Table of Contents

Dedication
Acknowlegements
Introduction
1. History of the Italian Language
2. Dialects of the Italian Language
3. Our Language “Exchange” with Italy
4. Some Initial Thoughts about Learning
Italian
5. A Few Hints to Get Started
6. Intro to Phonology and the Alphabet
L’alfabeto
7. Italian Vowels
8. Italian Consonants
9. Pronouncing Italian Words
10. The Articles
11. Nouns and adjectives
12. Numbers, Days, Seasons
13. Italian Verb Forms
14. Subject Pronouns and the Present
Tense
15. Auxiliary verbs: Essere e Avere
16. Simple Prepositions
17. Compound Prepositions
18. What time is it?
19. Irregular Verbs
20. The courtesy form
21. Possessive Pronouns
22. Passato Prossimo Tense
23. Irregular Past Participles
24. The Comparative
25. The Superlative
26. The Imperfect Tense
27. Difference between Imperfetto and
Passato Prossimo
28. The Simple Future
29. Think Like an Italian
30. Translated Groupings
31. Some Cognates
32. Idiomatic Expressions and False
Friends
33. Common Errors to Avoid
Summary
About the Author
Italian Survival Phrases
Vocabulary Lists
Final Practice Exercise: Finding Our
Way
Appendix
Answers to Practice Questions
Final Practice Exercise
Talk Like an Italian

Rick Zullo
 Talk Like an Italian
Rick Zullo

Copyright © 2013 Richard S. Zullo

All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored electronically, or
transmitted in any way or form, whether
physical, electronic, or otherwise
without the expressed written consent of
the author.

DISCLAIMER:
The content of this book is for
informational purposes only. The author
has made every effort to ensure the
accuracy of the material. However, no
guarantee is provided regarding the
 information put forth. Furthermore, the
author accepts no responsibility for the
quality or nature of the content found
within the external websites linked
throughout the text. The links are
provided as a convenience to the reader
and does not imply an official
endorsement by the author unless
specifically stated.
 DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to all of my

Italian teachers in the past who have
shared their passion for this beautiful
language with me.
Please visit my blog at:
rickzullo.com
 “The limits of my language are the
limits of my mind. All I know is what I
have words for.”
– Ludwig Wittgenstein
ACKNOWLEGEME

I'd like to thank Jessica for her continued

help and support - and for her
determination in whipping my Italian
into shape. I'd also like to thank my
father for being my reader and editor.
Grazie!
 INTRODUCTION

Thank you for buying this book, and I

hope that together we can accelerate
your understanding of the Italian
language. And when I say
“understanding,” I’m talking about more
than just grammar rules and a list of
vocabulary. Yes, we’ll need to study
those things, but we’re not going to stop
there. We will also explore the
evolution of the language and its
interactions with Italian culture and
history. This will give us a deeper
awareness of why Italian exists in its
current form, which will allow us to
know more than we’ve actually studied.
What do I mean by this? Well, what I
mean is that we will sometimes be able
to figure things out based on patterns that
we’ve learned instead of relying on the
things that we’ve memorized outright. At
first, this will very much be a conscious
process of deduction. But further down
the road our brains will begin to do
these “calculations” automatically.
That’s why you’ll occasionally say
something (correctly) that you didn’t
even realize you knew. The truth is you
didn’t know it until that very moment!
Make no mistake: it’s going to take a
dedicated effort on your part. Buying a
book (or CD or software program) is a
great first step, but none of those things
work unless you commit to using them on
a daily basis. It sounds obvious, but the
majority of people who purchase these
products never really use them, or at
least not to their potential. Don’t be one
of those.
If I can give you one “magic tip” to
help you along the way, it would be to
make the decision to enjoy the process
of language acquisition without focusing
on the ultimate, long-term goal (to
become fluent in Italian). It is a
marathon, not a sprint, and it can be a
satisfying journey if you view it that
way. Find the joy in the small daily
victories and don’t worry too much if
your overall progress is slower than
you’d like. In fact, I’d say this is a
philosophy that we could borrow from
our Italian friends: slow down and
enjoy.
So what makes this book any better
than the rest? Well, to be honest, I don’t
believe that there’s any one “best” way
to learn a foreign language. You have to
find the method that works best for you
—but a good guidebook is essential no
matter what your preferred system of
study. Some might find watching Italian
movies useful. Others benefit from the
guided structure of a software program.
Chatting with Italian friends via the
Internet is a great way to practice.
Indeed, a mix of all these exercises
would probably be the best formula. But
having a good lesson book in front of
you is an essential tool regardless of
those other resources. In moments of
doubt, you can double-check yourself
here. After you’ve read through the book
once and absorbed the larger themes,
keep it handy as a reference source to
clarify a grammar rule or explain a
general topic.
 ABOUT ME
You may ask why I feel qualified to
write a book on learning to “Talk Like
an Italian” when I’m not a native
speaker? An excellent and very fair
question. But in fact, I would argue that
having gone through the process of
learning Italian as an adult myself, it
actually makes me especially qualified
to teach the topic to others in a similar
situation. There is something called
“The Curse of Knowledge.” This is the
“curse” that some experts have which
makes it hard for them to impart their
expertise to a person at the beginner
level. Having struggled through the
various steps in the process myself, I
believe that I’m more empathetic to the
needs of an Italian learner than someone
who grew up speaking the language
naturally at home. I am therefore,
perhaps, better able to explain things in
a way that any beginner can understand,
since I was in your shoes not so long
ago.
Furthermore, I’ve lived in Italy for
several years and I am married to an
Italian—an Italian language teacher, no
less! (She helped me write the grammar
sections of this book.) I have studied
Italian both at the university level and at
private language schools in Italy. And
finally, I’m also a language teacher—an
English teacher to Italians, which has
given me further insight into the language
learning process. I’ve witnessed this
process from the reverse direction,
which has given me a unique perspective
as to the similarities and differences
between the two languages.
 MY PERSONAL
ITALIAN
LANGUAGE
JOURNEY
After studying the language on and off
for several years, I can say proudly and
with confidence that I speak Italian.
Maybe with a slight American accent,
but I feel OK in affirming that I speak the
language quite well. People back in the
U.S. often ask me, “So what’s the best
way to learn Italian?” My answer is
simple: Come live in Italy.
 Yes, that’s sarcastic, because what
they really mean to ask is, “What’s the
best way to learn Italian without moving
to Italy?” That, as they say, is another
story. Here’s what happened to me
during my first trip through il Bel Paese:
I was travelling from Rome to Umbria
and I had my plan all worked out: get off
the train at Assisi, find a taxi at the
station, and take it to my hotel in the
nearby village of Spello. I even had an
Italian friend write out the directions on
a piece of paper to give to the driver. No
problem, all set. I sat back on the train
with my journal in hand and enjoyed the
view of the Umbrian countryside slowly
passing by my window.
Then the train unexpectedly stopped at
a small, non-descript station. I glanced
out the window and lo and behold the
large blue and white sign said, “Spello.”
Should I get off? I wondered. It
seemed to make sense—why go 15
kilometers past Spello all the way to
Assisi only to take a cab back again?
Much easier to just jump off now and go
directly to the hotel, no? I tried to solicit
the opinions of random folks on the train,
but alas, nobody spoke a word of
English. And my handy phrasebook was
buried deep in my backpack—not so
handy after all. Damn it! I had 30
seconds to decide.
Impetuously, I grabbed my other
suitcase and hopped down onto the
platform just as the whistle blew. The
train slowly pulled away and I turned
around to gaze wistfully at the majestic
Monte Subasio in the near distance. And
there: the charming town of Spello,
about 6-7 kilometers away, tucked up
high on the mountainside. Ah…che
bella! (This was nearly the full extent of
my Italian vocabulary at the time).
After enjoying the lovely panorama
for a minute, I turned back around to find
the station and locate suitable
transportation to the town center. On
closer inspection, the “station” was
merely an abandoned wooden shack. Not
even a proper building at that point in its
history; more like 20,000 termites
holding hands in the shape of a building.
“OK, don’t panic,” I told myself,
“let’s appraise the situation. No station,
no taxis, not another human in sight. Che
bella!” I glanced again at the little town
in the distance, now looking more like
60-70 kilometers away. The hike (or
expedition) would require a significant
quantity of mountaineering gear, a strong
pack mule, and a well-trained guide. I
strained my vocabulary for a more
appropriate phrase. Che cazzo! (Why is
it that the swear words are always the
first thing that people learn?)
Now what? Well, after a few intense
moments of self-loathing, the first thing I
did was resolve to learn Italian and
come back to Italy with the skills to
survive. For some reason this became
extremely important to me from that
moment on. It was a way to recover my
pride, I suppose. Or maybe just plain
stubbornness. Whatever the reason, I
became very motivated to study, and
ultimately conquer, the language. And
now I have.
Why is it so important for you to learn
a foreign language? After all, the whole
world speaks English, right? Well, not
everyone. And besides, how boring the
world would be if we all spoke the same
language, ate the same food, and thought
the same way? We experience the world
through our language(s). In the words of
William Gibson, “Language is to the
mind what light is to the eye.” Cultures
define themselves through languages and
a foreign language will grant you
admission into another culture. You will
have the ability to communicate and to
exchange thoughts and ideas with people
from different linguistic backgrounds,
and therefore very different cultural
perspectives than your own. Without the
ability to communicate effectively, you
will never have the opportunity to really
get to know them. According to the
Czech proverb, “If you learn a new
language, you gain a new soul.” Nice,
huh? I think so.
What are some other common
motivations for learning a new
language? General enrichment is a good
enough reason. It has a positive effect on
intellectual growth and promotes
cognitive development. Studies have
recently proven that bilingualism
practiced on a daily basis helps to ward
off dementia in later years. Children
who learn a second language while
growing up have the ability to think in
both languages. They will have an easier
time reading and writing in school, as
well as the ability to think “differently”
from children who were taught only one
language during their formative years.
Bilingual children will also have a
better chance of learning several
additional languages, even after they are
grown. In other words, a child learning a
second language during their early years
will have a higher affinity for language
acquisition in general than children who
don’t. You would be doing your children
a great service by encouraging them to
learn a foreign language while they are
growing up. Like musical education,
languages enhance the development of a
person’s overall intelligence.
Economics is another reason for
learning a foreign language. Living in a
world that is increasingly characterized
by globalization and intercultural
connections, language skills are
becoming crucial for business
communications. With knowledge of a
foreign language, you will undoubtedly
increase your job opportunities. In many
careers, knowing a foreign language is a
useful—if not required—asset.
So of all the languages, why did you
choose Italian specifically? Maybe
you’re like me and fell in love with the
country on your first visit. Possibly you
have family in Italy (or from Italy) and
you would like to be able to speak to
them in their own tongue. Perhaps you
aspire to sing opera music or become a
professional chef. What matters the most
is that you have challenged yourself to
do it. Bravi! So whatever your
motivation is, do not lose sight of that as
we read, study, and practice.
 ABOUT THIS
BOOK
This book is loosely divided into two
parts. The first part will continue our
discourse on language acquisition in
general, linguistics, phonetics, and the
evolution of the Italian language, as well
as some insights into Italian culture. As
I’ve mentioned earlier, I feel that this
information is valuable in aligning your
mindset with learning the language and
helping to provide a cultural context for
understanding modern Italy and its
language. The culture and the language
are intimately connected and it’s nearly
impossible to discuss one without the
other. In this way, you will “understand”
more than you technically “know.”
The second part of the book will
directly address Italian syntax and
vocabulary with a review of the
grammar rules, a broad look at some
common expressions, and several
exercises with which to practice your
skills as they develop. Answers to the
practice questions can be found in the
back of the book.
My target group for this book is
anyone who ranges from an absolute
beginner to a lower intermediate. The
further along you get in your language
skills, the less useful “studying”
becomes. Practical usage will then
become your primary tool. Once you’ve
reached an advanced level, you really
must go live in Italy to progress further
—there’s just no way around it.
However for those of you who are just
starting out on this journey or for those
who know a bit of Italian but not the
grammar rules or the historical/cultural
context, then this is the book for you.
OK, enough introductions, let’s go!
Andiamo!
 1. HISTORY OF
THE ITALIAN
LANGUAGE

The Italian language is a member of the

Romance group of the Italic subfamily of
the Indo-European family of languages.
It is the predominately spoken language
of the Italian Republic, of course. But it
is also spoken in southern Switzerland,
San Marino, Vatican City, and by
minority populations in Malta, Monaco,
Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya,
Eritrea, and Somalia.
Italian is the direct offspring of the
Latin that was spoken by the ancient
Romans and forced upon the peoples
under their control—consequently the
wide diffusion of Romance languages
throughout Europe. Modern Italian
preserves a closer resemblance to Latin
than all the other Romance languages.
That’s not to say that they’re
interchangeable, but the similarities are
definitely noticeable. If you learned
some Latin in school or church, then you
have a head start on most people.
Although bear in mind that the
pronunciation of Latin taught in Italian
schools is not the same as what is taught
in English-speaking schools. Nobody
really knows for sure how those ancient
Romans pronounced their words
anyway. That’s one reason it’s called a
“dead” language.
During the evolutionary period of the
Italian language, many dialects sprang
up. The assortment of these dialects and
their individual claims by their native
speakers as the “true spoken Italian”
presented much difficulty in defining a
universally accepted form of both
spoken and written Italian. This affected
the cultural and political unity of the
peninsula of Italy throughout its history,
and even has an impact today. We will
expand on this topic more fully in the
next chapter.
Some of the earliest popular
documents, which were produced in
the10th century, were written in Vulgar
(Italian) rather than Latin. During the
next three centuries, Italian writers
wrote in their native dialects, which
resulted in the development of several
competing regional schools of literature.
The year 1230 marked the beginning of
the Sicilian School and of a literature
showing more uniform traits. Its
importance lies more in the language (a
move towards a standard Italian) than its
subject—a love sonnet style, partly
modeled on the Provençal poetry
imported to southern Italy by the
Normans and the Svevi under Frederick
II of Sicily.
It was in the 14th century that the
Tuscan dialect became more
predominant. This could be due, at least
in part, to the central position of Tuscany
in Italy as well as the aggressive
commerce in the city of Florence, which
became a sort of crossroads for business
in Europe. The Medici family founded a
bank that was the largest in Europe
during the 15th century. They, in no
small part, helped finance the
Renaissance that was flourishing in their
city at this time, contributing great sums
of money for the support of the arts.
The Tuscan dialect deviated very
little in the formation of words and the
sound of words from the classical Latin.
Because of this, it most closely
harmonized with the Italian traditions in
the Latin culture. Most of all, Florentine
culture produced the three literary giants
who best summarized Italian thought and
artistic expression of the late Middle
Ages and early Renaissance. These
writers were of course Dante, Petrarca,
and Boccaccio.
The attempt to establish a unified
norm for the Italian language occupied
writers of all dialects. During the 15th
and 16th centuries, the grammar
specialists of the time tried putting their
heads together to decide upon a standard
for the pronunciation, grammar, and
vocabulary of the 14th century Tuscan,
which was at the time the status quo of a
central and classical Italian speech.
Eventually this meeting of the minds was
broadened to include the organic
changes, which are inevitable in a
living, evolving tongue.
In 1525, Pietro Bembo, a Venetian,
set out his proposals for a standardized
language and style. His models were
Petrarca for poetry and Boccaccio for
prose, and the result became the modern
classic standard. Therefore, the language
of Italian literature was modeled after
the Italian spoken in Florence in the 15th
century.
The dictionaries and the publications
of the Accademia della Crusca, which
was created in 1583, were accepted by
Italians as the authority in all matters of
Italian language; a melding of classical
purism (Latin and later vulgar Italian)
and living Tuscan usage was
successfully achieved. During the 17th
century, the most important literary event
did not take place in Florence, however.
It was delivered by the Milanese writer
Alessandro Manzoni.
W i t h I Promessi Sposi, Manzoni
wrote a novel that had some very
specific socio-political goals in mind.
First published in 1827, it has been
called the most famous and widely read
novel of the Italian language (final
version published in 1842). The
relatively recent French revolution was
still fresh in everyone’s memory and
Manzoni, like so many other Europeans,
looked to it for inspiration for changing
his own country. But Italy was
fragmented during this time and
unification still seemed like a daunting
task. So he wanted to compose a work
that would unite Italians in many ways
and across various social, religious,
economic, and cultural differences.
However, one of the biggest obstacles
that he had to overcome was the
diversity of language throughout the
Italian peninsula. Even in Manzoni’s
time, the language of Dante was
considered the ideal—but not very many
people outside of Tuscany spoke it.
Manzoni himself, being from Milan,
did not speak the Tuscan dialect
perfectly. After writing his original
draft, called Fermo e Lucia, he decided
to “tuscanize” it by going through the
entire manuscript and converting many
of the words into Tuscan—including the
name of the protagonist who went from
the Milanese name Fermo, to the more
Tuscan-sounding Renzo. The overall
result, however, was awkward and it
sounded forced and unnatural. Therefore
he felt that he needed to “sciacquare i
panni in Arno;” to wash his clothes (his
language) in the Arno river—or in other
words, to actually acquire the Tuscan
dialect himself by living in Florence and
hearing it spoken in the streets every day
before completing the final draft of I
Promesi Sposi which we have today.
Finally in the 19th century, the
language spoken by educated Tuscans
spread and eventually became the
language of the new nation of Italy. In
1861, the unification of Italy had a
dramatic effect on the political scene as
well as the social, economic, and
cultural transformation. But unification
was not—and is still not—easy. In the
words of Massimo d’Azeglio, “L'Italia
è fatta. Restano da fare gli Italiani.”
("We have made Italy. Now we must
make Italians.")
Because of mandatory schooling, the
number of people with the ability to read
increased during the post-war era of
prosperity and many Italians added the
national language to go along with their
native dialect. Even today one could say
that most Italians are raised “bilingual.”
As recent as two generations ago,
Standard Italian was still a second
language for many people (if they spoke
it at all), although the trend has since
reversed. A greater concern for the
future is that many of the more obscure
dialects will be lost in subsequent
generations.
 2. DIALECTS OF
THE ITALIAN
LANGUAGE

