Log inSign up

Studio storia: la mia facoltà è piccola.

Studio storia: la mia facoltà è piccola.
I study history: my department is small.
From Lesson 216:Past reported speech (imperfetto)·Italian

Questions & Answers about Studio storia: la mia facoltà è piccola.

How would I report this statement in the past using indirect speech?
To report this in the past (for example, starting with Ha detto che... meaning 'He/She said that...'), you need to backshift the present tense verbs to the imperfetto. Studio becomes studiava, and è becomes era. So the reported sentence is: Ha detto che studiava storia e che la sua facoltà era piccola.
Why is there no article before storia here? Shouldn't it be la storia?
With verbs like studiare or insegnare (to teach), the definite article is usually dropped before the name of the academic subject. If you were talking about history in a general sense, like 'History is important', you would need the article: La storia è importante.
Doesn't facoltà translate to 'faculty', meaning the teachers?
In Italian universities, a facoltà refers to the academic department or school (like the School of Arts or the History Department). If you want to talk about the teaching staff, which is called the 'faculty' in American English, you would use il corpo docente or simply i professori.
Since facoltà ends in an 'à', how can we tell if it is singular or plural?
Italian nouns ending in an accented vowel are invariable, meaning they don't change their ending in the plural. You can tell facoltà is singular here because of the surrounding words: it takes the singular article and possessive (la mia), the singular verb (è), and the singular adjective (piccola).

Learn Studio storia: la mia facoltà è piccola and more in Italian

All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.

  • ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
  • ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
  • ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free
Start learning Italian →