3.8 connecting words

Hi rigoletto,

This se is the impersonal si and you could roughly translate it as one, as in "one doesn't talk about it". In German you have mann, for example, which has the same function of si/se. In front of ne, si becomes se.
Ne, as you correctly guessed, addresses it, about it.
But note: non ne parla translates he/she doesn't speak about it. For don't speak about it, you'd have to say non ne parlare. Adding se to the sentence makes it impersonal, hence "one doesn't speak about it".

In spiaggia is common, although I happened to see alla spiaggia in some books as well - it does sound a bit literary to me. Prepositions are much unpredictable in Italian but as a rule of thumb, a translates to and in... in. The thing is, many times this doesn't apply and you'll have to learn each preposition+word by heart.

Andare in banca, to go to the bank
Andare alle poste / andare in posta, to go to the post office
Andare in vacanza, to go on holiday
Andare in Italia, to go to Italy
Andare in bagno, to go to the bathroom
Andare al mare, to go to the seaside
Andare al parco, to go to the park
Andare al lago, to go to the lake
Andare in montagna, to go to the mountains

They are much different, so I suggest learning them by heart!

Hope this helps!

Lucia

Hi Rigoletto,

This was great for me: http://icebergproject.co/italian/product/10-day-italian-pronouns-challenge/

Although I must admit I do keep forgetting it and have to keep going back to remember again!

Cheers,
Drew

Thanks Lucia and Thanks Drew.  I will have a look at that link too.

Does andare and vado play the same preposition role and rule here? I assume that they do?

Also, would it be right or wrong to say that the propositions for andare a/in are the same with the prepositions for abitare?

As i realise we use abito a when it is somewhere less specific ie... Abito a Roma. But "Abito in" is used when we indicate where we live more specifically like street, or  apartment etc?

Hi rigoletto,

Yes, vado is a conjugation of andare so it uses the same prepositions. And yes, abitare uses the same prepositions of andare (and essere and many other verbs as well - these prepositions are places specific).

Abito a is used for cities, but in is also used for less specific places because you say in Italia, not a Italia! And so for all the other countries and continents: in Europa, in Asia, in America, in Russia, in Svizzera, in Spagna, in Francia... You say abito in via ... but al numero ... .

Hope this helps!

Lucia

Excellent thanks again Lucia.