Keeping your Italian fit

If you attended an Italian course and are now taking a break, you may be concerned to lose the language or forget many of the things you have learnt. This is a sensible concern, because as a matter of fact, language is maintained through use and continuous contact. This always seems to be the case, except for one's mother tongue. So we need a plan to keep our second language/languages alive and kicking in our minds. The resources provided by the web can be very helpful in doing this.

If you are a student from the intermediate level onwards, you are likely to have developed already listening skills sufficient to take full advantage of listening to Italian radio on the web. Here you can find a large selection of Italian radios with the indication of their content. Alternatively, you can also watch Italian tv (streaming and recorded programmes) on the website of RAI, Italy's national tv.

At beginner's level, you can start to read Italian web newspapers, focussing first on the headlines, and then reading more of the actual article. It may sound difficult, but consider that, especially if you are reading international news, you are likely to know already much about the topic and this knowledge can help you a lot when you approach the Italian text.

Italian comics are another source of easy readings. If hard copies are not available, your may want to have a look at the site of Luciano Gatto, where many Disney comics in Italian are available to read in pdf. Good luck with your language fitness programme!

All you need to know about c's

The pronunciation of 'c' followed by a vowel in Italian is often difficult to work out at beginners' level. It becomes actually quite straightforward when you consider the following 'rule':

When 'c' is followed by a, o, u it is pronounced as a k, as in casa (/kasa/), cortile (/kortile/), curva (/kurva/). When 'c' is followed by i or e, it is pronounced as English 'ch', as in cinema (/chinema/), cena (/chena/)...

Improving your listening skills

Of the four linguistic skills the most difficult to practise and improve is probably the listening skill, especially if you are not in a full-immersion environment.

In a context where a language is spoken and continuously used, you are consciously or unconsciously exposed to it from different sources and listen to it all the time, even if you are not directly engaging in a conversation. If you are learning a language in a classroom context or on your own, the amount of audible information you will be exposed to will be far more limited and it will take you longer to attune your ear to the sounds of the language, to learn how to segment sound chunks, and consequently understand what it is said. However, listening exercises in a structured, non -full-immersion situation also have their advantages. The first and obvious one is that, while communication in real life cannot usually be re-played, you can play a recorded track or video again and again, listening for the sense of a whole text or for single words. Also, in many listening exercises you can work with a script and this helps you associating spelling to sounds in the language you are learning, as these correspondences may differ among languages.

Students are often keen on devoting additional time to listening exercises also outside the classroom, but sometimes do not know what materials to use. An important aspect to take into consideration is pace. My personal advice, if you are planning individual study listening sessions, is that you focus on authentic materials, or materials where speakers are likely to talk at the pace of a real-life conversation. Also at beginners level, if you get used to a pace which is too slow, you will be likely to have comprehension difficulties later on.

Secondly, especially at the start, it is useful to use materials you can re-play and, possibly, for which you have a script (to use in the final stage of the listening exercise in order to check single-word comprehension and new words). The internet provides a huge source of these materials, and all you need is some time to search them and select the ones which work for you. You can watch short clips on youtube or listen to songs for which lyrics are provided. If you like watching films, you can easily buy Italian ones on the internet and play them in Italian with Italian subtitles. Finally, as you become more and more competent, a very effective exercise to do is to watch in the foreign language and without subtitles a film you already know very well in your mother tongue.

Italian resources

In reply to the enquiries of some of my students, today I would like to talk about some books that could be useful to complement your Italian course. The first book is an Italian grammar for foreigners called Gramm.it, complete with exercises and recently published by Bonacci Editore (www.bonacci.it). I came across this book for the first time at a language fair in London last October and have been using some of the suggested exercises ever since in my own courses. The grammar has the advantage of being devised for non-native learners of Italian and to avoid the use of complicated terminology, while still being detailed and complete. As far as I can see it is one of the best grammars on the market at the moment and I recommend it.

The other resource I would like to tell you about is a series of Italian short stories available at different levels, from beginners to advanced. Each booklet contains a CD, so that you can couple the reading with the listening at your own pace. The series is published by Blackcat-Cideb (www.blackcat-cideb.com). I used resources from this publisher for years when I taught English in Italy, as they are available for a number of languages. I usually used the CD in class but these short stories are a very good tool also for self study. Hope this helps you shed some light on the jungle of grammars and course books available on the market. Enjoy learning Italian!

Actually....

