Wednesday, May 20, 2020

Days of the Week in Italian Vocabulary

What day does the market come to town? What day does the post office close early? What day of the week do you want to go to Chianti? To organize your daily life, figure out when to go to events, and schedule time to hang out with friends while you are in Italy, youll need to know how to tell time and be familiar with the days of the week—la settimana. Days of the Week: I Giorni della Settimana Monday: lunedà ¬Tuesday: martedà ¬Wednesday: mercoledà ¬Thursday: giovedà ¬Friday: venerdà ¬Saturday: sabatoSunday: domenicathe week: la settimana (from the number sette)the weekend: il fine settimana or il weekend. (Pronunciation note: Notice the grave accent mark () on the words for lunedà ¬ through venerdà ¬. That accent mark lets you know where to put the stress in the word so, in this case, the stress falls on the last syllable.) Note also that in Italian the days of the week and the names of months and seasons are all lowercase. Che giorno à ¨ oggi? What day is it today?Oggi à ¨ mercoledà ¬. Today is Wednesday.Ieri era martedà ¬. Yesterday was Tuesday.Domani à ¨ giovedà ¬. Tomorrow is Thursday.Il mio compleanno à ¨ sabato. My birthday is Saturday. Days of the Week: Article or Not? As shown above, days of the week are used without definite article (la, il, lo) when talking about an immediately upcoming day of the week—in other words, the upcoming Sunday or Monday or the past Sunday or Monday. Sunday I am going to the beach. Domenica vado al mare.Tuesday I dont have school. Martedà ¬ non ho scuola.Wednesday morning I am not working. Mercoledà ¬ mattina non lavoro. This past Sunday I went to visit a friend. Domenica scorsa sono andata a trovare unamica.Next Wednesday I am going to Prague. Mercoledà ¬ prossimo vado a Praga. You use a definite article when you mean every Sunday or Monday. Days of the week are all masculine except for domenica. On Sundays I go to the beach. La domenica vado al mare. On Tuesdays I dont have school. Il martedà ¬ non ho scuola.On Wednesday mornings I dont work. Il mercoledà ¬ mattina non lavoro. Note that in Italian you do not need a preposition before the day of the week so there is no on Sunday). Also note that if you add mattina or sera to your day of the week, it does not alter the gender of the day of the week, which stays masculine. Plural or Singular? Like all other accented nouns in Italian, lunedà ¬, martedà ¬, mercoledà ¬, giovedà ¬, e venerdà ¬ are invariable, so they don’t change in their plural form, but if you use an article, that must be plural (i giovedà ¬). Sabato e domenica have regular plural forms when needed—i sabati e le domeniche. Sundays in summer are fabulous. Le domeniche in estate sono favolose.I love Saturdays in June. Amo i sabati a giugno.Mondays are busy days. I lunedà ¬ sono giorni impegnativi. To speak about something that happens regularly every Monday or every Sunday, in addition to using the definite article as mentioned above, you have a couple of options with the adjectives ogni (always singular) and tutte/tutti: I take my dance class