"We live in the neighborhood on the hill."

Translation: Viviamo nel quartiere sulla collina.

[MABBY]

Are vive and abita (viviamo/ abitiamo) interchangeable in everyday use? It seems to me that vive is more about being alive whereas abita is more about where you live.

[f.formica]

Abitare refers to inhabiting or dwelling; you can say "abitare" or "vivere" interchangeably when talking about where you have your home, but only "vivere" has the meaning of being alive too. Note that for animals "abitare" is rarely used.

[MABBY]

Interesting. Thanks!

[Heidi758406]

The abitiamo response is wrong because the end of the sentence is "della collina" ...from the hill, not "sulla", on.

[TanyaBella76]

Thanks for clearing that up,was wondering about this myself

[AlonzoCruz]

I still cannot understand when it is proper to use "In" verses "Nel"

[xyphax]

The difference is whether or not the article is required. If the article is required, it gets glommed on to the back of 'in' as a contraction:
in + il = nel
in + la = nella
Here's a handy chart to study the patterns:
http://italian.about.com/library/fare/blfare153a.htm

[AlonzoCruz]

Thank you soooo much. That clears it up!

[DespairSquid]

Is there anything about the word quartiere that suggests it's masculine? I'm always on the lookout for ways to categorise nouns ending in 'e', but I appreciate that for the most part you just need to learn them.

[xyphax]

I don't know that there is a way to tell them apart when they end in 'e', so if there is a helpful hint I would like to know too. Since you're curious, here's a site that lists the the masculine nouns ending in 'a' which is quite irregular ...
http://tutorino.ca/grammatica/2007/7/24/irregular-italian-nouns-1-masculine-nouns-that-end-in-a.html

[kysernj]

Are colle and collina interchangeable? I would have thought "collina" refers to a little hill, but that without knowing how big the hill is, either would be perfectly acceptable here.

[f.formica]

It's actually the opposite, colle is a smaller hill or an elevated mountain pass between two valleys. Treccani defines the first as "Piccola elevazione di terreno, di altezza intermedia fra l’altura (più bassa) e la collina (più alta)" and the second as "In geografia, depressione altimetrica della cresta di una dorsale montuosa, che mette in comunicazione due valli".

[alessandro468558]

I think you should add 'nelle vicinanze' because in italian 'nel vicinato' is not used. 'vicinato' indicates the people, not a geographical position.

[hudnut217]

Why is this not "nella quartiere"?

[theloofa]

Because "quartiere" isn't a feminine noun, it's a masculine noun.

[andriluik]

How to know which words ending with -e are masculine or feminine?

[GuilhermeMoretPS]

Could I use "sopra" instead of "sulla" and have the same meaning?

[Stephanie801]

Sopra is above or on top of...