hey guys it's Elissa not Alyssa and today I'm going to be teaching you the
difference between perché, come mai, and a fare cosa in Italian okay so I just wanted to
do this quick video today to give you another option instead of saying why
instead of saying perché I mean in Italian you can also use another word so
luckily we don't have to worry about the grammar here because in English when
we say why did you do that and how come you did that the grammar actually
changes a little bit so luckily we don't have to worry about this in Italian
because in Italian you can tell that something is a question just by your
tone you don't need to reverse the words in order to get that it's a question so
if you want to say why did you go to the library you can say "perché sei
andato in biblioteca", why did you go to the library? The equivalent of how come
is come mai. This is pretty easy to remember because we have the word how
come, so come and come are spelled the same way so it's kind of easy to
remember because of that it's pretty much used in the same way how come you
went to the library or how come you're at the library so we basically use it in
the same way in English how come is a little bit less formal in my opinion
it's harder to say how come with anger and it's hard to be accusatory saying
how come it's kind of easier to add different types of emotions when you're
saying the word why but that's just the way that I see it I'm not sure if that's
a universal thing the only difference is that if you say come mai like how come
which I think it's actually the same thing in English when you're really
curious about something we need when someone does something and you're like
oh how come instead of why like why can sometimes sound more accusatory like I
said how come is more I'm really curious so the grammar is the same you can
literally just insert come mai where perché would be so like in English
how come and come mai are a little bit less formal so you wouldn't say how come
in in a paper and an essay you wouldn't say how come and you wouldn't stick or
am I an Italian either but if you're not writing very formal things and that
doesn't really matter but just to let you know that it is slightly less formal
but you pretty much use it in the same way in Italian how come is... it's easier
to say how come in an accusatory way whereas it's kind
of less common in English basically why means perché how come means come mai and
the last one we have is what for so what for is something we don't really use
that much in English but it is used and if you want to know a way to say in
Italian you can say a couple of things so you can say per cosa, so if I
have a friend who's not a student but he's at the library and it's kind of
uncommon for him to go there and I asked him where are you and he says I'm at the
library and I'm like what for to do what so it's kind of the same
thing we can say per cosa, what for it's pretty much a direct translation
it's a direct translation with the words reversed what for, per cosa, per quale motivo
per quale motivo, for what reason
I guess what is the motivation for why you're at the library but some examples
that are really useful are a fare che/cosa, so if it's an action and you want
to know why they did that thing you can say a fare che like I went to the library
sono andato in biblioteca. A fare che? Like to do what? And if it's more
like an object if we're talking about an object like I bought a math book like
what for, ho comprato un libro di matematica, I bought a math
book, per fare cosa? When we're talking about an action we say a fare cosa
like you went to a place so a fare cosa, because we will often use a
as the preposition for places with exception for the example I'm using
which is library we say in biblioteca not a, but usually you will use a
so a fare cosa is for places and actions whereas per fare cosa is more for
objects things I bought a math book, ho comprato un libro di matematica,
per fare cosa, like to do what with it that's that's basically the idea so you
know using perché is just the easiest option if you're not sure and
you just want to use perché you can but if your intention was to
say how come you can easily say come mai there's no problem with that
it's not really gonna cause you any problems the last one
what for is slightly more complicated so if you're not sure about it then
don't use it but if you use it in a situation like the example I'm giving
you then it could be useful and it can kind of you know diversify what you're
saying so you're not just saying the word perché every two seconds so if
you want to make it sound a little bit different then that could be a useful
word so yeah this was just a quick video hopefully because we all know that my
videos are incredibly long I didn't go extremely into depth because I want to
see what happens when I don't make a video that's like 15 minutes long so let
me know if you guys prefer shorter videos or longer videos do you want me
to go extremely in-depth look like tons of examples or do you want me to just do
quicker videos where I give one example and tell you the general rule this is
just a quick one if this wasn't enough information for you just let me know and
I'll do a part two or something just to give you more examples and explain
further but if that was useful please let me know so I know what type of
videos are the most helpful for you guys maybe you guys don't want to sit there
and listen to me for 20 minutes anyway I'm rambling as always so that's it if
you like this video give me a thumbs up and I love reading your comments and
respond to them I respond to pretty much every comment I get so leave me a
comment letting me know if it was useful for you and if there are other things
you want me to make a video on if you have any requests at all leave me a
comment or you can tweet me or DM me on Instagram or Twitter by the way follow
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Italian and learning English and culture and a bunch of other stuff if you guys
are interested in private tutoring from me specifically you can email me
itselissanotalyssa@gmail.com and we will schedule a private lesson and
that's pretty much it guys thanks for hanging out with me today and I'll see
you in my next video, bye!
I have work in 4 minutes I should probably go
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