In English, when we mention the word

“dialects,” what we are really referring
to are regional accents with a few very
minor variations in vocabulary. In
Italian, however, “dialetti” are actually
separate languages, which contain very
different vocabulary, vastly different
accents, and even different grammar
rules. Even today it’s not uncommon in
some areas of Italy to find that people
living in neighboring villages only 10-15
miles apart cannot easily communicate
with each other due to language
differences. Compare that to the United
States where someone from Washington
D.C. and someone from Seattle,
Washington (2,800 miles apart!) speak
the exact same language.
These various languages and dialects
have evolved over centuries and have
largely remained distinct from the
standard Italian. This has occurred for
several reasons, both intentional and
unintentional. For example, up until a
generation or two ago, the ability to
travel around the country was limited.
There was no radio or TV (or Internet)
until the twentieth century. And there
were deliberate attempts to maintain
cultural heritage and independence,
which still exist today. This sort of
“hometown pride” is referred to as
campanilismo, which literally translates
to the loyalty towards the sight and
sound of one’s bell tower, the campanile
that rises in the main square of a town.
The dialects have many distinct
qualities that distinguish them from one
another. Just as an example, the
Neapolitan dialect might be the most
widely known because of its use in
popular folk songs. Ever heard “‘O Sole
Mio”? The speakers of this dialect clip
the articles to single vowels. In
Romanesco, the letter “r” often replaces
the letter “l,” so instead of pronouncing
the word volta (meaning “a turn,” or
“once”), they would pronounce the word
as vorta.
There are many regional dialects
spoken in Italy. The major dialects of
Italian include toscano, abruzzese,
pugliese, umbro, laziale, marchigiano
centrale, emiliano-romagnolo, friulano,
ligure, lombardo, napoletano,
piemontese, romanesco, sardo, siciliano
and veneziano. But even within these
regional dialects there are local
variations which at times can be quite
significant.
I’ve heard it said that the “ideal”
modern Italian would be the Tuscan
dialect spoken with a Roman accent. I’m
not sure if that’s true, but what it tells us
is that these two dialects that come from
Central Italy, Tuscan and Roman, are the
closest to standard Italian.
Paradoxically, this can actually make the
Tuscans and the Romans harder to
understand than people from either the
North or South. In the Veneto or in
Sicily, for example, the dialects are so
completely different from Standard
Italian that the speaker must make the
conscious choice to use one or the other.
On the other hand, people from Tuscany
or Rome often mix their dialect into their
Italian since they are so closely related.
Don’t worry about all of this too
much. While fascinating to consider, you
won’t likely need to learn any of these
dialects. Indeed, dialects are generally
only used among close friends and
family, while people tend to speak
standard Italian in more formal
situations and certainly at work. As I’ve
mentioned, most Italians these days are
“bilingual,” and the Standard Italian that
you will learn is ideal for
communicating throughout the country.
Still, it is interesting to know about
the dialects and good to keep in mind.
Once in a while, I can’t help smiling
when I hear someone in Rome tell me,
Aho, ab bbello!‘Nnamo a magna’, in
Romanesco instead of Ciao! Andiamo a
mangiare, which would be the same
phrase (“Hey! Let’s go eat!”) in Italian.
 3. OUR
LANGUAGE
“EXCHANGE”
WITH ITALY

Many Italian words have made their way

into English over the course of several
centuries, and so you will be happy to
know that you already are using quite a
bit of Italian. If you are a musician, you
will be familiar with the terms such as
bel canto, cello, mezzosoprano,
pianoforte, and solo. Structural design
has borrowed words like cupola, loggia,
and stanza. Of course then there is Italian
foods such as ravioli, mozzarella,
lasagna, vermicelli, or porcini. During
the course of our everyday lives, Italian
words such as paparazzi, graffiti, mafia,
and ghetto are used frequently. So as you
can see, your own vocabulary already
consists of several Italian words!
Because of the growing influence of
American culture through the media, this
has become a two-way street. There are
many English words that have been
directly adopted by the Italians without
translating them. Some of these words
are club, flirt, bar, shopping, spray, and
style. Terms relating to business and
technology are particularly common,
such as meeting, staff, marketing,
computer, mouse, and fax. Or sometimes
they take an English word and make it
Italian by adding an Italian suffix. For
example, the verb, “to download”
should be translated as “scaricare,” but
instead you’ll often hear an Italian say,
“downloadare.” When visiting Italy, it
may seem like you hear more English
spoken than Italian, especially in the
cities where tourism is heavy, such as
Florence, Rome and Venice.
Politicians and academics have made
a series of efforts to defend the Italian
language against this foreign invasion. A
campaign against English phrases and
grammar has been launched by some
members of Parliament because many
feel that the influx of the English
language and culture is threatening to
diminish the importance of the Italian
language, and therefore the culture.
(Benito Mussolini was himself a
champion of this cause.) Not long ago
Italian officials vowed to clarify the
language used by the state to
communicate with its citizens by
declaring war on foreign words. That’s
not likely to happen, of course, but it
underscores the importance of this
battle.
However, we should also point out
that there are many words that Italian
and English already share due to
common etymology or root word origin.
These are referred to as “cognates,” or
words that look similar and have nearly
identical meanings. (This term derives
from the Latin cognatus, meaning blood
relative.) The list of cognates is long,
and being aware of them can give you an
initial jump start in learning Italian. A
few examples of these are as follows:
farmacia— p h a r ma c y ; intelligente—
i n t e l l i g e n t ; necessario—necessary;
dividere—to divide; studiare—to study;
and so on. Learning these can give a
huge boost to your vocabulary. I’ll list
some more in a subsequent chapter.
Furthermore, there are letter
groupings that can help you decipher
many words. For example, the English
suffix, “tion” becomes,“zione” in Italian,
such as station, stazione. Or the English,
“ly” translates as, “mente.” (e.g.
probably = probabilmente). Again, a
longer list of these will be provided
later.
Then there are also the false cognates,
which are sometimes referred to as
“false friends.” We don’t want to
confuse ourselves by discussing these
now, but we will take up this topic in a
later chapter. For now, let’s keep things
straight forward and focus on the
similarities.
 4. SOME INITIAL
THOUGHTS
ABOUT
LEARNING
ITALIAN

A common opinion is that Italian is more

difficult to learn than English. Well,
sorry to tell you, but it’s true—at least in
the very beginning. The learning curve
for English as a second language is much
quicker than learning Italian as an adult.
But so what? When you were a child
learning English, you didn’t know
whether it was easy or difficult, and
therefore you just didn’t think about it.
When learning Italian, remember that
everyone was a beginner at some time in
their life. It also helps to keep in mind
that making mistakes is how one learns
how to do it right (eventually). Don’t be
afraid to open your mouth and embarrass
yourself!
You may think you will not be able to
roll your r’s, but the fact is that many
Italians cannot roll their r’s either. In
Italy, what is known as the “soft r”
(erremoscia) is in many cases a result of
a regional accent or dialect. It is also
traditionally associated with the speech
of the upper class. The Italians from the
north of Italy, close to the French border,
are famous for this type of speech
variation because of the influence of the
French language on the local dialect. On
the other hand, the rolling “r” is often
exaggerated in the south.
If you want to learn to roll your r’s,
you should try placing your tongue on the
roof of your mouth, close to the front and
trill your tongue. If that doesn’t work,
then pretend you are revving up a car
motor or repeat the following English
words a several times; ladder, or butter.
Taking classes at a language school
isn’t a bad idea if you have the time and
money. But what if you don’t have any
language schools close to your home?
That’s OK. In this age of the Internet, a
school being geographically close is no
longer necessary. You can take courses
online, listen to an Italian audio course,
or even find an Italian pen (email) pal.
There are many ways you can practice
your Italian, and the Internet can help
you. Some of the online courses are free,
and you study on your own
time. Sharetalk by Rosetta Stone is a
good one. In the near future, you’ll also
be able to find resources on my site
at: http://talklikeanitalian.com.
If your group of friends does not
speak Italian, there are ways around that,
too—or maybe you just need to get some
new friends (kidding…sort of). Contact
the Italian department at your local
college, or call the Italian American
organizations in your town. They often
sponsor wine tastings and other events
where participants can meet and mingle
to practice Italian. You can join your
local Italian Language Meetup group.
(For example, I belong to Expats Living
in Rome.) They organize Italian
Language Meetups as a free gathering at
local venues for anyone interested in
learning, practicing, or teaching Italian.
It’s a great place to practice once you’ve
got a little bit of conversation under your
belt.
Of course, the fastest way to learn
Italian is with a total immersion course.
By spending two to four weeks at a
language school in Italy, you will
improve your Italian more in that amount
of time than in a full year of high school
or college Italian. The mornings (9:00 to
1:00) are usually devoted to the classes,
but in the afternoon you are at leisure to
visit the churches, museums, and other
sites. No, it’s not cheap, but definitely
worth the experience if you have the
time and money. If not, well, that’s what
this book is for!
If you are only planning a short visit
to Italy, then you will need to know the
Italian survival phrases, such as “Where
is the bathroom?” or “No, I don’t want
to buy a salami from your brother.”
These types of helpful phrases will be
covered in the second part of this book.
One final thought on learning Italian
(or any language) in general: use a
“shotgun” approach. In other words, mix
it up. Watch Italian movies, listen to
Italian music, buy a dual language book
or parallel-text version (English on one
page, the Italian translation on the
opposing page). Several cable
companies broadcast Italian
programming on RAI International.
There are also many Italian radio
stations accessible from the Internet;
Virgin Radio, for example. Whatever it
takes. The point is, don’t rely on just one
type of input to learn the language—try a
bit of everything.
Buon divertimento!
 5. A FEW HINTS
TO GET
STARTED

Later in the book we will review the

grammar: indefinite articles, direct
object pronouns, prepositions, verb
conjugations, etc. (This might be a good
time to quickly review your English
grammar to get reacquainted with the
terms.) But the one thing that we can’t
really do in a book is practice the
sounds. However, there is some good
news on this front: in Italian, basically it
is “What you see is what you hear.”
Italian is a phonetic language and most
words are pronounced just as they are
written.
When you see an Italian speaking
native open his mouth wide, it isn’t
(always) to shout as much as it is to
properly pronounce the big, round
vowels. An example (if you want to try),
is when you pronounce the letter “a,”
you open your mouth wide and say
“ahhhhh.”
By remembering the phrase “what you
see is what you hear,” you will have no
trouble spelling and pronouncing the
Italian words. Knowing what they mean
and how to use them is another matter.
But at least pronunciation is one thing
that will create minimal obstacles for
you as you learn this beautiful language.
I’ll go deeper into this topic in the
following chapters about phonetics.
Because the endings of conjugated
verb forms indicate person and number,
Italian subject pronouns can be left out,
and in fact they should be, unless they
are needed to clarify, or when they have
been modified by the word “also,” or
“anche,” or when there is an emphasis
or a contrast needed. If you are starting a
first-person comment with “io,” such as
“I study” or “I walk,” it sounds as though
you are constantly calling attention to
yourself, so in most cases the “io” is left
off.
 Remember to slow down. Being fast
only counts when you’re driving a
Ferrari; fast does not make you fluent in
the language. In fact, it may make things
worse. Many of us native English
speakers are notorious for slurring our
words together. When speaking in
Italian, it is better to allow the Italian
vowels and consonants to maintain their
particular, unchanging sound. Just relax
and take a deep breathe so you can enjoy
the music of the language at a leisurely
pace. You’re in Italy (at least in your
mind), so what’s the hurry?
When it comes to adjectives, you can
only say molto bene so many times
before you start becoming bored with
yourself. You can learn alternative ways
to express yourself by including the use
of prefixes, such as stra, ipo, iper, and
super; and suffixes, such as one, ino,
etto, ello, and accio. You will quickly
increase your vocabulary by doing so.
For example, fratello (brother) becomes
fratellino (little brother) with the
addition of the suffix. We’ll go over
more of these prefixes and suffixes later
while learning about adjectives.
About the courteous form of address
in Italian: there are four ways of saying
“you” in Italian, tu, voi, Lei, and Loro.
Tu, for one person, and voi, for two or
more people, are the forms only used
with family members, children and close
friends. When speaking to an Italian,
they may ask “Possiamo darci del tu?”
which means “May we switch to the tu
form?” after a relationship has
progressed. This is the sign that you are
now able to use the more “friendly”
form, tu, instead of the formal Lei.
Again, we’ll have a chapter dedicated to
this topic, as well.
Err, umm, ah, like, you know, are
conversation fillers, which make you
sound like a teenager. One remedy for
this is to practice interjections, sentence
starters, and additional useful phrases,
which will help get your tongue moving
and on the right track. Allora (So then),
Quindi (Therefore), etc. are common
ones.
By the way, talking loudly does not
make you more easily understood, it just
makes you loud. Many people have a
bad habit of almost screaming when
asked to repeat themselves, or else
attempting to add an Italian accent to
their English. But don’t shout at them,
they can probably hear just fine.
On the other hand, there might be
times when no matter how well you say
something in Italian, it may still be
difficult for even a linguist to interpret. It
could be what you are saying and not
how you are saying it that is the problem.
The cultural differences become
increasingly apparent when speaking a
foreign language. If you are sure that
what you are saying is grammatically
correct and you are still receiving blank
stares, you might try a different phrase.
A common theme that I’ll repeat often is
that “translating” doesn’t always work.
We’ll go over some idiomatic
expressions in a later chapter.
 6. INTRO TO
PHONOLOGY
AND THE
ALPHABET

