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Alex tries to find a day that suits Giulia.
Days are lowercase in Italian: lunedì, martedì, sabato. So are months, languages and nationalities — gennaio, italiano, una ragazza italiana. English habits are hard to shake here and it is the commonest written slip a learner makes. Five days end in a stressed -ì and need the accent written: lunedì, martedì, mercoledì, giovedì, venerdì. sabato and domenica do not. All are masculine except domenica. The bare day means this coming one: Sabato vado al mare, I'm going on Saturday. Put the article in front and it means every one of them: Il sabato vado al mare, I go on Saturdays. One small word, a completely different sentence. andare al mare is the fixed way to say going to the seaside — not alla spiaggia unless you mean the beach itself.
How do I read these pronunciations? See the pronunciation guide.
1. The days of the week
lunedì, martedì, mercoledì, giovedì, venerdì, sabato, domenica. The Italian week starts on Monday, which matters when you read a calendar or an opening-hours sign. All are lowercase, and all are masculine except la domenica. To say on a day, use nothing at all — no preposition: Giovedì vado al museo. The only trap is the article, which turns a single day into a habit: giovedì is this Thursday, il giovedì is Thursdays in general.
2. potere — can
Irregular and worth learning outright: posso, puoi, può, possiamo, potete, possono. It is followed by a plain infinitive with no word in between: Possiamo andare al museo. Posso dormire sul treno. Note può with an accent — the accent is what separates it from puo, which is not a word, and it must be written. potere covers both can and may: Posso? on its own, with a questioning tone, is how you ask permission to do almost anything.
3. andare — to go
Also irregular, and it barely resembles its infinitive: vado, vai, va, andiamo, andate, vanno. Only the noi and voi forms keep the and-. Where you are going takes a with a town (vado a Roma) and in with a country (vado in Italia); with a place that has an article, the two fuse: vado al mare, al museo, alla stazione. And andiamo! on its own is let's go — the noi form doubles as an invitation.
4. questo and quello
questo is this, near the speaker; quello is that, further off. questo behaves like an ordinary adjective and has four forms: questo, questa, questi, queste. quello is the awkward one — it copies the shape of the definite article. quel treno (il), quello studente (lo), quell'amico (l'), quella settimana (la), quei treni (i), quegli studenti (gli), quelle settimane (le). If you can already choose between il, lo and l', you can choose between quel, quello and quell'; it is the same decision.
A. Fill in the Blank · Completa
Fill in the blank with the correct form.
- 1. andare al museo.we can (potere)
- 2.Lui venire sempre.he can (potere — mind the accent)
- 3.Sabato al mare.I go (andare)
- 4.Sei libera settimana?this (feminine)
B. Multiple Choice · Scegli
Choose the correct Italian.
- 1.Which is the io form of potere?
- 2.How is a day of the week written?
- 3.Which is the noi form of andare?
- 4.Which agrees correctly with settimana?
C. Word Order · Metti in ordine
Put the words in the right order.
- 1.Tap tiles below…
- 2.Tap tiles below…
- 3.Tap tiles below…
- 4.Tap tiles below…
D. True or False · Vero o falso
Decide whether each statement about the dialogue is true.
- 1.Giulia works late on Monday and Tuesday.
- 2.The museum is closed on Wednesday.
- 3.They decide on Wednesday.
- 4.Giulia is going to the seaside on Saturday.
E. Matching · Abbina
Match each question to the answer that fits it.
F. Translation · Traduci
Translate between Italian and English.
- 1.Are you free this week?
- 2.We can go to the museum.
- 3.Mercoledì il museo è chiuso.
- 4.Sabato vado al mare.
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Closed on Mondays, and gone in August
Italian museums close on Mondays with the same near-uniformity German ones do, and state museums make up for it with free admission on the first Sunday of the month — crowded, but genuinely free, including the Colosseum and the Forum. Plan a Monday around churches and streets instead. The bigger rhythm to understand is August. The country empties in the second and third weeks, around Ferragosto on the fifteenth, a holiday that began as the emperor Augustus's rest festival and never stopped. Family-run restaurants, bakeries, dentists and dry cleaners shut for two or three weeks and put a handwritten chiuso per ferie sign in the window, and in cities like Rome and Milan whole neighborhoods go quiet while everyone is al mare or in montagna. Tourist sites stay open; ordinary life does not. Sunday has its own shape: lunch is the fixed point, shops in smaller towns stay shut, and the passeggiata — a slow, sociable evening walk with no destination — fills the hours before dinner. It is the most pleasant Italian habit to copy and costs nothing.