After-work drinks: Talking about your weekend

💬 a casa means "at home" or "home" with no "the" or "my". Same for vado a casa "I'm going home".

💬 dai miei is short for dai miei genitori "at my parents'"; da + a person means "at their place", like French chez. Same: da Marco "at Marco's".

🇮🇹 Sunday lunch with family is a strong tradition in Italy, often long and multi-course. Nobody will find it odd that an adult spends Sundays this way.

💬 Family members in the singular drop "the": tua mamma, mia sorella "my sister". With most other things it stays: la tua macchina "your car".

💬 cucina is also the noun "kitchen" or "cuisine"; context tells you which.

💬 Adding -issimo boosts a word: bene becomes benissimo, male becomes malissimo. Works on adjectives too: bellissimo "really beautiful".

💬 lasagne is plural in Italian, since it's layers of pasta sheets, so it takes le.

💬 io is usually dropped, since the verb ending already shows who. It's kept here to set up a contrast, as invece does.

💬 fate is the "you" form for a group. Asking just one person, it's cosa fai?.

💬 Italians "make" a walk with fare: fare una passeggiata. Same pattern: fare colazione "have breakfast".

🇮🇹 Polenta is classic mountain food in northern Italy, often served with cheese or stews after a hike.

💬 buono shortens to buon before most masculine words: buon viaggio "have a good trip". Before feminine words it's buona: buona serata "have a good evening".

💬 After a, "you" is te, not tu. To someone you address formally, say anche a Lei.

💬 Literally "we see each other". Swap the time to reuse it: ci vediamo dopo "see you later", ci vediamo domani "see you tomorrow".

💬 The accent on lunedì means the stress falls on the last syllable: (loo-neh-DEE). Same for martedì through venerdì.

💬 a + a time is a quick goodbye that means "see you then": a domani "see you tomorrow", a presto "see you soon".