Phonology, according to Marian Nespor,

an Italian linguist and author of the book
Fonologia, is the part of grammar that
deals with the sounds made in natural
languages for communicating meaning.
Basically what that boils down to is the
study of the meanings of the sounds we
make as we speak.
 An important fact we must make clear
is that there’s a difference between
phonology and phonetics. Phonetics
analyzes all sound coming from human
speech; the meaning and the language
doesn’t really matter in this discipline.
In other words, phonology is the
“musical” side of languages. Phonetics
may study how the letter “T” is
produced and how it sounds to the
listener, while phonology analyzes how
the words fa (he/she does) and va
(he/she goes) have different meanings,
even though there is only one differing
sound. Put another way, phonology
considers the sound and studies it in its
context. Patterns are sought by
determining which sounds contain
meaning, and then it explains how these
sounds are understood by a native
speaker.
When you are listening to a native
speaker of Italian, notice the variance in
how the rhythm of the language is
expressed as opposed to the rhythm of
English. There is a noticeable difference
between the two regarding emphasized
syllables and where accents are placed,
both within words and within phrases.
Phonological investigations have been
conducted by linguists to study the
various rhythmic patterns of languages.
With the use of computer programs, the
linguists replaced all the consonants
with the letter “s” and all the vowels
were replaced with the letter “a.” The
end results showed how each language
differs by only its musicality, taking the
meaning of the words out of the
equation. Interesting, no? But what does
it tell us? It tells us that even if our
vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation
are perfect, if the “music” is off, then we
can still be misunderstood.
So these more subtle barriers—which
are not so easily spotted as grammar and
vocabulary—relate to inflection,
intonation, and knowing where to place
the correct stress. They are the
“musical” aspects of the language. It’s
one of the things that people like most
about Italian, so it’s important to
understand where this comes from.
Phonology is the discipline that helps
point out these less obvious keys to
fluency, and they are the basis on which
other aspects of linguistics can begin
their contributions.
In sum, phonology is a wide ranging
subject, which includes other disciplines
with complicated names such as
assimilation, epenthesis,
psycholinguistics, and phonotactics.
Let’s stop here and not analyze it any
further; to do so might spoil some of the
magic. It is, however, through the
understanding of esoteric puzzles like
these that you can begin to “feel” what
it’s like to really speak Italian, and not
merely translate words and phrases like
a computer program.
 L’ALFABETO

The Italian alphabet (l'alfabeto)

contains twenty–one letters:
Letters / Pronunciation of the letters:

a = a (like in alpha)
b = bi
c = ci
d = di
e = e (like in echo)
f = effe
g = gi
h = acca
 i = i (like in india)
l = elle
m = emme
n = enne
o = o (like in oscar)
p = pi
q = cu
r = erre
s = esse
t = ti
u = u (like in uniform)
v = vi
z = zeta

The following letters do not belong to

the Italian alphabet and are never used in
the spelling, unless the word is
“borrowed” from a foreign language:
J = i lunga
K = cappa
W = doppia vi
X = ics
Y = ipsilon
 7. ITALIAN
VOWELS

The correct pronunciation in Italian can

be difficult for some learners in the very
beginning. But at least it is very
standardized and stays consistent (unlike
English). Once the basic rules are
understood, it is actually quite simple to
pronounce each word correctly. Italian
grammar is difficult, but the
pronunciation is not; the words are
always spoken just as they are written.
Perhaps this explains why you’d never
see a Spelling Bee in Italy!
Let’s look one more time at how to
pronounce the Italian vowels, because in
Italian, the vowels are always spoken
clearly and distinctly—unlike in English
where we tend to slop everything
together.
A – sounds like a in father
E – has two sounds: short vowel like
e in pen and the long vowel similar to ai
in fair
I – sounds like ea in tea.
O – has two sounds: like o in cozy or
similar of o in cost
U – sounds like u in rude.
Italian vowels are always spoken in a
sharp, clear fashion; they should never
be garbled or pronounced weakly.
Vowels always keep their value in
diphthongs—in other words, each vowel
retains its own sound even when
coupled with another vowel. For
example, the Italian word for airplane is
“aereo.” An English speaker might try to
pronounce it “air-ee-oh,” but in fact it
should be, “ah-er-eh-oh.”
Even though Italian and English use
the same Latin alphabet, the sounds of
the letters are often (but not always)
different between the two languages. I’ll
repeat it one last time for emphasis:
Italian is a phonetic language. This
means that it is spoken exactly the way it
is written without exception. I guess I’ve
made my point on that.
 8. ITALIAN
CONSONANTS

Much like the vowels, the sound that

each consonant makes remains
consistent, so once the rules are
understood, it is simple to pronounce the
words correctly. Here are the step by
step instructions on the way the
consonants are pronounced in Italian.
The consonants B, F, M, N, and V are
pronounced exactly as they are in
English.
C: Before a, o, u and before
consonants has a sound similar to the
English k; this is called a hard sound;
before e and i it has a sound similar to
the English ch as in church. This is
called a soft sound.
G: Before a, o, u and before
consonants has a sound like the g in
good (hard); before e and i like the g in
general (soft).
So what happens if we need to make a
hard sound with either letter preceding
an “e” or “i”? In those cases we insert
an “h” in between:
CHi e s a CHerubino (ker-oo-bee-
no)
GHiotto GHepardo (geh-par-doh)
Instead, the soft sound is produced by
inserting and “i” when between “c” or
“g” and preceding the vowels “a,” “o,”
or “u.”
Ciao
Giappone
Let’s have a look at the groups GL
a n d GN. The first is pronounced
similarly to the double L syllable in the
word “millionaire” in English, or it
could be phonetically better written as
“yi”; the latter is read like the Spanish
“ň” with tilde.
Coniglio
Campagna

D is much sharper in Italian than it is

in English; with the tongue near the tip of
the upper teeth but with no aspiration.
H is silent in Italian. In Italy,
elementary school children are taught
that the “h” is the “mute little letter” (la
letterina muta). This means that this
letter has no sound of its own. When
found at the beginning of a word, it is
totally silent. “Why do they use it?” one
might ask. It’s mainly to remove any
ambiguity. For example “ha” is a form of
the verb “to have,” for the third person,
present tense, meaning, “he/she has.” But
“a” is a preposition and means “to.”
Although “ha” and “a” sound exactly the
same, they must be spelled differently
according to their meaning. (And by the
way, the sound for a laugh, in Italian, is
spelled “Ah, ah” and not “Ha, ha”, for
the same reason.)
The L sounds like it does in English
except with a sharper tone and more
forward in the mouth.
P sounds as it does in English, but
without the aspiration.
Qu sounds as it does in English like
in the word quest.
R is very different from the English; it
is pronounced with one flip of the tongue
against the gums of the upper teeth. This
will make the trill sound of the r.
S might sound either like the s in the
English word rose (almost like a z), or
like the s in the English word vase.
T is pretty much like the T in English,
but with no escaping of breath to go
along with it.
Z can be voiced, like ds in beds, or it
can be voiceless, like ts in bets.
 All Italian consonants have a
corresponding double consonant, whose
pronunciation is similar to, but not
exactly like, the single consonant. With
the double consonant, there is an ever-
so-slight pause between the identical
letters, which is often missed by the non-
native speaker. The mispronunciation of
the double consonants can result in
miscommunication and is one of the most
common pronunciation mistakes made by
English speaking learners of Italian.
We’ll look at this phenomenon a little
deeper later with some specific
examples.
9. PRONOUNCING
ITALIAN WORDS

If you enjoy listening to the sounds of the

Italian language—as in the opera or
listening to the voices of the Italian film
stars—then you will love learning to
speak Italian for yourself. Seriously, it’s
a thrill when these sounds come from
your own voice. Let’s look at few more
ways to improve your pronunciation.
Most Italian words are stressed on the
next to the last syllable, whether it’s a
long word or a short word. For example:
Por-to-FIN-o (a city in the Liguria
region); al-BER-go (hotel); ca-VAL-lo
(horse). Then it stands to reason that the
first syllable is usually stressed in two
syllable words. For example: ME-la
(apple), or PRON-to (ready). There are
exceptions, but this rule will serve you
about 95% of the time.
When the final –e is omitted from a
word, as it sometimes happens with
some of the masculine titles, and they are
immediately followed by the proper
name, the position of the stress remains
the same.
Keep in mind with the above rule,
dotTOre – doctor becomes dottTOR
Nardi – Doctor Nardi; and profesSOre –
professor becomes ProfesSOR Pace –
Professor Pace.
If the last vowel in a word is to be
stressed, there will be an accent over
that vowel. For example: cittá (city),
caffè (coffee), or lunedì (Monday).
When this occurs, the words do NOT
change in their plural forms. Example:
una (one, 1) cittá; due (two, 2) cittá.
It is important to remember that open
e and o occur only when they occur in
stressed syllables. But don’t forget that
the words “e” and “è” are different
words with different meanings as well
as different pronunciations. The “e” is a
long, open e which means “and;” while
“è” is a short, closed e and means “is.”
The written accent is used with some
words as a way to distinguish them from
others that have the same spelling, but
the words have a different meaning, as in
the example above. Another example is,
“casino” means a big mess, while
“casinò” is a place to play cards or
roulette. Notice the written accent over
the “o” in the second case. But if this
weren’t difficult enough, this
phenomenon sometimes happens without
the benefit of a written clue (the 5%
exception that I mentioned earlier). For
example “leggere” means “to read”
when the accent falls on the first
syllable, and it means “light” (not heavy;
fem. plur.) when it falls on the second
syllable. Uh-oh.
Don’t worry about this too much. As I
say, it’s the exception rather than the rule
and the more common exceptions will be
used often enough where they will just
become memorized.
 10. THE
ARTICLES

In Italian, all nouns have a gender and a

number. This means that everything has a
gender, including objects and abstracts.
The definite article must always match
gender (masculine/feminine) and number
(singular/plural) of the noun.

Articoli determinativi (definite

articles):
SINGOLARE PLURAL
FEMMINNILE LA(L') LE
 MASCHILE IL I
MASCHILE LO(L') GLI
“la” is the definite article that
corresponds to feminine nouns.
La casa » the house
La scarpa » the shoe
"il"-"lo" are the definite articles that
correspond to masculine nouns.
Il professore » the teacher
Il telefono » the phone
Lo studente » the student
Why “il professore” but “lo
studente?” Here are the rules to
determine which article to use.
For singular nouns:
LO: It is used for all masculine
 nouns beginning with s +
consonant (st-, sp-, sc-, sv-), z,
cluster gn, ps, or vowel.
IL: It is used for all other
masculine nouns starting with a
consonant.
LA: It is used with all feminine
nouns.
L’: This is the elision of “lo” or
“la,” and it is used before
masculine OR feminine nouns
beginning with a vowel.
Examples:
Lo zucchero » the sugar
Il castello » the castle
L’acqua » the water
L’albero » the tree
 For plural nouns the rules are the
same:
GLI: It is used with masculine
nouns starting with vowels, the
consonant z, cluster gn, ps, or
clusters made of s + consonant.
I: It is used with all the other
masculine nouns which do not
belong to the previous case.
LE: It is used before any plural
feminine noun.
Examples:
Gli artisti » the artists
I cavalli » the horses
Le amiche » the friends (fem.)
I ragazzi » the boys
Gli stessi ragazzi » the same
 boys

Articoli indeterminativi
(indeterminate articles):
Masculine singular: UN or UNO = A
or ONE
Feminine singular: UNA or UN’ = A
or ONE

The Italian indefinite article is only

used with singular nouns. It also
corresponds to the number one. Here are
some rules to understand how to use
these articles:
UNO: It is used for masculine words
beginning with z, s + consonant, gn, ps,
BUT not vowel.
UN: It is used for all other masculine
words, including those starting with a
vowel.
UNA: It is used with any feminine
nouns.
UN': It is the elision of “una,” used
when feminine nouns start with a vowel.

Examples:
Un treno e una bicicletta » a train and
a bicycle
Uno stadio e un’automobile » a
stadium and a car

Definite and Indefinite Article.

Exercises
Complete the following sentences
choosing the appropriate article.
1. _____ casa è di fronte al mare.
 a) il
b) le
c) la
d) lo
2. ___ albero è in fiore.
a) il
b) la
c) lo
d) l'
3. ___ vestito di Maria è molto
elegante.
a) la
b) lo
c) le
d) il
4. _____ anatre nuotano nello stagno.
a) la
b) il
 c) le
d) i
5. Antonio mangia _______ spaghetti
ogni giorno.
a) i
b) le
c) gli
d) la
6. _______ bottiglia è vuota.
a) i
b) le
c) gli
d) la
7. _______ aereo vola su Roma.
a) l’
b) le
c) gli
d) la
 11. NOUNS AND
ADJECTIVES

In Italian, adjectives are usually placed

after a noun, as opposite to English, and
they must match in gender and number.

English: A black cat.

Italiano: Un gatto nero.

The scheme that follows shows how

the last vowel of a name or adjective
changes depending on gender and
number.
SINGOLARE PLURALE
MASCHILE GATT - O GATT - I
FEMMINILE GATT - A GATT - E
There are, of course, exceptions.
Two for the masculine: nouns and
adjectives with singular ending in –a and
–e.
And one for the feminine: nouns and
adjectives with singular ending in –e.
SINGOLARE PLURALE
MASCHILE POET - A POET - I
FULMIN -
MASCHILE FULMIN - E
I
FEMMINILE MADR - E MADR - I
One way to determine whether an
irregular noun is masculine, feminine,
singular or plural is by looking at the
article that precedes it. A noun ending in
–E could be feminine plural, but also
masculine or feminine singular. The
article will solve the puzzle for you:
La madre: The mother
Il padre: The father
Le sorelle: The sisters
The article “la” is and can only be
feminine singular; “il” masculine
singular: “le” feminine plural.
NOTE - phonetic:
Remember that nouns and adjectives
that end in –co –ca –go – ga, need, in
their plural form -h- between the
consonant “c” or “g” and the vowel of
“e” or “i”.
 Try it. Form the plural of the
following nouns and adjectives and
indicate the gender.
Friend
AMICA AMICHE Feminine
(girl)
MAGO
BIANCA
FRESCO
CUOCO
FIOCCO
Complete the following with the
correct form (masculine, feminine,
singular or plural) of the adjective given
in parenthesis in its singular masculine
form.
1. La pasta è ________________.
(caldo)
 2. La madre di Luca è
________________. (simpatico)
3. Le farfalle sono
________________. (colorato)
4. La torta è ________________.
(buono)
5. Il gatto è
________________. (bianco)
6. Maria è
________________. (magro)
7. I bambini sono
________________. (educato)
8. Voi siete
________________. (timido)
9. L'appartamento è
________________. (moderno)
10. L’albero è
________________. (alto)
 11. Gli studenti sono
________________. (pigro)
12. Lo zaino è
________________. (azzurro)
13. Gli psichiatri sono
________________. (medico)
14. L’uva è
________________. (maturo)
 12. NUMBERS,
DAYS, SEASONS

Numeri Cardinali
1 uno, 2 due, 3 tre, 4 quattro, 5
cinque, 6 sei, 7 sette, 8 otto, 9 nove, 10
dieci, 11 undici, 12 dodici, 13 tredici,
14 quattordici, 15 quindici, 16 sedici,
17 diciassette, 18 diciotto, 19
diciannove

20 venti, 21 vent-uno, 22 venti-due,

23 venti-tre
 30 trenta, 31 trent-uno, 32 trenta-due,
33 trenta-tre
40 quaranta, 50 cinquanta, 60
sessanta, 70 settanta
80 ottanta, 90 novanta, 100 cento, 101
cento-uno
1000 mille, 10.000 dieci-mila, 20
venti-mila
100,000 cento-mila
1,000,000 un milione
1,000,000,000 un miliardo

Numeri Ordinali
1° primo, 2° secondo, 3° terzo, 4°
quarto, 5° quinto, 6° sesto, 7° settimo, 8°
ottavo, 9° nono, 10° decimo, 11°
undicesimo, 12° dodicesimo, 13°
tredicesimo, 14° quattordicesimo, 15°
quindicesimo, 16° sedicesimo, 17°
diciassettesimo, 18° diciottesimo, 19°
diciannovesimo
Then...
20° vent-esimo, 21° ventun-esimo,
22° ventidu-e-simo
30° trent-esimo, 31° trentun-esimo,
32° trentadu-esimo
40° quarantesimo, 50° cinquantesimo,
60° sessantesimo
70° settantesimo, 80° ottantesimo, 90°
novantesimo
100° centesimo

Giorni della settimana:

lunedì, martedì, mercoledì, giovedì,
venerdì, sabato, domenica
*Note that from lunedì to venerdì the
word doesn’t change in the plural, but
that’s not the case for sabato (sabati) and
domenica (domeniche).

