also Subjunctive.)

Impersonal verbs or verb forms do not refer to any one particular person. They can generally be translated by the English ‘it’ form and use the third person form: occorre pulire prima la casa ‘It is necessary to clean the house first’; non serve protestare ‘it’s no good protesting’. These verbs can be personalised by the addition of a personal pronoun, usually the indirect object: non mi occorre questo maglione ‘I don’t need this thick sweater’.

An adjective or pronoun used to refer to a person or thing in a general way, rather than a definite person or thing. Examples are: alcuni ‘some’; certi ‘certain, some’; qualche ‘some’.

The verb mood we use most in speaking and writing is the indicative mood. Within this mood is a full range of tenses: present mangio ‘I eat’; past ho mangiato ‘I have eaten’; future mangerò ‘I will eat’; etc. The verb mood used to express uncertainty is the subjunctive, which also has a full range of tenses. See Subjunctive.

An indirect object, whether noun or pronoun, is one that is indirectly affected by the action or event. An indirect object can be found with a transitive verb, which already has one direct object: ho mandato delle cartoline ai miei amici ‘I sent some postcards to my friends’. Or it can be used with an intransitive verb, which does not take a direct object, in which case it may be found together with a preposition such as a, da: Marco telefonava a sua madre ogni sera ‘Marco used to phone his mother every evening’.

The infinitive of a verb is the form always given in a dictionary and is recognised by its endings -are, -ere, -ire: for example chiacchierare ‘to chat’; sorridere ‘to smile’; and partire ‘to leave’. It cannot be used on its own but depends on a finite verb form, often a modal verb: vorrei ringraziare i telespettatori ‘I would like to thank the television audience’; or else is found linked with a preposition: abbiamo fatto un salto in centro per comprare dei regali ‘we took a quick trip into town to buy some presents’.

Interrogative words are used to ask questions or indirect questions. They include chi ‘who’; come ‘how’; cosa ‘what’; dove ‘where’; quale ‘which’; quando ‘when’; perché ‘why’.

Intransitive verbs are verbs that cannot be used with a direct object. Some intransitive verbs can be used with an indirect object: ho telefonato a Maria Teresa ‘I telephoned to Maria Teresa’. Some can only be used without any object: siamo arrivati alla stazione con un’ora di ritardo ‘we arrived at the station an hour late’. Many of these verbs take the auxiliary essere, but some take avere: abbiamo camminato molto ‘we walked a lot’. Sometimes a verb that can be used transitively in English (‘to walk the dog’) cannot be used transitively in Italian (camminare). Some verbs can be used both transitively and intransitively.

Invariable nouns are nouns that have the same form for both singular and plural, un film, dei film ‘a film, some films’, or for both masculine and feminine, un artista, un’artista ‘an artist’. An invariable adjective is one that does not change form to agree with the noun, whether masculine or feminine, singular or plural: un vestito rosa ‘a pink dress’, una giacca rosa ‘a pink jacket’; dei pantaloni rosa ‘some pink trousers’; delle calze rosa ‘some pink stockings’.

A noun or verb that does not follow one of the standard patterns of forms or endings: un uovo ‘one egg’, due uova ‘two eggs’; andare ‘to go’, vado ‘I go’, vai ‘you go’, va ‘he/she goes’, andiamo ‘we go’, andate ‘you (pl) go’, vanno ‘they go’.

A verb that is used with a verb infinitive to modify what is being said: in Italian the modal verbs are potere ‘to be able to’, dovere ‘to have to’, volere ‘to want to’: posso lavorare domani ‘I can work tomorrow’; devo lavorare domani ‘I have to work tomorrow’; voglio lavorare domani ‘I want to work tomorrow’.

The seven main ways in which verbs can express actions or events are known as moods. The four finite moods – all of which, except the imperative, have a full range of tenses – are: the indicative (e.g. vado ‘I go’); subjunctive (e.g. che io vada ‘that I may go’); conditional (e.g. andrei ‘I would go’); and imperative (vada! ‘go!’). The other three moods are: infinitive, gerund and participle.

A statement is negative when it specifies an action or event that has not taken place or will not take place. Negative words or phrases turn a positive statement or ques- tion into a negative one. Examples of negative words in Italian include: nessun ‘no’; nessuno ‘nobody’; niente ‘nothing’; non . . . mai ‘not . . . ever, never’; non . . . ancora ‘not yet’; non . . . più ‘no longer, no more’.

A noun indicates a person, place, thing or event. For example: Italia ‘Italy’; assis- tente ‘language assistant’; la festa ‘the party’. Nouns are inextricably linked to the articles (il, un, etc.) and to any adjectives that accompany them. All nouns have a gender and this determines the form of the adjectives and articles that go with it.

Number is the distinction between singular and plural. Verb forms alter according to the number of the subject: il ragazzo nuota ‘the boy swims’; i ragazzi nuotano ‘the boys swim’.

In the model of demand and supply, we assumed the existence of a demand curve and a supply curve, as well as their respective negative and positive slopes. That simple model yielded some very powerful implications about how markets work, but we can delve even more deeply to explore the underpinnings of demand and supply

A Segunda Guerra Mundial, ocorrida entre [...] , é assim chamada por ter se tratado de um conflito que extrapolou o espaço da Europa, continente dos principais países envolvidos. Além do norte da África e a Ásia, o Havaí, território estadunidense, com o ataque japonês a Pearl Harbor, foi também palco de disputas territoriais e ataques inimigos.

Só o Japão resistia, mas, em agosto, diante das bombas atômicas jogadas pelos Estados Unidos em Hiroshima e Nagasaki, o imperador Hirohito se rendeu aos Aliados.

Suppose that the slope of Warren’s indifference curve at point a is equal to −2, and the slope of Smith’s indifference curve at point a is equal to – 1/2 . Warren is willing to give up 2 ounces of wine for 1 slice of bread, and Smith is willing to give up only 1/2 ounce of wine for 1 slice of bread. But that means she would be willing to give up 2 slices of bread for 1 ounce of wine. What would happen if Warren and Smith are allowed to exchange bread for wine? Suppose they are allowed to exchange at the ratio of one ounce of wine for one slice of bread. Would they both agree to an exchange at that ratio? Yes. Warren would be willing to give up two ounces of wine for a slice of bread, so he would certainly be willing to give up only one ounce of wine for one slice of bread. Correspondingly, Smith would be willing to give up two slices of bread for one ounce of wine, so she would certainly be willing to give up only one slice of bread for one ounce of wine. If they actually made such a trade at the one-to-one ratio, then Smith would end up with more wine and less bread than she started with, and Warren would end up with more bread and less wine than he started with.

As Smith gives up slices of bread for more ounces of wine, her MRS_BW increases; her indifference curve becomes steeper. Simultaneously, as Warren gives up ounces of wine for more slices of bread, his MRS_BW decreases; his indifference curve becomes less steep. Eventually, if they continue to trade, their MRSs will reach equality and there will be no further gains to be achieved from additional exchange. Initially, it was the differences in their willingness to trade one good for the other that made trading beneficial to both. But if they trade to a pair of bundles at which their MRSs are equal, then trading will cease.