Breakdown of Ho nostalgia di mia nonna.
mio
my
la nonna
the grandmother
avere nostalgia di
to miss, to be homesick for
Questions & Answers about Ho nostalgia di mia nonna.
Why does this sentence use ho nostalgia di instead of the verb mancare?
Both expressions mean to miss. The verb mancare works backwards for English speakers (like piacere), so to say I miss my grandmother you would use mi manca mia nonna (literally my grandmother is missing to me). Using avere nostalgia di (to have nostalgia of) is often easier because the subject is I (ho), making the sentence structure match English perfectly.
Why isn't there an article before mia nonna? Shouldn't it be la mia nonna?
In Italian, you generally drop the definite article (like il or la) before a possessive word when talking about a singular, unmodified family member. Because of this older rule, it is simply mia nonna. If you were talking about multiple grandmothers, the article would come back, resulting in le mie nonne.
Is the preposition di always used with nostalgia?
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