Espressioni temporali:
domani - ieri -
oggi - today
tomorrow yesterday
pomeriggio - mattina - sera -
afternoon morning evening
settimana
notte - night anno - year
- week
giorno -
mese - month ora - hour
day

Mesi dell’anno:
gennaio, febbraio, marzo, aprile,
maggio, giugno,
 luglio, agosto, settembre, ottobre,
novembre, dicembre

Stagioni:
primavera (spring), estate (summer),
autunno (autumn), inverno (winter)

Note: In Italian, the names for the days

of the week, month, and season begin
with a small letter (unless it’s at the start
of a sentence).
Also remember that the date is
written: Day/Month/Year. For example,
29 giugno 2013 or 29/06/13.

Esercizi:
A. Rispondi (respond to the
question)
Che giorno è oggi?
Che giorno è domani?
Quand’è il tuo compleanno?
Che stagione è?
Quanti anni hai?
Quando sei nato?

B. Scrivi i seguenti numeri (write

out the following numbers)
213
1,977
12,865
524,329
1,250,326
92,325,424
4,786,755,233
 C. Scrivi le seguenti date (write out
the following dates)
04/03/1843
14/4/1912
25/07/1963
14/01/1977
31/08/2013
 13. ITALIAN
VERB FORMS

When studying Italian verbs you must

avoid the temptation of making
comparisons to English. There are some
major differences and by trying to find
equivalent substitutions you will only
end up frustrating yourself. There may be
some similarities between the two
languages, but verb conjugations are not
one of them.
The first thing to remember is that
there are some “persons” in Italian that
we don’t have in English. For example,
we don’t have the second person
“formal,” which in Italian is Lei and
uses the third person singular (he/she/it)
form of the verb, although referring to a
second person. Italian also has a
separate designation for “you plural,”
(voi), which doesn’t exist in English. In
English, we say “you” whether we’re
talking to one person or ten.
There are three primary groups of
verbs (conjugations) in Italian. They are
grouped according to the ending of their
infinitives. There is the first conjugation
(-are verbs), second conjugation (-ere
verbs), and third conjugation (-ire
verbs). ALL Italian verbs fall into one of
these three designations.
 The majority of the Italian verbs
belong to the first conjugation group and
follow a very consistent pattern. Once
you have mastered the conjugation of –
are verbs, in essence you will have
learned hundreds (well, the regular ones,
anyway). The second conjugation “-ere”
verbs total about one quarter of the
verbs. Many of them have an irregular
structure. The final group of verbs is
those that end in –ire and these also have
some irregular conjugations, including
the –isc syllables added to some forms
of the verb, which we will look at later.
In Italian there is a difference between
tense and mood. Mood refers to the
attitude or intention of the speaker to
what he or she is saying. There are four
finite moods (modi finiti) in Italian; the
indicative – indicativo, which is used to
make statements; subjunctive –
congiuntivo, which is used to express
doubt, uncertainty, or opinion;
conditional – condizionale, which is
used to express what would happen in a
certain situation that is hypothetical; and
imperativo – imperative, which is used
to give orders or exhortations.
There are also three indefinite moods
in Italian; the forms do not specify the
person/subject, such as first, second, or
third. They are infinitive – infinito,
participle – participio and gerund –
gerundio.
Moods are divided into one or more
tenses, which tell the time when the
action of the verb takes place whether it
is present, past or future, of which there
are several variations. We won’t be
discussing all of these at this beginner
level, only the most important which
will serve us effectively 90% of the
time.
 CONJUGATING
ITALIAN VERBS
There are six different verb forms for all
of the Italian verb tenses in the four
finite moods; each verb form
corresponds with each of the six persons
used as the subject.
Singular
First person: io = I
Second person: tu = you
Second person (formal): Lei =
(no English equivalent)
Third person: lui/lei = he/she/it
Plural
 First person: noi = we
Second person: voi = you
(plural)
Second person (formal): Loro =
(no English equivalent)
Third person: loro = they
Learning all eight forms for every
verb could be a daunting task.
Fortunately most Italian verbs are
regular, meaning they are conjugated
using a regular pattern, so you only have
to learn one pattern. Once you have the
regular verb endings memorized, the
pattern can be applied to other verbs of
the same group (conjugation).
You simply can’t speak Italian
without the verbs essere – to be and
avere – to have. These two verbs are
often used as auxiliary verbs (ausiliari)
in compound verb formations, along
with idiomatic expressions, and many
other grammatical constructions. You
will want to become the master of these
two verbs from the very beginning
because it is a giant step toward learning
Italian.
All verbs are either transitive or
intransitive. The transitive are the verbs
that take a direct object, such as in
“Jessica reads a book.” (What does
Jessica, our subject, read? A book,
which is our object in this example.)
Intransitive are those verbs that never
take a direct object “Giorgio walks.”
(No object. He can walk someplace, but
h e can’t walk “something.”) Some
verbs can be classified as either
transitive or intransitive, depending on
the context of the sentence.
Italian verbs, like in English, have
two voices. A verb is considered to be
in the active voice when the subject of
the sentence performs the action of the
verb, such as Marco ha preparato le
valigie – Marco packed the suitcases. A
verb is considered to be in the passive
voice when the subject is acted on by the
verb, such as Le valigie sono state
preparate da Marco – The suitcases
were prepared by Marco. Only
transitive verbs with a clear direct
object can be changed from the active
voice to the passive voice.
We don’t use reflexive verbs nearly
as much in English as they are used in
Italian. But whether you realize it or not,
you start every day with reflexive verbs
(verbi riflessivi). These verbs revert the
action back to the subject such as, Mi
sveglio – I wake myself; Ti alzi – you
get yourself up; ci laviamo – we wash
ourselves. In Italian, reflexive pronouns
(i pronomi reflessivi : mi, ti, si, ci, vi,
si) are needed when conjugating
reflexive verbs.
Modal Verbs
In Italian, there are three very
important verbs known as verbi servili
o r verbi modali – modal verbs. These
verbs are potere – to be able to, can;
volere – to want; dovere – to have to,
must. We will use these words often and
they should be committed to memory as
soon as possible. These verbs can also
take on their given meaning and stand
alone. Functioning to modify the meaning
of other verbs, they can—and often do—
precede an infinitive, as in this example:
Voglio mangiare una pizza (I want to
eat a pizza.) “Mangiare,” and “to eat”
are the infinitive forms of the verbs in
their respective languages.
To the dismay of students of all levels
and abilities, there is no hard and fast set
of rules governing the grammatical usage
of prepositions associated with specific
verbs. They are all unique and must be
memorized. Furthermore, they don’t
adhere to their English equivalent verb +
preposition combinations. For example,
in English we say that “I think about/of
you often,” whereas in Italian it is
correct to say “Penso a te spesso,” or “I
think to you often.” Don’t worry, after
much trial and error these conventions
will eventually be absorbed.
 14. SUBJECT
PRONOUNS AND
THE PRESENT
TENSE

(Pronomi Soggetto e Tempo Presente

Indicativo)

As we’ve mentioned, a typical

characteristic of Italian grammar are the
conjugations. All the Italian verbs are
divided into three main groups called
conjugations depending on how a verb
ends in its infinitive form.
The first conjugation includes all the
verbs whose infinite ends in –are
Ex. Amare (to love), cantare (to sing),
volare (to fly)

T he second conjugation includes all

the verbs whose infinite ends in –ere
Ex. Credere (to believe), vedere (to
see), scrivere (to write)

The third conjugation includes all the

verbs whose infinite ends in –ire
Ex. Sentire (to hear or to feel),
dormire (to sleep), capire (to
understand)

Why is it important to know to which

conjugation a verb belongs?
Because in Italian, verbs change their
endings according to the subject that
performs the action, and the endings are
different depending on the conjugation.
Let’s see this more in detail.
In Italian, like in English, there are six
possible subjects to perform an action:
Singular Tu - Lui/Lei -
Io - I
subjects: You He/She
Plural Noi- Voi - They -
subjects: We You Loro
In English we take a verb in the
infinitive, for example “to love”, we
drop the “to” and we use “love” for each
possible subject (I love, you love, etc.)
with the only exception of third singular
person – he, she or it – which requires
an additional –s (he loves, she loves, it
loves). Maybe you forgot, but this is a
process that, just like in Italian, it’s
called conjugation. Transforming a verb
from its infinite form into the
appropriate form for a given subject is
the process of conjugating.
This process in Italian is a little more
diverse.
In Italian we take a verb in the
infinitive, for example “am-are”, we
drop the
“-are” and we add to “am-“, called
stem, a different ending depending on the
subject; as follows:

1. Am- 2. Scriv- 3. Dorm-

are ere ire
 Io Am - o Sciv - o Dorm - o
Tu Am - I Scriv - i Dorm - i
Lui/Lei Am - a Scriv - e Dorm - e
Am - Scriv - Dorm -
Noi
iamo iamo iamo
Am - Scriv -
Voi Dorm - ite
ate ete
Am - Scriv - Dorm -
Loro
ano ono ono
We can see above that the endings are
slightly different in the three
conjugations.
Having such specific endings for each
given subject is fundamental in Italian,
because in the majority of cases, the
subject in Italian is implied. In English
we are obliged to mention the subject
every time before a verb:
I sing; he loves; we sleep.
But in Italian we don’t need to do so.
By simply saying, canto, ama,
dormiamo, it is enough to tell us who the
subject is.
We’re able to understand that the
subject must be “io” in the first case,
because no other ending is –o except the
one for the first singular person; in the
second case must be a third singular
person, because in no other case we
have an ending in -a; in the last case
must be first plural person, -iamo.
 IL PRESENTE
INDICATIVO –
THE PRESENT
INDICATIVE
TENSE
In Italian, the Present Tense is used in
three cases:
1. For repeated actions:
Ex: Vado a lavoro tutti i giorni
I go to work every day
2 . For actions about to happen
(English –ing):
 Ex: Vado a fare la spesa!
I’m going grocery shopping!
3 . To ask questions in the present,
without changing he structure of the
sentence, but simply by adding a
question mark at the end:
Ex: Oggi vai al lavorare?
Are you going to work today?
(Without the question mark, the
same sentence would merely be a
statement.)

Particularity of the third

conjugation:
Verbs of the third conjugation might
require the cluster –isc- between the
stem and the endings in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd
singular person and 3rd plural person, as
shown:
Verb CAPIRE:
Io cap-isc-o
Tu cap-isc-i
Lui/Lei cap-isc-e
Noi capiamo
Voi capite
Loro cap-isc-ono

Here is a list of the most common

verbs with this particularity:
Cap-ire (To understand), Costru-ire
(To build), Finire (To finish), Imped-ire
(To prevent), Infastid-ire (To annoy),
Prefer-ire (To prefer), Spar-ire (To
disappear), Sped-ire (To send), Trad-ire
(To betray), Un-ire (To put together).
 A. Fill in the gaps with the verb
given in its infinitive form in
parenthesis.
1. A colazione (io)
_________________ sempre i biscotti
(MANGIARE)
2. (Tu) _________________ in dio?
(CREDERE)
3. Il nonno non _________________
piú molto bene (SENTIRE)
4. I bambini _________________
molto i dolci (AMARE)
5. (Noi) _________________ un film
stasera? (VEDERE)
6. Ogni anno sulle strade
_________________ molti incidenti
collegati all’abuso di alcool
(ACCADERE)
7. _________________ tutti nello
stesso coro? (CANTARE)
8. Amanda _________________
troppo raramente alla mamma
(SCRIVERE)
9. Marco _________________
almeno otto ore a notte per prevenire le
rughe (DORMIRE)

B.Fill in the gaps with the verb

given in its infinitive form in
parenthesis. These are only verbs of
the third conjugations which require
the cluster –isc-
1. Parli inglese? (Io) non
_________________ l’italiano
(CAPIRE)
 2. Spesso i ricchi
_________________ la propria casa
(COSTRUIRE)
3. Antonio _________________ di
mangiare sempre per ultimo! (FINIRE)
4. I nuovi vicini ascoltano la musica
ad alto volume ed _________________
tutti! (INFASTIDIRE)
5. (Voi) _________________ la
pasta o la pizza? (PREFERIRE)
 15. AUXILIARY
VERBS: ESSERE
E AVERE

Verbi ausuliari Essere (to be) and

Avere (to have)

Like in English, the auxiliary verbs

essere (to be) and avere (to have) are
very irregular but also very common. It
is therefore recommended to learn them
very well.
Here is the conjugation of these two
verbs in their Present Tense form.
ESSERE AVERE
io sono io ho
tu sei tu hai
lui/lei è lui/lei ha
noi siamo noi abbiamo
voi siete voi avete
loro sono loro hanno
Part A.
1. Mario _____ una bella macchina.
a) ha
b) hai
c) hanno
d) avete
2. Nadine _____ una ragazza
francese.
 a) siamo
b) siete
c) sono
d) è
3. Antonio e Luigi ______ fratelli.
a) siete
b) è
c) sono
d) siamo
4. Voi ______ i miei migliori amici.
a) siamo
b) siete
c) è
d) sono
5. Noi ______ una grande casa.
a) hanno
b) avete
c) ho
 d) abbiamo

Part B.
Choose between the correct form of
either “essere” or “avere.”

- Antonio _________________ un
mio compagno di classe.
- (Io) ________________ italiano.
- Riccardo _________________ una
macchina nuova.
- Il Signor Rossi ____________ un
professore di italiano.
- Noi _____________________ tutti
parenti.
- Molti bambini africani
_________________ poveri.
- I diamanti ___________ molto
costosi.
- (Io) seguo una dieta e ora
_________________ in forma.
- La preistoria ____________ molto
interessante.
- (Tu) ________________ gli occhi
verdi.
- Io e Alessia
______________________ sorelle
gemelle.
- L’America ___________ molto
grande.
- (Tu) ________________ molto alto.
- Le autostrade
_________________________ molto
pericolose.
- (Noi) _____________________ un
regalo per te.
 - Gli inglesi _________________ le
automobili con la guida a destra.
- Il dizionario ____________ molte
pagine.
- Gli italiani
_____________________ la pizza
migliore del mondo.
- Mia madre
______________________ i capelli
biondi.
 16. SIMPLE
PREPOSITIONS

(Preposizioni Semplici)

Although it is possible to provide a

close translation of each English
preposition into an Italian one, it is very
important to bear in mind that
prepositions are used differently from a
language to another.
The table that follows is therefore to
be considered merely indicative.
DI OF
 A TO, AT
FROM, BY,
DA
SINCE, TO
IN IN
CON WITH
SU ON
PER FOR
BETWEEN,
TRA-
AMONG,
FRA
WITHIN
Let’s see a few example of each case
and get acquitted with the major
differences.
Di: "Di" means "of", indicating
possession, or "from" (to be from).
Examples:
 Un bicchiere di vino » A glass of
wine.
La città di Firenze » The city of
Florence
Il libro di Mario » Mario's book
(literally: "the book of Mario")
Io sono di Roma » I am from
Rome
I due ragazzi sono di
Berlino » The two boys are from
Berlin
A: "A" means "to" (indirect object
and movement) or "in", indicating
location (cities and places).
When preposition "a" is followed by
another word starting with a vowel, for
mere phonetic reasons it changes to
"ad". Examples:
 Regalo il libro a Linda » I give
the book to Linda
A destra » to the right (note how
in Italian the two directions have
no article)
Torno a Miami » I return to
Miami
Siamo a letto » We are in bed
Tu vivi a Roma » You live in
Rome
Da: "Da" means "since", "from" (to
“come” from, as opposed to “be” from,
which would use the preposition “di”),
"by" (passive) and it's used with
location referring to people. Examples:
Vivo a Roma da 6 anni » I've
lived in Rome for 6 years
 Vengo da Milano » I come from
Milano
Questo è stato fatto da
Antonio » This was made by
Antonio
Sono da Fabrizio » I'm at
Fabrizio's
In: "In" usually means "in" but also
“by” when referring to modes of
transportation. Examples:
Ho tre caramelle in borsa » I
have three candies in my bag
Traverseremo il canale in
gondola » We will cross the
canal by gondola
Vivo in Italia » I live in Italy
Note: Look carefully at the last
example. We use “in” followed by name
of regions, nations, countries, islands;
but we use “a” before name of towns.
Con: "Con" means "with". Examples:
Sono con te » I'm with you
Ho comprato l’auto con pochi
soldi » I bought the car with little
money
Anna era con un amico » Ana
was with a friend
Su: "Su" means "on(to)", "over".
More rarely “about”. Examples:
Il gatto è su una panchina » The
cat is on a bench
L'aereo vola su Pisa » The plane
flies over Pisa
Ho cambiato opinione su di te » I
 changed my mind about you
Per: "Per" mainly translates the
English “for”. Examples:
Questo regalo è per te » This
present is for you
Ho un biglietto per il cinema » I
have a ticket for the cinema
I fiori sono per la signora » The
flowers are for the lady
Tra-fra: "Tra" and "fra" are
interchangeable and both mean
"between" or “among” or "in" followed
by a time expression. Examples:
Sono tra (fra) il tavolo e la
sedia » I'm between the table and
the chair
Vengo a casa tra (fra) due
minuti » I'd come home in two
minutes
L'autobus passerà fra (tra) due
ore » The bus will pass in two
hours’ time
L’albero fra (tra) le due case è
alto » The tree between the two
houses is tall
 17. COMPOUND
PREPOSITIONS

(Preposizioni Articolate)
When a simple preposition is followed
by a definite article, it often contracts,
creating one single new word, the
compound preposition.
Not all prepositions follow this
phenomenon: con, per and tra do not.
The others do, as shown in the
following scheme.
A DA DI IN SU
IL al dal del nel sul
LO allo dallo dello nello sullo
L' all' dall' dell' nell' sull'
I ai dai dei nei sui
GLI agli dagli degli negli sugli
LA alla dalla della nella sulla
L' all' dall' dell' nell' sull'
LE alle dalle delle nelle sulle
A+il= al
A+lo= allo
A+i= ai
A+gli+ agli
A+la= alla
A+le= alle
Etc.