every Monday. Vado a danza tutti i lunedà ¬. I study every Sunday. Studio ogni domenica. Also note, if you want to take a few days off—lets say from Tuesday to Friday—you use da...a: Il negozio à ¨ aperto dal lunedà ¬ pomeriggio al giovedà ¬ incluso. The store is open from Monday afternoon through Thursday.Faccio festa da martedà ¬ a venerdà ¬. I am taking off from Monday to Friday. (Yes, fare festa means to take days off!) Other Examples Il weekend il mercato à ¨ aperto. The market is open on the weekends.Parto per l’Italia sabato. I’m leaving for Italy on Saturday.Perchà © non vieni venerdà ¬? Why dont you come on Friday?Sono libero venerdà ¬ sera. Ti va di andare al cinema? I’m free Friday evening. Want to go to the movies?Martedà ¬ mattina vado dal dottore. Tuesday morning I am going to see the doctor.Andiamo al mare da giovedà ¬ a domenica? Do you want to go to the beach from Wednesday to Sunday?Di solito il venerdà ¬ lavoro sempre, ma questo venerdà ¬ non lavoro. Usually I work on Fridays, but not this Friday.Il giorno pià ¹ bello della settimana à ¨ lunedà ¬ perchà © à ¨ l’inizio di una nuova settimana. The nicest day of the week is Monday because it’s the start of a new week. Note that stores in Italy usually have half a weekday off—grocery stores usually on Wednesday afternoons and other stores such as clothing stores on Mondays. It is called the giorno di chiusura or giorno di riposo. Qual à ¨ il vostro giorno di riposo (di chiusura)? When is your day off?Siamo chiusi tutte le domeniche mattine or Siamo chiusi la domenica mattina. Our day off is every Sunday morning.I negozi di alimentari sono chiusi il mercoledà ¬ pomeriggio. Grocery stores are closed on Wednesday afternoons. A Long Weekend: Il Ponte and Other Curiosities If you are struggling to remember the names of the days of the week, it might help to remember whence they came—all from the Romans, pre-Christianity, and mostly from the names of the planets: lunedà ¬ from the moon (lunae dies, the day of the Moon), martedà ¬ from Mars (Martis dies, the day of Mars), mercoledà ¬ from Mercury (Mercuri dies), giovedà ¬ from Giove (Iovis dies, the day of Jupiter), venerdà ¬ from Venere (Veneris dies, of the day of Venus), and sabato from Saturno (Saturni dies, the day of Saturn). Domenica was added later as Dominica, the day of the Lord. When a religious festival or holiday such as the Festa della Repubblica or Ognissanti falls on a Tuesday (martedà ¬) or a Thursday (giovedà ¬), Italians often do something called fare il ponte, which literally means to make a bridge, and figuratively means to take a four-day holiday. That means they take off the intervening Monday or Friday. In Italy the week starts on Monday; most activities, including schools, are open on Saturdays, at least in the morning. A few uses of the word la settimana: la settimana bianca (a winter vacation, skiing, mostly), la settimana santa (Holy Week, for Easter), la settimana lavorativa (the work week), la settimana corta (a short work week, Monday through Friday), and la settimana lunga (a long work week, including Saturday).

