Relearning Italian grammar — when you need it and how to make it stick
Most of the people who study with me, especially those who want to work on Italian conversation, have already been on some kind of Italian learning journey. Kasia studied Italian at secondary school, then kept reading and listening, and after many years decided to start again in a more structured way. Vedran started with apps like Duolingo and then wanted to take things further. Nobina and Kate both attended group courses with a traditional textbook. The stories of the people who study with me are all different, but all interesting.
What they have in common is that they’ve all studied Italian grammar before, in one way or another some with a structured approach, some more casually. Some know it at quite an advanced level; others are still consolidating the basics. As I always say, there’s no minimum level required to start speaking — you just need the willingness. And if there’s grammar to work on, we work on it together.
When grammar gets forgotten or never really sticks
The first situation is completely understandable: sometimes we forget things we studied in the past. I barely remember any of the Latin I studied at school, or the Russian I studied at university. The same happens with Italian grammar that my students learned before starting conversation lessons with me. There’s nothing strange about it — and it shouldn’t be a source of frustration.
The second situation is different: someone has studied a grammar topic but never really understood it, or didn’t receive clear enough explanations the first time around. This isn’t uncommon and it usually has more to do with the method used than with the person’s ability.
The third case, the most common in my experience as an online Italian tutor, is people who have studied grammar, learned the theory well, but can’t quite apply it in conversation. Their brain has absorbed the tables and rules from the textbook, but transferring that knowledge into spoken Italian isn’t an automatic process.
Sometimes these people feel uncomfortable, as if something is missing. But it’s actually the opposite! This is exactly what my work is for. Conversation also means refinement.
How to re-explain grammar
Very often, a dedicated grammar lesson isn’t actually needed. It’s enough to introduce situations in conversation where the grammar point naturally comes up. Bernard, one of my British students, was struggling with the use of the passato prossimo and the imperfetto (a very common difficulty for English speakers) even though he knew the rule in theory. We worked on it together through examples, clear sentences and a conversation focused on the past. It worked. Bernard still makes the occasional mistake, but nothing serious.
Other times, a more structured re-explanation is genuinely necessary. In those cases, I apply my golden rule: grammar is a tool, not the goal.
Nobina’s case is a good example. She was confused about the words molto, troppo and poco. She knew the theory well: she understood that when used as adjectives they need to agree with the noun, and when used as adverbs they don’t. The problem is that in conversation, it’s not natural to stop and think “is this word an adjective or an adverb?” So I decided to re-explain the grammar to Nobina using a more concrete approach: focus on the concepts of quantity and intensity. Molti libri (many books) — it agrees, because we’re talking about quantity. Molto bella (very beautiful) — it doesn’t change, because we’re talking about intensity.
This is just one example of how grammar learned from a book can be reframed — not to solve an exercise or pass a test, but to speak Italian with more confidence and more freedom.
Have you studied Italian before and feel like something needs clarifying or consolidating? Write to me or book a free introductory call — this is exactly the kind of work I do every day.