The English language contains many words of Latin origin that enriched its vocabulary through the direct contact with French during the Middle Ages. The result of this process is that languages as different as English and Italian can share a number of words deriving from a common Latin root. Sometimes students can take advantage of these similarities and successfully ‘guess’ the meaning of the foreign word, but this is not always the case. As languages are not static systems, but rather continually develop and change, it can happen that words originally derived from a common ‘ancestor’ end up having rather different meanings in different languages, giving rise to what are commonly known as ‘false friends’.
Three famous ‘false friends’ between Italian and English are the adverbs attualmente, eventualmente, and finalmente.
Attualmente looks similar to actually, but it means ‘now’, ‘at the moment’ like in the sentence Attualmente molti studenti studiano italiano/At the moment many students study Italian. The adverb ‘actually’ is best translated in Italian with ‘per la verità’.
Eventualmente looks similar to eventually, but it rather means ‘in case’ like in the sentence Eventualmente ti mando una e-mail/ I will send you an e-mail in case. The adverb ‘eventually’ is best translated in Italian with ‘alla fine’.
Finalmente could remind you of the word finally, but it rather means ‘at last’, like in the sentence Finalmente sei arrivato!/You have arrived at last!. A good translation for ‘finally’ is ‘infine’.
These were only three of the most frequent examples, but do not be put off by these linguistic mines, keep on trying to work out meanings and connections between your mother tongue and Italian. Only, pick your friends well!

Learn Italian for free?

If you browse the web or search the internet for information about how to learn a language, it is very easy to find adverts and links sponsoring sites that offer the opportunity to learn languages for free. But is it really the case, and what is actually offered?
My opinion is that most of these free materials are likely to be useful to you and not a waste of time only if you see them for what they are, namely additional tools useful to provide an extension on a professionally structured language learning programme.
If you are looking for a complete language course for free, that is a complete learning package that will lead you from beginners’ stages to a working knowledge of a foreign language or further, you will be very soon disappointed.
First of all, the links that offer free language learning resources typically offer materials at the beginners’ levels and do not provide a consistent progression perspective beyond that. The second obvious fact about these learning resources is that a tailored feedback on your learning is not available.
The websites that provide free learning resources come in mainly three categories. The first type is the most useful and includes sites like BBC languages and Open University, among a few others. Some of these sell their own products and use the web as a shop window but are serious reliable sites, whose content is created and maintained by professional linguists. You can find well devised listening exercises, videos and downloadable materials that really make the time you spend browsing worthwhile. The second type includes most of the sites that sell long distance language courses and will make the first two or three units of a course available in order to convince you to buy the whole package. These sites are on average less quality than the ones previously mentioned. They can come in handy as well if you are looking for the random grammar exercise or topic but, again, their use is limited. The third category of sites boasting free learning is the one where a language course is sold and a community of users is also available. In this case, what is given for free is the opportunity of practising the language with other learners or native speakers. In the second case you will be expected to engage in some kind of language exchange activity, where you help other learners with their English or else. In order to take a real advantage of these online communities you need to have a lot of time to dedicate to online speaking and writing, since you will have to invest a considerable amount of it for the benefit of other students and will not be constantly focussed on your own learning. Sites like Livemocha, Busuu, and Lang8 are an example. Good luck with your browsing!

The simple future

In Italian we have a dedicated tense to express the future. Just like the past tenses or present tense, it also requires a dedicated conjugation. For example, if I wanted to say 'I will meet John' and were using the specific conjugation for the future, the Italian sentence would be Incontrerò Giovanni. You can easily discover how the verb endings would have to change if the subject of the sentence instead of 'I' was 'you', 'he', 'she', 'they' ect.,.. using the conjugator tool in the Strumenti section of this blog. At first glance it would look like you are bound to learn one more set of complicated endings by heart if you want to say something about a future action! This is still relatively easy if you are writing and have the time of working out the conjugation by looking it up in a reference book or online. Remembering it on the spot while you are engaged in speaking can be slighly more problematic though.

The good news is that in Italian you can talk about future actions simply using the present tense, as long as you use words that explicitly signal that the action expressed by the verb is set at some point in the future (these words include for example domani, l'anno prossimo, fra due minuti etc.,..(tomorrow, next year, in two minutes...).

For instance. if you wanted to say 'Probably Mary will meet John next year' you can simply use the present tense and say 'Forse Maria incontra John l'anno prossimo' alongside with 'Forse Maria incontrerà John l'anno prossimo', which of course is also correct but would require you to remember the specific conjugation.

Other strategies to get around the problem include the use of expressions like ho intenzione di, penso di, etc... especially when you want to express your intentions for the future.
So for example, 'I am going to buy a house next year' becomes Ho intenzione di comprare una casa l'anno prossimo or Penso di comprare una casa l'anno prossimo. Again, no need of remembering the whole conjugation pattern by heart.

