Telling my landlord the hot water is broken: Explaining the problem

💬 Italian uses da for both "since" and "for" with ongoing situations: da tre giorni "for three days".

💬 Here the verb comes before the thing doing it: Esce solo acqua fredda. Italian often puts the verb first when describing what's happening.

🇮🇹 Most Italian flats have their own small gas boiler, often in the kitchen or on a balcony. When the hot water fails, the landlord will usually ask about it first.

💬 accesa ends in -a to match caldaia. With a masculine word it would be acceso: Il riscaldamento è acceso? "Is the heating on?"

💬 The colour word comes after the noun: luce rossa, not rossa luce. Same for acqua fredda.

💬 alle is a + le, since hours are treated as plural. One o'clock is the exception: all'una.

💬 Italian often uses the present tense for planned future actions. mando is literally "I send" but means "I'll send".

🇮🇹 Expect the landlord to arrange the repair for things like the boiler. Make sure someone is home to let the technician in.

💬 Adding -issimo boosts an adjective to "very": bene becomes benissimo. Same with bello to bellissimo.

🇮🇹 The polite reply to thanks from someone you address formally, like a landlord. With friends you'd hear figurati instead.