Telling my landlord the hot water is broken: Prior attempts to fix the problem

💬 sera is evening, so ieri sera covers "last night" until bedtime. For the small hours after midnight, Italians say stanotte instead.

💬 Italian uses the present tense with da for something that started in the past and is still going on. English says "there's been", but Italian says "there is no hot water since". Same pattern: Aspetto da un'ora "I've been waiting for an hour".

💬 già sits between ha and the action word, just like "already" in English: ho già mangiato "I've already eaten".

💬 "Try to do" is provare a plus the action: provo a dormire "I try to sleep". The a is needed, not optional.

💬 Adding ri- to the start of an action means "again": acceso "turned on" becomes riacceso. The same works with riprovare "to try again".

🇮🇹 Most Italian flats have their own wall-mounted gas boiler, often in the kitchen or on the balcony. It supplies both hot water and heating, so it's the first thing a landlord will ask about.

🇮🇹 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.

💬 l' is a shortened la "it" standing for la caldaia, so controllata ends in -a to match. For a masculine thing it would be l'ha controllato.

💬 mezzo has a doubled z that sounds like "dz": (MED-dzo).

🇮🇹 This is the boiler's pressure gauge, measured in bar. Landlords often ask about it first, since roughly 1 to 1.5 is normal and low pressure is a common cause of no hot water.

💬 mi sembra plus a describing word is a handy way to soften an opinion: mi sembra strano "it seems strange to me".

💬 c'è means "there is". For more than one thing it becomes ci sono: ci sono due luci "there are two lights".

💬 sulla is su "on" merged with la "the". The same happens elsewhere: sul tavolo "on the table".

💬 Colours come after the noun and match its ending: luce rossa, but un tubo rosso "a red pipe".

💬 che works as "that", "which" or "who" all at once. For example: il tecnico che arriva "the technician who's coming".

💬 Italians often use the plain present for something about to happen: chiamo "I call" here means "I'll call". Similarly, domani vengo means "I'll come tomorrow".

💬 Add va bene? after any time to propose it: Alle tre va bene? "Is three o'clock okay?".

🇮🇹 Arrivederci is the right goodbye for a landlord. Save ciao for friends and people you're on casual terms with.

💬 mille literally means "a thousand", so it's "a thousand thanks".

💬 Here Le means "to you" in the polite form. Like most words of this kind, it goes before the verb, not after it.