*Note how the consonant doubles:

 A+lo= ALLO not ALO!

As we mentioned “per,” “tra,” “fra,”

and “con” remain separated from the
article:

Es.: Per la strada

Tra la gente
Con gli amici

*However sometimes the old form

“col” (con+il) can still be found.
 18. WHAT TIME
IS IT?

(Che ora é? Che ore sono?)

To ask the time in Italian you can wither

use singular or plural:
"Che ora "What hour is
literally
e?" it?" or
"Che ore "What hours
literally
sono" are they?"
Regardless of your choice in the
question, the answer must always be
plural:
 "They are ..."
"Sono
literally instead of "It is
le ..."
..."
Sono le due, sono le tre, sono le
quattro, etc.

There are three exceptions when you

use the singular instead:
e mezzogiorno it's noon
e l'una it's one o'clock
e mezzanotte it's midnight
Italians use a 24 hour system meaning
that, past noon, there are two options to
say the time. One o’clock pm can be
“l’una” or can be “le tredici” (thirteen).
Two o’clock pm can be “le due” or “le
quattordici” (fourteen). The 24 hour
system it is, however, more commonly
used for official schedules, theaters,
time tables, professional appointments,
whereas common people just use the 12
hour basis.

The minutes are indicated following

the hour and following the conjunction
“e” (and)
Sono le tre
e It's three twenty five
venticinque
Sono le
It's a quarter past
quattro e
four
un quarto
Sono le It's five thirty
cinque e (literally "and a
 mezza/o half")
Sono le It's a quarter to seven
sette meno (literally seven minus
un quarto a quarter)
Note that “mezzo” and “mezza” are
both correct.
 19. IRREGULAR
VERBS

(Verbi Irregolari)
The verbs we’ve seen so far in the first,
second and third conjugations were all
regular. Regular verbs follow the given
rules about conjugation (stem + ending).
But there are many verbs in Italian
which are irregular and in these verbs
we can observe different phenomena.
Some of them slightly – or completely –
change their stem. Some follow a
different conjugation than the one they
belong to. Let’s see some of these
irregulars in their Present Tense.

Verbi ausiliari ESSERE e AVERE –

Auxiliary verbs to be and to have
Sono Ho
Sei Hai
E Ha
Siamo Abbiamo
Siete Avete
Sono Hanno

Verbi servili VOLERE, POTERE,

DOVERE – modal verbs want, can,
must
Voglio Posso Devo
 Vuoi Puoi Devi
Vuole Puo Deve
Vogliamo Possiamo Dobbiamo
Volete Potete Dovete
Vogliono Possono Devono

FARE, SAPERE, STARE – to do/to

make, to know, to stay/be
Faccio So Sto
Fai Sai Stai
Fa Sa Sta
Facciamo Sappiamo Stiamo
Fate Sapete State
Fanno Sanno Stanno
 ANDARE, VENIRE, RIMANERE– t
go, to come, to remain
Vado Vengo Rimango
Vai Vieni Rimani
Va Viene Rimane
Andiamo Veniamo Rimaniamo
Andate Venite Rimanete
Vanno Vengono Rimangono

Conjugate the irregular verbs given

in parenthesis in the infinitive.

1) Ogni estate Amanda

_______________ (andare) in
montagna.
2) Domani noi _______________
(potere) andare al mare.
3) Questa sera io non
_______________ (venire) al ristorante
con voi.
4) Che cosa _______________ (fare
- tu) domani?
5) Come _______________ (stare -
tu)?
6) _______ (dare - voi) l'indirizzo a
Linda;___________ (venire - noi) a
trovarvi domani.
7) Questa sera io e i miei amici
_______________ (andare) in piscina.
8) Se domani Lucia
_______________ (stare) bene, può
andare a scuola.
9) Ma _______________ (venire)
anche loro?
 10) Noi non _______________
(sapere) la lezione di oggi.
11) Stasera io _______________
(rimanere) a casa.
12) Valeria _______________ (dire)
sempre cose brutte di tutti.
13) Voi non _______________
(bere) il vino?
 20. THE
COURTESY
FORM

(La forma di cortesia)

In Italian there are two possible ways to

address to a listener: the informal, la
forma familiare, and the formal – or the
courtesy form - la forma di cortesia.
The informal is used with friends,
relatives, classmates, and (usually)
coworkers.
 The courtesy form is reserved to
unknown people, personnel, shop
assistants, management, elderly people,
or anyone of high respect.
The characteristic of the informal
form is the use of the pronoun "tu" (you)
and consequently the verb is conjugated
in the second singular person. In the
courtesy form instead, the pronoun “Lei”
(She) must be used, spelled with a
capital “L” as opposed to “lei” – she;
this “Lei” is, in fact, used for both men
and women, since it does not imply any
gender designation. It is, however, a
third person pronoun; therefore the verbs
that follow must be correctly conjugated
in the third singular person.
 Examples:
Vieni anche tu con noi domani,
Francesca?
Viene anche Lei con noi domani,
(signora) Francesca?

Sto venendo date.

Sto venendo daLei.

Questo è il tuo cane?

Questo è il suo cane?
(We will talk about the possesive
pronouns in the next chapter.)

Change the following sentences into

the courtesy form as shown in the
example.
 1. Oggi sei particolarmente carina. =
“Oggi è particolarmente carina.”
2. Non scrivi mai lettere?
3. Sei molto gentile.
4. Mi hai telefonato tu?
5. Sei mai stato a Roma?
6. Vuoi uscire con me sabato?
7. Sai che ore sono?
 21. POSSESSIVE
PRONOUNS

(Aggettivi Possessivi)
Singolare Maschile Femminile
mi-o mi-a
tu-o tu-a
su-o su-a
nostr-o nostr-a
vostr-o vostr-a
lor-o lor-o
 Plurale Maschile Femminile
mie-i mi-e
tuo-i tu-e
suo-i su-e
nostr-i nostr-e
vostr-i vostr-e
lor-o lor-o
The possessive pronouns indicate, as
the word suggests, belonging or
possession.
In Italian they vary in gender and
number, and must match the noun that
follows. This means that they must
match with the possessed thing and not
the possessor.
The possessive pronouns in Italian
must always be preceded by the
appropriate definite article, except
singular members of your immediate
family.

Ex:
Il mio gatto My cat
My
Il mio cane
dog
La mia
My car
macchina

By saying “mio gatto,” “mio cane,” or

“mia macchina,” and forgetting the
article is wrong and cacophonic, and it
is not a minor mistake!
 The only exception is that the article
is not used when preceding singular
immediate family members.

Ex:
Mia madre My mother
Mio padre My father
Mio fratello My brother
Mia sorella My sister
BUT:

Ex:
Le mie
My sisters
sorelle
My
I miei cugini
cousins
 Fill in the gap with the appropriate
possessive (and article!) given in
English in parenthesis.
1) (My) __________ figlio si chiama
Mario.
2) (Your) __________ cugina è molto
carina.
3) (Her) __________ genitori sono
molto gentili.
4) (Our) __________ madre cucina
ogni giorno per noi.
5) (Their) __________ amico è uno
scrittore.
6) (My) __________ fidanzata vive a
Firenze.
7) (Your) __________ nonni sono
molto vecchi?
 8) (Your) __________ gatto è molto
affettuoso.
9) (Our) __________ figlie sono
gemelle.
10) (Your, plural) __________ amici
hanno la macchina?
11) (His) __________ scuola è
famosa per i corsi di letteratura.
 22. PASSATO
PROSSIMO
TENSE

Th e passato prossimo is a compound

tense; in other words it is formed by two
parts:

1. The auxiliary verb – essere o avere

– suitably conjugated according to the
subject;
2. The participio passato (past
participle) of the main verb, which we
will see how to form now.

In a direct translation this tense might

sound similar to the English past
perfect, but it is in fact used more like
t h e simple past. Grammatically
speaking, we say that the passato
prossimo describes an action which
started and is concluded in the past – as
opposed to a continued action.

Some examples:
- Mi sono iscritto I enrolled in
all'universita the university
- Oggi sono Today I left at
uscito alle 7 7am
- Dante ha scritto Dante wrote
 la Divina the Divine
Commedia Comedy

Some verbs in the passato prossimo

require the auxiliary essere, while others
require avere.
To review…
Intransitive verbs. Intransitive are
those verbs that cannot be followed by a
direct object. To simplify, we could say
that these correspond the verbs of
movement (to go, to come, to return,
etc.) but verbs of movements are the
majority, not the totality of the
intransitive verbs. Intransitive verbs
form their passato prossimo with the
auxiliary essere.
Transitive verbs. Transitive are those
verbs that can be followed by a direct
o b j e c t. Transitive verbs form their
passato prossimo with the auxiliary
avere.

Examples:
- Sono partito da Roma
This is an intransitive verb (partire,
to depart) because this verb could never
be followed by an object in a sentence
that makes sense: you depart from
somewhere, but you cannot depart
something.
- Antonio ha comprato una casa.
This is a transitive verb (comprare, to
buy) because this verb could always be
followed by an object in a sentence that
makes sense: what does one buy? A
house, a car, a dress, etc.

When using an intransitive verb, as

we said, we need to use the auxiliary
verb “essere.” Therefore, we must
change the last vowel of the past
participle to match the gender and
number of its subject. This is not to be
done with the transitive verbs, verbs that
use avere.
Esempi:
maschile
(Silvio is a
- Silvio é andato;
masculine
name)
femminile
-
(Melanie is a
Melanie é andata;
woman)
 plural (in a
- Silvio e Melanie mixed group,
sono andati; masculine
prevails)
- Silvio ha
mangiato la
pizza;
Melanie ha
mangiato le
pizza;
- Silvio e Melanie
hanno mangiato
la pizza;

Notice that in the last three examples,

we need not change the participle with
regards to the gender or number of our
subjects.
Let’s see now how to form the
Passato Prossimo.
Once we have determined which
auxiliary we need, we’ll have to form
the past participle (participio passato)
of the main verb. This is how to proceed
for the three conjugations:

PRIMA CONIUGAZIONE – ARE

ATO
Examples:
Am - are Am - ato
And - are And - ato
Chiam - are Chiam - ato

SECONDA CONIUGAZIONE
ERE- UTO
Esempi:
Cad - ere Cad - uto
Perd - ere Perd - uto
Piov - ere Piov - uto

TERZA CONIUGAZIONE – IRE

ITO
Esempi:
Boll - ire Boll - ito
Cap - ire Cap - ito
Fugg - ire Fugg - ito

In each case we have:

Determined which conjugation our
verb belongs to;
 Removed the ending of the infinitive
to isolate our stem;
Added to the stem –ato for the first
conjugation, -uto for the second and –ito
for the third.
 23. IRREGULAR
PAST
PARTICIPLES

There are, of course, some irregular

verbs whose past participle does not
respect the scheme mentioned in the last
chapter. Here are some of the most
common:
accendere (avere) acceso
aprire (avere) aperto
chiedere (avere) chiesto
 chiudere (avere) chiuso
conoscere (avere) conosciuto
cuocere (avere) cotto
dare (avere) dato
dire (avere) detto
dovere (avere) dovuto
essere (essere) stato
fare (avere) fatto
leggere (avere) letto
mettere (avere) messo
morire (essere) morto
nascere (essere) nato
perdere (avere) perso
piacere (essere) piaciuto
prendere (avere) presso
 ridere (avere) riso
rimanere (essere) rimasto
rispondere (avere) risposto
scendere (essere) sceso
scrivere (avere) scritto
spegnere (avere) spento
stare (essere) stato
vedere (avere) visto
venire (essere) venuto
vivere (avere/essere) vissuto

Exercise

Conjugate the following verbs in the

passato prossimo.
 (Pay particular attention to the
auxiliary verb)

1. Un bambino va al parco con la

mamma.
Un bambino__________al parco
con la mamma.

2. (Tu) scrivi una lettera.

Tu__________una lettera.

3. Anna sposa Marco.

Anna_________ Marco.

4. Gli studenti tornano in classe.

Gli studenti____________in
classe.
5. Il leone corre nella foresta.
Il leone______________nella
foresta.

6. (Noi) leggiamo molti libri.

(Noi)_________________molti
libri.

7. Tu e Mario mangiate la pizza.

Voi (tu e Mario)avete
mangiato_______________la
pizza.

8. Pinocchio dice molte bugie.

Pinocchio____________ molte
bugie.

9. Quanto costano questi gioielli?

 Quanto______________questi
gioielli?

10. Le mele cadono dall’albero.

Le
mele__________________dall’albe
 24. THE
COMPARATIVE

(Il Comparativo)

We use a comparative to compare two

or more qualities, persons, or things.
The elements which are compared are
called “termini di paragone.” There are
three types of comparative phrases in
Italian.

1. Comparativo di uguaglianza
(Equality):
 TANTO...
QUANTO...

AS... COSi... (used with

AS... COME... quality and
quantity)
(used
with Note: to
quality) agree in
gender and
number
when about
quantity
Esempi:
- He is as tall as his brother E’
tanto alto quanto suo fratello.

- I have as many pens as books Ho

tante penne quanti libri

2. Comparativo di maggioranza
(Superiority):

MORE... PIU... PIU...

THAN... DI... CHE...

You need to use “che” in the

following cases:
1.When comparing two characteristics
of the same subject.
2.When comparing two verbs.
3.When the noun or pronoun is
preceded by a preposition.

Esempi:
- Mario is taller than Gianni. = Mario
è più alto di Gianni.
BUT:
- Daniela is more attractive than kind.
= Daniela è più attraente che gentile.
- I like reading more than watching
tv. = Mi piace leggere più che guardare
la televisione.
- You’re more interested in soccer
than in studying. = Sei più interessato al
calcio che allo studio.

3. Comparativo di minoranza
(Inferiority):
LESS... MENO... MENO...
THAN... DI... CHE...
The rules about “che” are the same.

