Espressioni idiomatiche con avere

Then click here for the answers. 

The verb avere (to have), as you already know, expresses possession (Ho una casa grande ‘I have a big house‘), relationship (Lei ha molti amici ‘She has many friends’), and age (Marco ha venti anni ‘Marco is twenty years old’). It can also be used in some idiomatic expressions whereas English uses essere (to be) that indicates people’s feelings or conveys physical sensations.

To practice vocabulary and pronunciation, use Quizlet.

As you already know in order to ask a question you simply add a question mark the end of the sentence (Hai freddo? ‘Are you cold?’ Voi avete fretta? ‘Are you [all] in a hurry ?’). In case of expressions followed by the preposition di (of), you must instead use the structure: Di chi  ….. or Di che cosa …… : John, di che cosa hai paura? (Jonh, what are you afraid of?), Frank, di che cosa hai voglia? (Frank, what do you want?).

Avere with idiomatic expressions
The verb avere (to have) can be used in Italian in some idiomatic expressions whereas English use essere (to be) that indicate people’s feelings or convey physical sensations. These expressions are formed with avere + noun. The equivalent English expressions are generally formed with to be (essere) + adjective: Io ho freddo = I am cold; Loro hanno sonno = They are sleepy. The Italian words freddo and sonno in fact are here nouns, while the English cold and sleepy are adjectives¹Actually Italian have some equivalent expressions with essere + adjective, they are only less frequent. For example avere sete (to be thirsty), avere fame (to be hungry), avere caldo (to be, fell hot), avere freddo (to be, fell cold), avere sonno (to be sleepy), can be replace by assere assetato (to be thirsty), essere affamato (to be hungry), essere accaldato (to be, fell hot), essere infreddolito (to be, fell cold), essere assonnato (to be sleepy).. The words caldo and freddo can also be used as adjectives. In this case they are combined with the verb essere: il ghiaccio (ice) is freddo, la minestra (soup) is calda,  etc. but io ho caldo, tu hai freddo. The simple expressions  è caldo (it’s hot) and è freddo (it’s cold) are used to describe the weather, as you will learn in this Unità.

• Repeat one by one the six audio files and use Speech to Text to check if the computer recognizes your pronunciation
• Work with another student. Take turns asking and answering:
  • 1. Di che cosa hai paura?
  • 2. Di che cosa hai bisogno? 
  • 3. Di che cosa hai voglia?