The crowd = la folla (sing.)
The group = il gruppo (sing.)
One person = una persona
Two persons = due persone (plur.)
The people (plur.) = la gente (sing.)
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I really think the best way to learn the grammar of another language is to forget about your own and learn from scratch. You can almost never just translate something you would say in your language and expect it to make sense in another. At least that is how I do it. Watch, listen and learn.
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Absolutely. When I speak English, I should enter in a āmental stateā different from what Iām used to. I should not translate from Italian.
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I donāt think thatās something you can force for the most part. Itās just something that happens automatically once you reach a certain level of proficiency.
I do think you can shortcut it somewhat, for example by using dictionaries in your target language as quickly as possible rather than those that go from one language to another. But thatās basically just an extension of listening and reading plenty. Itās more of a ācheatā for reading and thinking more in that language, connecting words with each other etc.
That is good advice, because when you have words defined to you rather than translated you understand them on another level without looking back to your own language too much. You donĀ“t translate, you understand. Afterall getting words defined for you was also how you learned your own language.
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Actually, yes. āLe gentiā indicates that thereās some distinctiveness in the groups. If you say, like, ānorthern peopleā like āla gente del nordā youāre referring to all northeners together, but if you say āle genti del nordā it sounds more like ānorthern populationsā.
Anyway, this āgente / peopleā gave my friends problems in German, because ādie Leuteā is always plural.
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Is it true that after āI would likeā or āI likeā the verb must be in the -ing form instead of the infinity one?
Um, no? 
Not unless you have any specific examples in mind, anyway.
I like playing Thimbleweed Park
I like to play Thimbleweed Park
Which one is right?
Both.
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As @milanfahrnholz said, both. But for Brits there might be a slight difference in meaning.
- I like playing Thimbleweed Park. I enjoy the game.
- I like to play Thimbleweed Park right now, not Monkey Island.
NB For American speakers like me theyāre equal.
Interestingly, āI enjoy to play TWPā isnāt a possible sentence.
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āWhat do you do in your free time?ā
āI like playing / I like to play Thimbleweed Park.ā
As a statement on its own, the first one does convey the meaning āI enjoy the gameā, and not only āI enjoy doing this activityā.
Yep, instead you would say āI enjoy playing TWPā.
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After reading this post from @tasse-tee, I wonder if the saying āa needle in a haystackā is also common in other languages? In Germany we have āDie Nadel im Heuhaufenā with the exact same meaning (and some adventure games have a puzzle with a needle in a haystack, btw). Is it very common around the world?
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In italian yes, itās the same meaning (un ago in un pagliaio)
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I wonder how the expression āI canāt waitā is literally translated in other langauges.
In italian, we usually say two expressions:
- I canāt see the hour (non vedo lāora)
- I canāt stay in my skin any further (non sto piĆ¹ nella pelle)
The meaning is the same: I want a certain event to happen immediately.
So, how do you translate āI canāt waitā in your mother language?
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The literally translation in German would be: āIch kann nicht warten.ā But that means that you have to go and canāt stay (here) any longer.
If you are waiting (excited) for something then you could translate āI canāt waitā with āIch kann es kaum erwartenā (āI can hardly await itā).
So the German expression is close to the English one.
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Dutch is exactly the same.
Ik kan niet wachten (omā¦) = I canāt wait (toā¦).
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ā¦because that is the correct spelling in English?
and yeah, she speaks half-German too! 
mmmm I have the feeling we are getting a bit off-topic 
perhaps we should split this discussion to the Official language thread, before @Calypso punishes usā¦
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Gee, I wonder how I know that?
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