Esempi:
 - Mario is less tall than Gianni. =
Mario è meno alto di Gianni.
- This cake is less appealing than
good. = Questa torta è meno invitante
che buona.
- I like running less than swimming.=
Mi piace correre meno che nuotare.
 25. THE
SUPERLATIVE

(Il Superlative)

The superlative can be:

1. Superlativo relativo (relative)
2. Superlativo assoluto (absolute)

The relative superlative indicates a

quality at its maximum level, in relation
to other people or things.
The absolute superlative indicates a
quality at its maximum level, with no
comparison at all.

1. Superlativo relativo.
di,
articolo piu
aggettivo che
determinativo meno
tra
+ + +
of,
definite more
adjective tha
article les
amo
Esempi:
- Mario è il più alto di tutti.
Mario is the tallest of them all.

- Questo libro è il meno interessante

fra le novità.
This book is the less interesting
among the new ones.
 - Questo film è il più noioso che ha
mai visto.
This is the most boring movie that I
have ever watched.

2. Superlativo assoluto.
- issim-o
- issim-a
Aggettivo +
- issim-i
- issim-e
To form the absolute superlative we
modify the adjective by adding –issim –
and the appropriate vowel to match
number and gender of the noun it’s
referred to.
In English there is no actual form
equating the absolute superlative.
 What about the most delicious pasta
or the best gelato? The absolute
superlative expresses the concepts of
very-very or extremely.
Esempi:
- Mario è alt-issim-o.
Mario is “very very” tall.
- Daniela è bell-issim-a.
Daniela is “extremely” beautiful.
- Questa mela è buon-issim-a. This
apple is “very very” good.
 26. THE
IMPERFECT
TENSE

(Tempo Imperfetto)
The imperfetto tense indicates an action
in the past which was continued,
meaning that it lasted for a certain
period of time without exact indication
of its ending point.
It also corresponds to the English
“used to,” for actions that are repeated
or habitual in the past.
 Last, it’s used as the preferred
narrative tense, especially for tales, as
in the English “once upon a time,” or in
Italian, “c’era una volta.”
It is formed with the same endings in
all three conjugations.
What is different among them is the
v o c a l e tematica, the characteristic
vowel of each conjugation in its
infinitive form: -Are (vocale tematica
“a”) – Ere (vocale tematica “e”) and –
Ire (vocale tematica “I”).
T h e imperfetto is used much more
frequently in Italian than in English.

Esempi:
Fumavo un pacchetto di sigarette al
giorno. I used to smoke a pack of
cigarettes per day.
Mangiavano sempre troppo. They
always ate/used to eat too much.
Volevamo andare in Italia. We
wanted to go to Italy.

In all the given examples, we

understand that the described action is
over and/or that the situation has
changed. “I used to smoke a pack of
cigarettes,” tells us that maybe the
person quit, or perhaps now smokes two
packs a day instead of just one. What we
know for sure is that smoking one pack
is the action that is over, although we
have no details about when exactly it
ended or changed.
 The auxiliary verb essere is partially
irregular, but avere behaves as a
perfectly regular verb:
ESSERE AVERE
Io er-o Io av-e-vo
Tu er-i Tu av-e-vi
Lui/Lei av-e-
Lui-Lei er-a
va
Noi er-a-
Noi av-e-vamo
vamo
Voi er-a-vate Voi av-e-vate
Loro er-ano Loro av-e-vano

1a, 2a e 3a coniugazione, forme

regolari:
Prima Seconda Terza
coniugazione coniugazione coniugazion
AM-ARE CRED-ERE SENT-IRE
Io am-a-vo Io cred-e-vo Io sent-i-v
Tu am-a-vi Tu cred-e-vi Tu sent-i-
Lui/Leiam- Lui/Leicred- Lui/Leisent
a-va e-va i-va
Noi am- Noi cred- Noi sent-
a-vamo e-vamo∫ i-vamo
Voi am- Voi cred- Voi sent-
a-vate e-vate i-vate
Loro am- Loro cred- Loro sent-
a-vano e-vano i-vano

Irregular verbs
There are a few irregular verbs of the
imperfetto. These are among the ones
most used:
FARE DIRE BERE
Facevo Dicevo Bevevo
Facevi Dicevi Bevevi
Faceva Diceva Beveva
Facevamo Dicevamo Bevevamo
Facevate Dicevate Bevevate
Facevano Dicevano Bevevano

Some adverbial expressions that are

commonly used with the imperfect tense
include:
a volte at times
giorno dopo
day after day
giorno
 sempre always
tutti i giorni every day
continuamente continuously
once in a
ogni tanto
while

Exercises
A. Fill in the gaps using the
imperfetto.
All’arrivo della polizia, i ladri non
_____________ [ESSERE] piú in
banca. Una donna, visibilmente incinta,
non _____________ [SMETTERE] di
piangere, ma _____________ [STARE]
bene. Un uomo anziano _____________
[RIPETERE] “Sono andati da quella
parte! Sono andati da quella parte!”. Il
cassiere _____________ [DARE] la
descrizione dei ladri: “Tutti
_____________ [INDOSSARE] una
maschera di Topolino!” L’ispettore
_____________ [FARE] domande a
tutti e _____________ [PRENDERE]
appunti. Fortunatamente nessuno
_____________ [ESSERE] ferito, solo
una signora anziana _____________
bisogno di... un dentista perchè non
_____________ [TROVARE] piú la sua
dentiera (false teeth, dentures)!

B. Fill in the gaps using the

imperfetto. The verbs to be used are
given at the bottom without order.
“Quando ero piccolo”.
Quando ero piccolo
_________________ spesso con mia
nonna al parco.
_________________ molto
affascinato dai cigni che
_________________ nel laghetto. Un
cartello _________________: “Non
dare cibo ai cigni”, ma mia nonna
_________________ sempre un po’ di
pane secco per loro, ed il guardiano del
parco, non si _________________.
Molti bambini _________________
al parco, alcune coppie
_________________, gli anziani
_________________ o
_________________ il giornale. La
nonna _________________ un’amica
che alcune volte _________________ al
parco con noi e _________________
sempre dei dolci per me. Mi divertivo
molto al parco, da piccolo. Adesso vado
lì con i miei bambini, ma loro passano
tutto il tempo con i loro vidogames.

Avere, Chiacchierare, Giocare,

Portare, Dire, Essere, Andare, Nuotare,
Arrabbiare, Passeggiare, Leggere,
Venire, Portare.
 27. DIFFERENCE
BETWEEN
IMPERFETTO
AND PASSATO
PROSSIMO

One of the trickiest grammar points to

learn concerns when to use the passato
prossimo and when to use the imperfetto.
I will give you some guidelines that are
very useful, but in the end you’ll need to
“sense” which tense in needed. Practice,
practice, practice.
As we’ve seen, the passato prossimo
refers to an action or event completed in
the past. By “completed” we mean that
the action is over and we have
information about when it ended.
Some examples:
Carlo è arrivato. >> Carlo arrived
(has arrived).
Io ho bevuto abbastanza. >> I drunk
(have drank) enough.
Hai capito cosa è accaduto? >> Did
you understand what happened?

T h e imperfetto instead refers an

action which began at an undefined time
in the past, continued for an undefined
period, and is now over. Or more
specifically we use this verb form for:
1) Habitual or repeated actions.
L’anno scorso, andavo al mare
ogni fine settimana. (Last year I
went to the sea every weekend.)
2) Emotions, physical or mental
states in the past. Ieri ero molto
triste. (Yesterday I was very sad.)
3) Dates, time, age, weather in
the past. Erano le sette di sera e
faceva molto bello. (It was seven
in the evening and the weather was
very beautiful.)
4) Descriptions in the past. La
piazza era grande, c’era tanta
gente, ed i ristorante erano chiusi.
(The square was big, there were
 lots of people, and the restaurants
were closed.)
5) Two continuous actions at the
same time in the past. Mentre
leggevo, mia madre cucinava il
pranzo. (While I was reading, my
mother was cooking lunch.)

*And sometimes we can use both

tenses in the same sentence, for example
when one ongoing action is interrupted
by another:

Guardavo la partita quando è

arrivato mio fratello a casa. (I was
watching the game when my brother
arrived home.)
 Exercises:

Conjugate the verbs using EITHER

the passato prossimo OR the imperfetto.
*Hint: don’t forget to change the
participle according to gender and
number, if necessary.

1. _____________ (essere) già tardi

e __________ (fare) freddo. Io
_____________ (essere) stanco, così
______________ (prendere) un taxi e
__________ (tornare) a casa.
2. Mentre _____________
(passeggiare) in centro ___________
(ho incontrato) Fabrizio.
_______________ (andare – noi) in un
pub e _______________
(chiacchierare) un po’.
3. Mario _____________ (andare) al
concerto. Il violinista _____________
(essere) bravissimo, ma il pianista non
______________ (suonare) per niente
bene.
4. Quando ______________ (essere)
piccolo ______________(avere) un
gatto di nome Gigi. Io e Gigio
______________ (stare) sempre
insieme. Una volta Gigio
______________ (sparire) per un
giorno intero, e dopo qualche mese...
______________ (arrivare – loro) sei
gattini! Così ______________ (capire –
io) che Gigio ______________ (essere)
femmina.
5. Molti anni fa mio padre
______________ (vendere) formaggi in
paese. I formaggi ______________
(essere) di ottima qualitá, e così mio
padre ______________ (diventare)
molto conosciuto. Pochi anni dopo
______________ (comprare – lui) un
piccolo negozio e lì un
giorno______________ (incontrare)
mia madre, che
______________(essere) una cliente.
 28. THE SIMPLE
FUTURE

(Futuro semplice)

“All’alba vinceró....! Vinceró...!

Vinceró...!”
“At dawn, I will win!” goes the
famous aria from Turandot.
Vinceró is a form of the verb vincere
in its futuro semplice tense.

In Italian, just like in English, the

simple future tense refers to actions that
are yet to happen. It is important to
remind you, however, that Italians,
especially in the spoken language, prefer
to use the present tense to describe
actions that will happen very soon.
“Domani non vado a lavoro,”
literally “tomorrow I don’t go to work”
is not only perfectly acceptable, but in
fact preferable in the spoken language
than “domani non andró a lavoro.” The
latter is grammatically more precise and
should probably be used in formal
writing.
The futuro semplice is formed, for the
regular verbs, as shown in the charts
below. The accent on the last vowels of
the first and third singular person, is a
characteristic unique to this tense.
 The auxiliary verbs “essere” and
“avere” are, of course, irregular…
ESSERE AVERE
Io sar-ò Io avr-o
Tu sar-ai Tu avr-ai
Lui/Lei sar-a Lui/Lei avr-a
Noi sar-emo Noi avr-emo
Voi sar-ete Voi avr-ete
Loro sar-anno Loro avr-anno
A coincidence can be useful to our
memory: although the verbs “essere” and
“avere” belong to two different
conjugations (-ere and –are), they have
the same endings in the futuro semplice.

Futuro semplice, 1st, 2nd and 3rd

conjugation, regular:
AM-ARE CRED-ERE SENT-IRE
Io am-
Io cred-erò Io sent-irò
ero
Tu am – Tu cred- Tu sent-
erai erai irai
Lui/Leiam Lui/Leicred- Lui/Leisent-
– erà erà irà
Noi am Noi cred- Noi sent-
– eremo eremo iremo
Voi am Voi cred- Voi sent-
– erete erete irete
Loro am Loro cred- Loro sent-
– eranno eranno iranno
Each conjugation maintain its
vocale tematica with the exception of
the first, where “–a” is changed into “-
e.”

T h e futuro semplice counts a fair

number of irregular verbs. These verbs
are subject to phenomena of contractions
or other modifications of their stem,
whereas the endings remain as shown
above.
- Modal verbs volere, potere and
dovere are all irregular in the future:
Volere: io vorr-ó, tu vorr-ai, lui/lei
vorr-á...
Potere: io potr-ó, tu potr-ai, lui/lei
potr-á...
Dovere: io dovr-ó, tu dovr-ai, lui/lei
dovr-á...
- Two common verbs of movement
also modify their stem:
Andare: io andr-ó, tu andr-ai, lui/lei
andr-á
Venire: io verr-ó, tu verr-ai, lui/lei
verr-á
- The verb fare does not follow the
rule of the change of the vocale
tematica:
Fare: io far-ó, tu far-ai, lui/lei far-á

Exercise: futuro semplice

Fill in the gaps using the future tense

of the verbs given at the infinitive in
parenthesis. The subject is also given,
when misunderstandable.

1. Se non _________ (tornare - tu)

tardi stasera ________ (andare-noi) a
fare una passeggiata.
2. Se non __________ (studiare - tu)
di più, non __________ (superare - tu)
l’esame.
3. Quando _________ (arrivare) gli
ospiti?
4. L’anno prossimo _________
(andare – noi) in vacanza in Marocco.
5. Un giorno mia figlia
______________ (sposare) una
principe.
6. I bambini ___________ (venire) in
macchina con noi?
7. ________________ (dovere – io)
risparmiare molto per comprare un’auto
nuova!
8. Quando _________________
(iniziare-voi) il corso di lingua italiana?
9. Non ________ (comprare - noi)
mai piú in quel negozio: le commesse
sono troppo maleducate!
 29. THINK LIKE
AN ITALIAN

When learning to speak a new language,

you must strive to “forget” your native
tongue—at least temporarily. As I’ve
mentioned, spending time in Italy and
speaking only Italian is the best way to
help you speak fluently. Short of that,
you should try to think like an Italian
when practicing at home, which means
you will need to “take off the training
wheels,” so to speak, and get rid of
those helpers that are holding you back.
For instance, bilingual dictionaries
are a crutch and their use should be
limited. Use them while studying, but not
while practicing. Indeed, “translating” in
general won’t work, and that goes for
grammar rules, too. Every language has
rules and forms, which are unique and
often “illogical” when compared to
English (of course, Italians say the same
thing about our language). If you want to
speak with competence, translating back
and forth in your head before speaking
or reading is a technique which will
ultimately impede your progress and
indeed may paralyze you completely.
So you must let go of the fear of
making mistakes. In the beginning, your
goal should only be to communicate and
don’t get too hung up on the grammar.
Focus on the grammar while studying,
but try to “forget it” while speaking. You
really don’t want to sound as if you have
a PhD in Italian grammar, because not
only will you never accomplish that, but
there are very few Italians who speak
that way in their own language.
I often make up random sentences in
my mind while sitting in traffic or doing
household chores. Just get your brain
working in Italian, even if your
vocabulary is limited. The next step is
having the courage to open your mouth
and feel the tempo of the language as it
rolls off your tongue. It’s a lot like taking
dance lessons. You can take lessons
from an expert, with those cut-out feet
and numbers on the floor to show you the
steps, but without rhythm you will never
get it right. In this way, rhythm is also
helpful in Italian—try to “feel” the
tempo as you speak. It’s a very musical
language, after all.
Memorizing scripted responses when
learning a foreign language does not
work, either—at least not in the long run.
(Although one could argue that it’s not a
bad place to start). The majority of the
textbooks for the beginners have several
pages of dialogue. But what if you ask a
person one of the questions from that
dialogue and they don’t answer
according to the dialogue you
memorized? It has happened to me!
Memorizing scripts is OK in the very
beginning, but eventually you’ll have to
learn how to formulate original
sentences in Italian just as you can in
English. The sooner you can do this, the
better.
Of course, your sentences will be
basic in the beginning and that’s OK.
Start with three or four word phrases—
subject, verb, object, adjective —and
build from there. For example, “I prefer
the red wine.” = “(Io) Preferisco il vino
rosso.” String a few of these simpler
phrases in a row and now you have a
compound sentence. “In general, I prefer
red wine with meat, but white wine with
fish.” “In generale, preferisco il vino
rosso con la carne ma il vino bianco
con il pesce.” Pretty soon you’ll
surprise yourself by sounding like a
fluent speaker. Not very frequently at the
beginning, but this will happen often
enough to give you a little
encouragement to keep on pushing
forward!
30. TRANSLATED
GROUPINGS

These are great to know, because with

them, you can “figure out” many words
that you haven’t yet committed to
memory. Included are typical examples,
but there are many other cases where the
exact same rule applies. Try to figure out
some more on your own. Write them
down and then check yourself in a
dictionary. Do this exercise once in a
while and pretty soon you’ll start coming
up with words in Italian that are correct
more often than not.

