Breakdown of Anna riceve il diploma alla fine del corso di lingua.
di
of
Anna
Anna
ricevere
to receive
la fine
the end
a
at
la lingua
the language
il diploma
the diploma
il corso
the course
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Questions & Answers about Anna riceve il diploma alla fine del corso di lingua.
Why is the verb riceve in the present tense instead of past (ha ricevuto) or future (riceverà)?
Riceve is the 3rd-person singular present indicative of ricevere (“to receive”). In Italian the present tense often serves to:
- describe habitual or general truths (e.g. “at the end of the course, students receive a diploma”).
- narrate steps in a sequence as if they were happening now (similar to the “historical present”).
It’s perfectly fine to say Anna riceverà il diploma if you want to stress a future event, or Anna ha ricevuto il diploma to report a completed past action, but the present is most natural for a general statement or scheduled outcome.
Why is it il diploma and not un diploma?
Using il diploma makes it a definite, specific item—namely, the diploma that Anna is entitled to at the end of this course. If you said un diploma, you’d be referring to “any old diploma” in a more indefinite, unspecified sense. In English, too, you’d say “Anna gets the diploma,” not “a diploma,” if it’s the one tied to that course.
Can we use a different verb such as ottenere or conseguire instead of ricevere?
Yes—Italian offers several verbs for “get/earn a diploma” with slightly different shades of meaning:
- conseguire un diploma/laurea (very common in formal or academic contexts; lit., “to achieve/earn a diploma”)
- ottenere un diploma (“to obtain,” more neutral)
- prendere un diploma (colloquial, focuses on physically picking it up)
But ricevere il diploma emphasizes the moment when the institution hands it over to you.
Why is it alla fine del corso? How do the contractions a + la and di + il work here?
In Italian, certain prepositions contract with the definite article:
- a + la → alla
- di + il → del
So alla fine del corso breaks down as a (at) + la fine (the end) + di (of) + il corso (the course). The phrase alla fine di is the standard way to say “at the end of.” You might sometimes hear a fine corso in very colloquial or abbreviated contexts, but alla fine del corso is the most idiomatic.
What role does di play in corso di lingua?
Here di introduces the content or subject matter of the course—exactly like English “course in” or “course of.”
Examples:
- un corso di lingua → “a language course”
- un libro di matematica → “a math book”
- un programma di cucina → “a cooking show”
Why isn’t there an article before lingua in corso di lingua?
When di expresses the generic type or content (as in “course of language”), you normally omit any article after it. If you wanted to be very specific—say, the Italian language course—you could say il corso della lingua italiana (here di + la contracts to della). But in a general description like corso di lingua, you leave out the article after di.