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Morally Ambiguous Characters in Fyodor Dostoevskys Crime...

Often times in literature, we are presented with quintessential characters that are all placed into the conventional categories of either good or bad. In these pieces, we are usually able to differentiate the characters and discover their true intentions from reading only a few chapters. However, in some remarkable pieces of work, authors create characters that are so realistic and so complex that we are unable to distinguish them as purely good or evil. In the novel Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky develops the morally ambiguous characters of Raskolnikov and Svidrigailov to provide us with an interesting read and to give us a chance to evaluate each character. Svidrigailov is one of the most unfathomable characters in Crime†¦show more content†¦Being the protagonist in Crime and Punishment, Raskolnikov is subject to most ridicule and analysis for his moral ambiguity and outlandish views. After reading about his dreadful murder of Alyona and Lizaveta Ivanovna, m any come to the conclusion that Raskolnikov is purely evil. His lack of guilt and belief of justification for his crime surely points readers in this direction. Raskolnikov remains convinced that he is superior and that it was his duty to kill such a worthless person. Although some may view this as evilness, others may perceive it as downright ignorant. His atypical way of thinking doesn’t necessarily make him evil, but that is how some comprehend it. At certain points in the story, we see Raskolnikov not as a deranged man, but instead as a compassionate human being. After the murder, we see him carrying out various charitable acts, perhaps as an attempt to atone for his unforgivable crime. For example, we see some good in him when he gives Sonya’s family twenty rubbles after Marmeladov passes on. We also see this when he attempts to rescue a drunk girl from a man by giving her money for a taxi. As much as Raskolnikov expresses that he was justified in his ac tions, through his mental and physical illnesses it is apparent that he feels some guilt about it. This guilt makes him seem at least a little bit more human. For these reasons, when all is said and done, it is difficult to determineShow MoreRelatedFyodor Dostoevskys Crime And Punishment : Character Analysis791 Words   |  4 PagesWhen a character is written as overtly good, he or she cannot be relatable. But if a character is not wholly good or evil, then they are more human-like than fictional character. A character who embodies both extremes is one who the reader can analyse the scope of humanity through. Raskolnikov from Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment is a morally ambiguous character who plays a pivotal role, in order to highlight that there is a duality in human nature that cannot be shown in characters who areRead MoreEssay about A Nihilistic Analysis of Crime and Punishment4893 Words   |  20 PagesA Nihilistic Analysis of Crime and Punishment This paper provides an exhaustive analysis, from a Nihilistic perspective, of the novel, Crime and Punishment. The paper is divided into many sections, each with a self-explanatory title in capital letters, such as the section that immediately follows this sentence. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF MARMELADOVS RECOLLECTION SCENE Katerina Ivanovna must deal with a man who drinks his life away while his family starves. Marmeladov recounts their sufferingRead MoreExistentialism vs Essentialism23287 Words   |  94 PagesOthers Other existential philosophers include  Simone de Beauvoir,  Martin Heidegger,  Karl Jaspers,  Gabriel Marcel  and  Franz Kafka. Existentialist philosophy was also influenced by many other works, including those of  Friedrich Nietzsche, G. W. F. Hegel, Fyodor Dostoevsky and  Edmund Husserl. 1. Sà ¸ren Kierkegaard  (1813–1855) was a Danish philosopher who contributed greatly to  existentialism. Kierkegaard seemed to believe in the idea of subjective truth—that is, the relationship one has with what he

Review Of The Book Thief Essay Example For Students

Review Of The Book Thief Essay Review of: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak It seems sometimes like the market for young adult literature is written down to the readers, almost in a condescending manner. That is why a book like The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is so refreshing in this sea of cookie cutter romances and fantasies. While classified as a young adult novel, it deals with very serious themes. The book’s cover comes printed with this label: â€Å"It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still.† It is a dark allusion to what is to come. But Zusak makes this story more accessible to the audience he is writing to and does this by creating identifiable characters, by bringing humor into this gloomy subject and by using a unique narrative to keep the reader enthralled. Zusak, in this book, creates a very identifiable and unique protagonist and then surrounds her with equally unique and engaging characters. The protagonist is Liesel Meminger who is only nine years old when she is taken to live with the Hubermanns, a foster family, in Molching, Germany in the late 1930s. She arrives with few possessions, but among them is The Grave Diggers’ Handbook, a book she stole from her brother’s burial place. During the years that Liesel lives with the Hubermanns, Hitler becomes more powerful, and life on their little street becomes more fearful, and Liesel becomes a full-fledged book thief. She rescues books from Nazi book-burnings and steals from the library of the mayor. She steals, not because she is a kleptomaniac, but she steals books that mark important moments in her life. â€Å"The point is, it didn’t really matter what the book was about. It was what it meant that was more impor. .es and intonations, with each passing moment. A single hour can consist of thousands of different colors. Waxy yellows, cloud-spat blues. Murky darknesses. In my line of work, I make it a point to notice them. † Along with his stream-of-consciousness style, Zusak has his narrator divide the book into quick, choppy chapters, rarely any longer than five pages. Death also throws in his own personal thoughts as interjections in the action of the story. Sometimes it’s with small facts about himself, other times its deeper insights to the action and sometimes it’s with clarifications. Death is really the perfect narrator for this story. The Book Thief stands out in its genre as a smart, entertaining, albeit sometimes dark novel for young adults. It is a book that, through its characters, dark humor, and innovative narration, can captivate practically any audience.