‘ive‘ = ‘ivo‘ (e.g. positive = positivo)

‘ary‘ = ‘ario‘ (e.g. necessary =
necessario)
‘ous‘ = ‘oso‘ (e.g religious =
religioso)
‘y‘ ending = ‘ia‘ (e.g. copy = copia)
‘y‘ in the middle = ‘i‘ (e.g. system =
sistema)
‘ion‘ = ‘ione‘ (e.g. television =
televisione)
‘al‘ = ‘ale‘ (e.g. natural = naturale)
‘ty‘ = ‘tá‘ (e.g. ability = abilitá)
‘tion‘ = ‘zione‘ (e.g. station –
stazione)
‘ble‘ =‘bile‘ (e.g. impossible =
impossibile)
‘x‘ = ‘s‘ (e.g. exam = esame)
‘ly‘ = ‘mente‘ (e.g. probably =
probablimente)
‘nce‘ = ‘nza‘ (e.g. ambulance =
ambulanza)
‘ph’ = ‘f‘ (e.g. photograph =
fotografia)
‘th‘ = ‘t‘ (e.g. theatre – teatro)
‘ct‘ = ‘tt‘ (e.g. contract = contratto)
‘dv‘ in the middle = ‘vv‘ (e.g.
adventure = avventura)
‘dm‘ in the middle = ‘mm‘ (e.g.
administration = amministrazione)
 31. SOME
COGNATES

These are also useful to know because

you can clearly see the relationship
between the Italian word and the English
word. But be careful—the many false
friends are waiting to catch you in this
trap!

dizionario—dictionary
farmacia—pharmacy
intelligente—intelligent
mercato—market
museo—museum
necessario—necessary
oceano—ocean
onesto—honest
stazione—station
teatro—theater
accompagnare—to accompany
creare—to create
dividere—to divide
studiare—to study
telefonare—to telephone
 32. IDIOMATIC
EXPRESSIONS
AND FALSE
FRIENDS

We have to accept that many words and

phrases just don’t translate well—and
some don’t translate at all! You can’t
always substitute word for word and
expect to get a logical result. This is
another example of where culture meets
language and it’s important to recognize
these situations so that you can let go of
your own cultural certainties and learn
to “think” in another language.

Idiomatic expressions
We all know that when we say “It’s
raining cats and dogs,” there are no
Chihuahua puppies or Persian kittens
responsible for the traffic jam on the
highway. This is the definition of an
idiomatic expression: a phrase that
makes no sense in its literal meaning, but
it describes something that we’ve
conventionally agreed upon as a culture.
The funny part comes when these
nonsense phrases, which after years and
years are taken as absolutes, are literally
translated into another language to the
confusion (and/or amusement) of our
listener. For example, in Italy it never
rains like cats and dogs. Instead, it rains
like little sheep. Huh?
Your Italian friend might “not see the
hour” (non vedo l’ora) until he meets
you again; or, in idiomatic English, “he
can’t wait.” If he’s a bit upset at his co-
worker who likes to show off, he might
tell him to “lower his wings”
(abbassare le ali). If he tells you that
“you went to Rome and did not see the
Pope,” don’t waste time explaining that
you haven’t had a chance to visit The
Vatican yet; he’s just telling you that
you’ve neglected something very
important. If he fails a test, he’s
obviously “gone white.” But if he
cheated, he knows that he has “a tail
made of straw.” The list is endless. So
don’t worry if some things “ have no
sense” (n o n hanno senso) in the
beginning, because sooner or later, they
will make sense (as we say in English).

False Friends
And now for the dreaded “false
friends.” There are many of them
between our two languages and they
present many opportunities for humorous
misunderstandings. Let’s look at a few
of them.
Actually. It sounds very similar
to “attualmente,” and it probably
derives from the same root word,
except in Italian, “attualmente”
means “at the present time.”
Eventually. Similar to
“eventualmente” but instead of
“sooner or later” (which is
“primo o poi”), in Italian it means
“in case,” or “in the event of.”
Corpse. Sounds a lot like
“corpo,” which in Italian is
simply a “body.” In English,
reporting “a dead corpse” to the
police would be redundant. Not
so in Italian.
Cream. So close to “crema.”
When asking for “cream” an
Italian probably wants custard.
“Panna,” is the Italian word for
the cream that goes on top of your
gelato—“whipped” cream.
Definitely. Definitivamente: that
means forever, definitively. NOT
definitely.
Stranger. I know some Italians
who have a lot of “stranger”
friends. What they mean to say is
“foreign” friends. Hopefully they
count me among the latter group.
Straniero means foreigner in
Italian, while a stranger is
“sconosciuto.” So don’t be
offended if they say that you’re
strange.
Magazine. Magazzino: which
means a department store or
warehouse. “Rivista” is the word
for the many gossip rags on sale
at the newsstand.
Factory. Fattoria. Ever heard of
 an assembling line in a farm? No,
me either, but that’s what a
“fattoria” is: a farm, not a
factory. “Fabbrica,” is the word
for factory, while fabric is
“stoffa,” in Italian.
Confused yet? OK, just one more. But
it’s an important one.
Preservative. Preservativo. No,
no, and no! Not the chemicals that
they put in your food, but rather a
condom. Try not to make this
mistake!
Of course there are many, many more,
but this list gives you a good idea of just
how dangerous it can be to assume that
“translating” will provide an accurate
meaning for a given word or phrase.
(I’ve listed some more in the appendix)
But this is part of the fun. When you
learn these, you sort feel like you’re
privy to an inside joke.
Enjoy!
 33. COMMON
ERRORS TO
AVOID

As your lessons progress and your

Italian improves, there may still be a
few mistakes that you just can’t seem to
stop making. Sometimes those particular
Italian lessons just didn’t stick in your
mind. For some people it’s verb
conjugation and for others it might be
getting the gender and number
consistently right. Here are a few others
among the common mistakes made by
English speakers, which will make them
stick out in a crowd no matter how good
their vocabulary of Italian words.
It is not unusual for English speakers
to have a problem pronouncing double
consonants in Italian. Unlike English,
and because Italian is a phonetic
language, you must always pronounce
both consonants. If it will make it easier
for you, say it and then write it, say it
again and write it again. This will
prevent you from asking for punishment,
which is pena instead of a pen, which is
penna. When an American says the word
“butter,” it sounds like “buder.” Then
listen to an Italian pronounce English
words like “butter,” or “happy,” or
“sunny.” They pronounce both of the
double consonants quite distinctly in
every case. It can be very “fun-ny” to
listen to, but you have to admit that they
have a point.
For those students who are studying
English as their second language, it may
seem as if there is no rhyme or reason
for the use of prepositions. And for those
of us who are studying Italian, we have
the identical challenge. As a student of
Italian, you will need to reconcile the
fact that, just as in English, there are few
rules and many exceptions when it
comes to the use of prepositions in
Italian. Really, the only way to learn this
is by memorization and practice. There
are no shortcuts here, unfortunately.
Consequently, mistakes with
prepositions is something that you’ll
likely struggle with even as an upper-
intermediate speaker. It’s one of the last
pieces to fall into place. Fortunately, it
doesn’t often interfere with
communication, only with accuracy. You
are still understood even if you miss a
preposition here or there.
Italians will use body language and
hand gestures to emphasis a point and
add just a little more meaning that the
word or phrase is missing on its own.
Since you don’t want to be mistaken for
the indifferent, non-native Italian, learn a
few Italian hand gestures and other
nonverbal responses. Furthermore, never
underestimate the power of these
gestures in Italy. We all know the old
joke, which goes: How do you make an
Italian shut up? Tie their hands behind
their back! (This is only a slight
exaggeration.) And while spoken
dialects are greatly variable throughout
Italy, the gestures are fairly universal.
Indeed, many Italians are often shocked
when they learn that the gestures aren’t
an absolute, common to all languages
around the world.
In Italy, gestures are to enhance,
underline, or in a better word, improve
communication. It’s one thing to merely
say, “What are you looking at?” versus
the same phrase accompanied by the
appropriate gesture. In fact, often times
the gesture given without the
accompanying phrase carries more
weight, more contextual significance. So
keep that in mind when someone is
giving you a gesture while not actually
speaking.
Upon asking an American the colors
of the flag of Italy, most will tell you
rosso, bianco, e verde, which means
red, white and green. Even though the
colors are correct, the order in which
they were said will sound grating to
most native Italian ears. (It should be
green, white, and red.) If someone said
the colors of the American flag were
blue, white and red, it would sound the
same to us as using the red, white and
green is to the Italians. We have had the
red, white and blue so ingrained into our
society and into our language that saying
the colors of our flag in any other way is
just not the same. This merely
underscores once again the subtleties of
language beyond just the words
themselves.
In America, when the winter months
fade away and the spring and summer
starts warming up, you will see many
Americans dining outside whether it is at
home or in a restaurant. Many
restaurants have outside setting areas
and as Americans we refer to this as
dining al fresco. When you make you
next trip to Italy and arrive at your
favorite restaurant for lunch, the hostess
will ask you if you want to dine indoors
or outdoors. Then she might snicker if
you tell her you want to dine al fresco.
In Italian the word al fresco means in the
cooler, which is also a slang term for
being in jail or prison. If you wish to
dine on the patio of a restaurant in Italy
you will be better off using the term
all’aperto or all’aria aperta or even
just fuori, “outside.”
Humor and proverbs are probably the
most difficult to learn when learning a
foreign language. Many times they are
idiomatic and usually reflect the culture.
For instance Italian proverbs are often
agrarian or nautical in nature due to the
country’s background. Consider this
English proverb “The early bird catches
the worm.” An Italian proverb which
reflects the same meaning is “Chi dorme
non piglia pesci”, which means “He who
sleeps doesn’t catch any fish.” Or how
about when something costs “un occhio
della testa,” an eye of the head, instead
of “an arm and a leg?” Wishing someone
good luck in English is sometimes
expressed as “Break a leg.” In Italian
it’s, “In bocca al lupo,” in the mouth of
the wolf. Why? Who knows where these
colorful phrases come from!
By learning proverbs and idiomatic
expressions, one learns about the
language—but also the traditions and the
culture. Remember, it all evolved
simultaneously.
 SUMMARY

I want to commend you because this is a

very admirable, but challenging goal that
you’ve set out for yourself. Learning a
new language as an adult is not easy and
you should never underappreciate the
effort required. However it will enrich
your life in many ways, even beyond the
practical advantages of speaking another
language. Bravi!
If you’re just starting out and you’re
committed to the process, you’ll notice
that improvement comes rather quickly
at first. Of course, you’ll eventually
reach a plateau when you feel like you
just can’t make any progress for weeks
at a time. Psychologically, this the most
difficult phase, when you must continue
to push yourself even when it seems like
you’re going nowhere fast. But don’t get
discouraged. Even though it seems like
you’re not progressing, in a way you are.
Your brain is collecting information at
this stage, but it hasn’t yet processed it.
Once it does, the new material will
suddenly pop into your head one day and
you’ll say something out loud in Italian
that you didn’t even realize that you
knew. This is one of the most satisfying
moments in language acquisition.
Remember that feeling, and use it to
motivate you to keep pushing forward
during the frustrating stages.
Let me summarize and reiterate a few
important tips to keep in mind while
learning Italian.
Find a method that you like and make
sure you stick to it. Establishing a
routine is important because it will
encourage you to study when you don’t
feel like it. Always have your baseline
routine to fall back on when the
motivation is low and you just want a
little guidance to keep the schedule
moving along. Let this default method—
whether it be this book, an online
program, or a podcast—act as your
taskmaster, relieving you of self-
inflicted discipline.
That said, you need to mix it up if you
want to see any significant gains. While
your routine will provide an overall
structure, don’t allow it to become more
than 50-75% of your language practice.
Watch movies, read books, and chat
with online friends. YouTube has some
instructional videos and Netflix offers
many Italian movies which you can
watch for free (unlimited) with a
subscription.
At some point you’ll need to find
some “live” partners to practice with. If
there are any Italian folks living in your
area, then you might be able to work out
a language exchange. As I mentioned
before, Meetup.com is an excellent
place to start your search. And also look
into your local college for adult learning
programs. Many offer foreign language
courses at very reasonable prices.
Finding other Italian learners is
valuable, too. Whether you are the
person at the higher or lower level, it
really doesn’t matter. In both scenarios
there is an opportunity to increase your
knowledge and confidence, either by
playing the role of the teacher or student.
But naturally, the ultimate learning
opportunity comes when you arrive in
Italy and are forced to use the Italian that
you’ve learned. There’s nothing quite
like the first time that you order lunch in
another language—and they understand
you!
Above all, have fun while you are
learning. Make the lessons enjoyable.
While you are out with friends include
your Italian lessons by naming the Italian
words for what you see. Go to the local
pizzeria (not the chains, obviously) and
see if anyone there is from Italy. Find
some songs that you like and memorize
the lyrics. Bring some language CDs
along in your car to listen to on the way
to work each day. I did this for about a
year or so and found it to be a great way
to learn vocabulary and short phrases.
(And just ignore the other drivers who
are giving you funny looks for talking to
yourself.)
Be realistic about your expectations.
Don’t set your goals so high that they are
unattainable. Failing to meet the
deadline you set for yourself will only
discourage you. Expect to forget a lot of
what you have learned. “Two steps
forward, one step back,” is the normal
pattern for language learning. Remember
progress is never steady, you will find
you will learn more some days than
others. It’s okay. And it’s always
exciting on that occasional day when it
all suddenly comes to you so clearly and
you feel that you’re almost “there.” Just
don’t feel too bad when the next day you
can’t even remember how to say,
“Buongiorno!”
Learn at least one new word every
session and try to write them down when
you’re able. Keeping a notebook for new
words is a very good idea. Learning
vocabulary by topics is a great idea, too:
days of the week, numbers, but also
names of animals, clothing, etc. Studying
a foreign language is a psychological
game. You need to feel like you are
getting somewhere or you will want to
quit. By learning a new word every
lesson or every day, you will feel like
you are progressing, even if it is slowly.
The vocabulary should be built upon
constantly, even while you’re focusing
on other goals such as grammar or
pronunciation. Once you’ve become
“functional,” the vocabulary will be
your biggest obstacle to fluency. But it
takes a long time for that, so be patient
with yourself.
Establish some long term goals and
tuck them away. Don’t focus on them
every day, but check yourself once in a
while to see how it’s going. Instead,
focus on improving communication over
“mastering” the language. It’s an
important difference when it comes to
your mindset. Concentrating on “the
language” can often hamper you when it
comes to communicating. Don’t let that
happen. Just open your mouth, employ
the appropriate gestures, and “Talk Like
an Italian!”
 ABOUT THE
AUTHOR

Rick Zullo is an American traveler,

teacher, and writer. He was born in
Chicago, raised in Florida, and now
resides in Rome. After stints in Bologna
and Venice, he arrived in the Caput
Mundi during the summer of 2010 where
he immediately fell in love with the
city…and one of its citizens, who is now
his wife. (And his Italian teacher.)