How to pronounce Italian double consonants

In Italian all consonants, with exception of the letter ‘h’, which has no sound, can be doubled.
So in different words of the Italian vocabulary you can have occurrences of bb, cc, dd, gg, pp, tt, ff, ll, mm, nn, rr, ss, vv, zz.
There are no fixed rules to determine whether and when a double consonant is used instead of the single one, and their occurrence needs to be learned as a part of the vocabulary. The letter ‘q’ represents an exception because it is usually doubled as ‘cq’ (as in acqua, water). The word soqquadro (mess) is the only Italian word where a double ‘q’ occurs.
As for pronunciation you can distinguish two major categories. The double consonants BB, CC, DD, GG, PP, CQ, TT are pronounced with a stronger stop in comparison with the words where a single consonant occurs. Take for example the pair Fabio (a male name) and dubbio (doubt), or the pair ape (bee) and tappo (cork).
You can use the examples I have just given to check whether you are pronouncing the difference between single and doubled consonants correctly with a simple exercise. Hold a piece of paper approximately at one centimetre from your mouth when repeating the words. In both cases you should notice that the piece of paper slightly bends when you come to the part of the word that contains the ‘b’ or the ‘p’, however this movement should be considerably more marked if the consonant is doubled.
The second double consonants category includes: FF, LL, MM, NN, RR, SS, VV, ZZ. Take for example the pair polo (pole) and palla (ball), or the pair rosa (rose) and sasso (pebble). In this case the difference between the single and the double consonant is that if the consonant is doubled the sound of the consonant is longer.

Learning how to pronounce double consonants is an important part of learning Italian pronunciation especially because there are many words that differ only with respect to this feature but have completely different meanings. Let me give you an example. The word camino means fireplace, but in Italian you also have cammino, meaning way/road. Here below you can find a list of potentially ambiguous word pairs like this, but the list is not exhaustive. Why not try and find some more? Buon divertimento!

casa house
cassa box, crate
eco echo
ecco here it is
gramo miserable
grammo gram
nono ninth
nonno granfather
pala shovel
palla ball
polo pole
pollo chicken
papa pope
pappa bread soup/food
rosa rose
rossa red
sera evening
serra greenhouse
sete thirst
sette seven
resa surrender
ressa crowd
note notes
notte night
faro lighthouse
farro spelt
sono I am/they are
sonno sleep
feta feta cheese
fetta slice
copia copy
coppia couple
bela it bleats
bella beautiful
cane dog
canne reeds
dona he/she gives
donna woman
velo veil
vello fleece
vile vile
ville villas
seno breast
senno wisdom
bara coffin
barra bar
ano anus
anno year
seta silk
setta sect
fumo smoke
fummo we were
gatò cake
gatto cat
caro dear
carro carriage

Why learning Italian is easy

In many respects Italian shows a simplified structure if we compare it to English.

One example is the way questions are formed in Italian, where the structure of a simple yes/no question is identical to the word order of a normal declarative sentence. So, for example, the sentence Paolo vive a Torino (Paul lives in Turin) can be turned into the question Paolo vive a Torino? (Does Paul live in Turin?) virtually by adding a question mark at the end. Of course other strategies are used to distinguish the two cases and in this case you would need a specific, quite marked, intonation pattern for the question.

A further example involves the vowel system and the relationship between spelling and pronunciation. Italian has a more limited vowel system than English and pronunciation is almost completely predictable independently of context. So, while in English the pronunciation of i may vary in bird, fire and fig, in Italian it is always the same and sounds approximately like the i of the third English example.

Finally, as Italian is the Romance language closest to Latin and the English vocabulary has a great number of words of Latin origin, we shouldn’t be surprised that the main message conveyed by an Italian sentence can be often understood by English speakers with limited or no knowledge of the language. This is of course a distinctive advantage because it facilitates a guided full immersion learning approach even at beginners’ stages.

Italian from an English-speaking perspective

When starting to learn any foreign language, it can be useful to be aware of the main differences between your own native language and the language you are going to learn, since this can give you a very useful insight into what could be the potential critical points on your learning path as well as what is likely to be easier for you.

Italian, for instance, is a Romance language, that is, one of the languages derived from the development of Latin in the Middle Ages. As such it shares many similarities with languages such as Spanish, French, Portuguese, as they all belong to the same ‘family’.

English, on the other hand, though influenced by pre-existing Celtic languages, Norse (the language the Viking invaders spoke), and later on by Norman-French, has mainly maintained many of the features peculiar to West Germanic languages (the closest are considered to be Frisian, Low German and Dutch).

Taking a closer look at the structure of English and Italian we discover that one of the major differences between the two languages involves the availability in Italian, unlike in English, of the masculine and feminine gender. This means that each noun in Italian is marked as either masculine or feminine. Moreover, its ending can also vary depending if it is singular or plural. For instance, the noun casa (home) is feminine and becomes case in the plural, while the noun vaso (vase) is masculine and becomes vasi (vases) in the plural.

One of the consequences of gender variation is that these patterns are duplicated in the adjectives. So we will have casa bella (beautiful home), case belle (beautiful homes), vaso antico (ancient vase), vasi antichi (ancient vases). For complicated that it may seem at the start, the correct use of the endings can be acquired with a bit of practice and a focus on these aspects of the language from the early stages of learning. A way of doing this is to focus on the fact that a noun and all words that directly refer to it have to ‘rhyme’ and re-enforce the gender patterns with dedicated exercises.