Dear Reader,
 Thank you for buying and reading my
book. I hope that you find it both useful
and enjoyable. If so inspired, please
leave a comment or question on my blog
at:
rickzullo.com
Or “Like” my Facebook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/RicksRome
You can also follow me on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/RickZullo1
Ciao!
Rick
 ITALIAN
SURVIVAL
PHRASES

Greetings
Salve! – Hello!
Pronto! – Hello! (When you answer
the phone)
Ciao! – Hi! or Good bye!
Buon giorno! –Good morning/Good
Day!
Buon pomeriggio – Good afternoon!
(used rarely)
Buona sera! – Good evening!
Buona notte! – Good night!
Come sta? – How are you (formal)?
Come stai? – How are you
(informal)?
Come va? – How’s it going?
Ci sentiamo bene – We’re feeling
(doing) fine.
Va bene, grazie – Fine, thanks

Introductions
Another part of the essential phrases
for travelers is the introduction. Here is
a list of introductions in Italian along
with the English counterpart.
Mi chiamo Michele – My name is
Michael
 Piacere di conoscerLa – Pleased to
meet you (formal)
Piacere di conoscerti – Nice to meet
you (informal)
Questa è mia moglie – This is my
wife
Questo è mio marito – This is my
husband
Come si chiama? – What is your
name? (formal)
Come ti chiami? – What is your
name? (informal)
Di dov’e? – Where are you from?
(formal)
Di dove sei? – Where are you from?
(informal)
Dove lavora/lavori? – Where do you
work? (formal/informal)
 Che cosa studia/studi? – What are you
studying? (formal/informal)
Lei abita qui? – Do you live here?
(formal)
(Tu) abiti qui? – Do you live here?
(informal)
Siamo qui da una settimana – We’ve
been here for a week

How to Ask Questions in Italian

This is a quick “how to” instruction
on how to ask the right questions in
Italian.
1. When questions are asked
beginning with a questioning word, the
subject is usually placed at the end of the
sentence, if you need to define the
subject. Example: Quando guarda la TV
Michele? – When does Michael watch
TV? But if I’m talking to “you,” then you
don’t need to mention the subject.
Example: Quando guardi la TV?
2. Chi? Means Who? Or Whom?
3. To ask Which (one) or Which
(ones) use Quale (singular)? Or Quali
(Plural)?
4 . Che: means What? Or What kind
of?
5. If you are asking about How much?
Or How many? Use Quanto/a/i/e?
6. Come? Indicates How?
7. To ask Why? Use Perchè? Then
you also use the same word for the
reply, “Because…”
8. (Che cosa è, cos’è) says in English
What is it? Dove? means Where?
 A few more tips when forming a
question in Italian:
1 . Che and cosa are abbreviated
forms of che cosa. The forms are
interchangeable, you can use one or the
other, and they can also go together,
“che cosa?”
2. As with all adjectives, the
questioning adjectives agree in gender
and number with the nouns they modify,
except for che, which stays the same; it
is invariable.
3. Prepositions such as a, di, da, in,
su, tra, con, and per always precede the
questioning “che?” In Italian, a question
will never end with a preposition.
VOCABULARY
LISTS

Casa – Home

Casa >> Home, house

Appartamento >> Apartment
Soggiorno >> Living room
Divano >> Sofa
Poltrona >> Armchair
Tavolino >> Coffee table
Tappeto >> Carpet
Quadro >> Painting
Televisore >> Television
Scaffale >> Shelf
Cucina >> Kitchen
FrigoriferoFridge
Congelatore >> Refrigerator
Fornelli >> Stove
Lavandino >> Sink
Tavolo >> Table
Sedia >> Chair
Credenza >> Cupboard
Camera da letto >> Bedroom
Cameretta >> Kids’ room
Camera degli ospiti >> Guest room
Letto >> Bed
Letto singolo >> Single bed
Letto matrimoniale >> Double bed
Cuscino >> Pillow
Materasso >> Mattress
Armadio >> Closet
Cassettiera >> Chest of Drawers
Cassetto >> Drawer
Comodino >> Bedside table
Lampada >> Lamp
Bagno >> Bathroom
Vasca da bagno >> Bathtub
Doccia >> Shower
Lavandino >> Sink
Bidet >> Bidet
Accappatoio >> Robe
Asciugamano >> Towel
Tappetino >> Rug
Specchio >> Mirror
Sapone >> Soap

Abbigliamento – Clothing

Vestito >> Dress, but also man’s suit

Gonna >> Skirt
Minigonna >> Miniskirt
Pantaloni >> Pants
Pantaloncini >> Shorts, hot pants
Jeans >> Jeans
Maglietta >> T-shirt
Canottiera >> Tank
Camicia >> Shirt
Maglia >> Blouse
Maglione >> Sweater
Giacca >> Jacket
Cappotto >> Coat
Manica lunga >> Long sleeve
Manica corta >> Short sleeve
Mezza manica >> Half sleeve
Senza maniche >> Sleeveless
Scollo rotondo >> Round neck
Scollo quadrato >> Square neck
Scollo a barchetta >> Scoop neck
Scollo a vi >> V neck
Collo alto >> Turtle neck
Tinta unita >> Solid color
A fantasia >> Print
A fiori >> Flowered pattern
A righe >> Strip pattern
A quadri >> Square pattern
Cotone >> Cotton
Lana >> Wool
Lino >> Linen
Seta >> Silk
Sciarpa >> Scarf
Calzini >> Socks
Reggiseno >> Bra
Boxer >> Boxers
Costume da bagno >> Swimsuit
Due pezzi/bikini >> Bikini
Un pezzo/intero >> One piece
Pareo >> Beach scarf
Borsa >> Bag, handbag
Portafogli >> Wallet, purse
Scarpe >> Shoes
Sandali >> Sandals
Infradito >> Flip-flop
Stivali >> Boots
Ballerine >> Flats
Ciabatte >> Slippers
Mocassini >> Moccasins
Zeppe >> Wedge
Decolleteè (French) >> Pumps
Scarpe da ginnastica >> Sneakers
Tacco alto >> High heel
Tacco basso >> Short heel
Senza tacco >> Flat
Pelle >> Leather
Tessuto >> Fabric
Vernice >> Patten leather
Camoscio >> Suede
Cintura >> Belt
Gioielli >> Jewels
Anello >> Ring
Orecchini >> Earrings
Bracciale >> Bracelet
Collana >> Necklace
Spilla >> Pin
Oro >> Gold
Argento >> Silver
Acciaio >> Stainless steel
Diamante >> Diamond
Orologio >> Watch, but also clock
Gemelli >> Cufflinks

La famiglia – The family

Padre/papá >> Father/dad
Madre/mamma >> Mother/mom
Fratello >> Brother
Sorella >> Sister
Figlio >> Son
Figlia >> Daughter
Cugino/a >> Cousin
Nonno >> Grandfather
Nonna >> Grandmother
Zio >> Uncle
Zia >> Aunt
Marito >> Husband
Moglie >> Wife
Cognato >> Brother-in-law
Cognata >> Sister-in-law
Suocero >> Father-in-law
Suocera >> Mother-in law
 Genero >> Son-in-law
Nuora >> Daughter-in-law
Nipote >> Grandchild,
granddaughter, grandson, niece, nephew
Patrigno >> Stepfather
Matrigna >> Stepmother
Fratellastro >> Stepbrother
Sorellastra >> Stepsister
Parente >> Relative
Genitore >> Parent
Famiglia allargata >> Extended
family

La tavola – the table

Note: tavolo means table, referring to

the furniture;
tavola means table, when there’s food
on it.

Piatto >> Plate, dish

Piatto fondo >> Lit. deep plate, pasta
bowl
Piatto piano >> Lit. flat plate, plate
for second course
Piattino >> Small plate, for fruit or
dessert
Coltello >> Knife
Forchetta >> Fork
Cucchiaio >> Tablespoon
Cucchaino >> Teaspoon
Tovaglia >> Tablecloth
Tovagliolo >> Napkin
Bicchiere >> Glass
Acqua >> Water
Vino >> Wine
 Birra >> Beer
Antipasto >> Starter; appetizer
Primo piatto >> First course, i.e.
pasta
Secondo piatto >> Second course
Contorno >> Side dish
Dolce >> Dessert
Caffè >> Coffee
Liquore >> Liquor
Amaro >> Digestive; after meal
liquor
Carne >> Meat
Pesce >> Fish
Verdura >> Vegetables
Bistecca >> Steak
Maiale >> Pork
Vitello >> Veal
Manzo >> Beef
Pollo >> Chicken
Calamaro >> Squid
Gambero >> Shrimp
Vongola >> Clam
Pesce spada >> Sword fish
Insalata >> Salad
Olio >> Oil
Butter >> Burro
Aceto >> Vinegar
Sale e pepe >> Salt and pepper
FINAL PRACTICE
EXERCISE:
FINDING OUR
WAY

(La stazione di Roma)

Buongiorno. Un
Cliente: biglietto per
Venezia, per favore.
Certo. Ecco. Sono
Impiegato:
57 euro.
Ecco la mia carta di
 Cliente: credito.
Bene. Una firma,
Impiegato:
per favore.
Ah,
un’informazione:
Cliente: c’è un ufficio
cambio qui in
stazione?
Non sono sicuro, ma
c’è una banca
Impiegato: proprio qui vicino.
In Piazza Garibaldi,
di fronte alla statua.
Grazie mille!
Cliente:
Arrivederci!
Prego! Buona
Impiegato: giornata!
 These vocabulary words should be
pretty easy to figure out. Give them a try!

La cittá – The City

Aeroporto _________________
Albergo _________________
Banca _________________
Bar _________________
Chiesa _________________
Cinema _________________
Farmacia _________________
Museo _________________
Negozio _________________
Ospedale _________________
Piazza _________________
Ristorante _________________
Scuola _________________
 Stazione _________________
Supermercato _________________
Teatro _________________
Ufficio postale _________________
Universitá _________________
Via _________________
Zoo _________________

Mezzi di trasporto – Modes of

Transportation
Aereo _________________
Autobus _________________
Automobile _________________(Auto
macchina)
Bicicletta _________________(Bici)
Metropolitana _________________
Motocicletta
_________________(Moto)
 Motorino _________________
Taxi _________________
Treno _________________

Indicazioni – Directions
A destra _________________
A sinistra _________________
Dritto _________________
Lì, lá _________________
Lontano _________________
Qui, qua _________________
Vicino _________________

C’è...? Ci sono...?
_________________
Dov’è...? Dove
sono…? _________________
Ecco _________________
 Esercizio: which things in list B do
you associate with the things in list A?

A B
1. Ristorante a. Viaggio
2. Ospedale b. Animale
c.
3. Scuola
Cappuccino
4. Stazione d. Dottore
e.
5. Aeroporto
Studentessa
6. Bar f. Aereo
7. Ufficio
g. Pizza
prenotazioni
8. Supermercato h. Banana
 9. Via i. Motorino
10. Zoo j. Treno
 APPENDIX

List of False Friends

(to) annoy doesn’t mean annoiare, but

irritare, dar fastidio
Annoiare is translated as “to bore”

Argument doesn’t mean argomento,

but discussione, litigio
Argomento is translated as “topic”

(to) arrange doesn’t mean arrangiare,

but disporre, sistemare
 Arrangiare is translated as “to
manage, to get by, to fix up”

(to) attend doesn’t mean attendere, but

frequentare, partecipare
Attendere is translated as “to wait
for”

(to) bend means curvare, inchinare,

piegare
Bendare is translated as to bandage,
blindfold

Brave doesn’t mean bravo, but

coraggioso
Bravo is translated as “clever, good”

Code means codice

 Coda is translated as” tail, or end of a
line”

Commodity doesn’t mean comodità

but in fact prodotta, merce a
disposizione
Comodità is translated as “comfort,
convenience”

Comprehensive means esauriente

Comprensivo is translated as
“understanding, inclusive, sympathetic”

Conductor means bigliettaio del tram,

direttore d'orchestra
Conduttore is translated as “driver”

(to) confront means far fronte a,

affrontare
Confrontare is translated as “to
compare”

(to) conjure means evocare, far giochi

di prestigio
Congiurare is translated as “to plot”

Convenient means comodo, adatto,

opportuno
Conveniente is translated as “good
value”

Delusion means illusione

Delusione is translated as
“disappointment”

Diffidence means sfiducia in se stesso

 Diffidenza is translated as “distrust”

Disgrace doesn’t mean disgrazia, but

vergogna, disonore
Disgrazia is translated as misfortune

(to) divert means deviare

Divertire is translated as “to amuse”

Editor means direttore (di giornali) o

curatore (di libri)
Editore is translated as publisher

Education doesn’t mean educazione,

but rather cultura, istruzione
Educazione is translated as “good
manners”
 Effective means efficace
Effettivo is translated as “real”

Fastidious means esigente, scrupoloso

Fastidioso is translated as “annoying”

Fatal means mortale, funesto

Fatale is translated as “inevitabile”

Fine means multa

Fine is translated as “end”

Frequent doesn’t always means

frequentare, but also spesso
Frequentare is translated as “to
attend, to see regularly, to frequent
(archaic)”
 Gratuitous means ingiustificato
Gratuito is translated as “free”

Gross doesn’t mean grosso, but

grossolano, rozzo
Grosso is translated as “big”

(to) guard means sorvegliare, far la

guardia
Guardare is translated as “to look at,
to watch”

Incident means evento, episodio

Incidente is translated as “accident,
crash”

Inconvenient means disturbo,

scomodità
 Sconvenienza is translated “as breach
of good manners, unseemly”

Ingenuity means ingegno, abilità

Ingenuità is translated as
“ingenuousness”

Inhabited means abitato

Inabitato is translated as
“uninhabited”

Injury means ferita, danno

Ingiuria is translated as “insult”

Intend doesn’t always mean intendere,

but destinare
Intendere is translated as “to mean,
to understand, to hear”
 Joke means scherzo
Gioco is translated “as play, game”

Lecture doesn’t mean lettura, but

conferenza, lezione universitaria
Lettura is translated as “reading”

Library means biblioteca

Libreria is translated as “bookshop,
bookcase”

Local means il bar dietro l'angolo

Locale is translated as “room, hotel,
bar, location, etc.”

Miser doesn’t mean misero, but avaro

Misero is translated as “wretched”
 Misery means sofferenza
Miseria is translated as “poverty”

Morbid means morboso

Morbido is translated as “soft”

Obituary means necrologio

Obitorio is translated as “morgue”

(to) occur means accadere, venire in

mente
Occorrere is translated as “to be
needed”

Ostrich means struzzo

Ostrica is translated as “oyster”
 Pace means andatura, passo
Pace is translated “as peace”

Parents means genitori

Parenti is translated as “relatives”

Parole means libertà per buona

condotta
Parole is translated as “words,
promise”

Patent means brevetto

Patente is translated as “licence”

Pavement doesn’t mean pavimento,

but marciapiede
Pavimento is translated as “floor”
 Physician means medico
The noun fisico is translated as
“physicist”

Preoccupied means assorto

Preoccupato is translated as
“worried”

Prepared means disposto a

Preparato is translated as “well
trained”

(to) pretend doesn’t mean pretendere,

but “far finta”
Pretendere is translated as “to claim”

Principal means preside

Principale is translated as “boss or
main”

(to) process means elaborare

Processare is translated as “to try, to
bring to trial”

Proper means appropriato, giusto

Proprio is translated as “one's own,
typical”

(to) realise means accorgersi; capire,

accorgersi si, rendersi conto di
Realizzare is translated as “to carry
out, to fulfil, to achieve, to accomplish”

Record means disco, appunto

Ricordo is translated as “memory,
remember”
 Romance doesn’t mean romanzo, but
“storia d'amore”
Romanzo is translated as “novel”

Rumour means voce diffusa, gossip

Rumore is translated as “noise”

Sane means equilibrato, ragionevole

Sano is translated as “healthy, sound”

Scholar doesn’t mean scolaro, but in

fact studioso, erudito
Scolaro is translated as “pupil”

Society doesn’t always mean società,

but alta società, associazione,
confraternita
 Società is translated as company, firm

Spade means zappa, vanga

Spada is translated as “sword”

Spectacles means occhiali

Spettacoli is translated as “shows,
performance”

Stamp means francobollo

Stampa is translated as “the press, to
print”

(to) stipulate means porre come

condizione necessaria, stabilire
Stipulare is translated as “to draw
up”
 Suggestive means allusivo
Suggestivo is translated as “full of
atmosphere, evocative”

(to) support means sostenere,

mantenere
Sopportare is translated as “to bear,
to stand, to support”

Sympathetic means comprensivo,

compassionevole
Simpatico is translated as “nice,
likeable, pleasant”

Tent doesn’t mean tentare, but tenda

di camping
Tentare is translated as “to try, to
attempt”
 Terrific doesn’t mean terrificante, but
eccezionale, fantastico
Terrificante is translated as
“terrifying, frightening”

Test means prova, esame, saggio

Testo is translated as “text”

Tremendous doesn’t mean tremendo,

but fantastico, enorme
Tremendo is translated as “dreadful,
terrible, awful”

Trivial means banale, futile, di poca

importanza, superficiale, leggero
Triviale is translated as “vulgar,
obscene”
 Vacancy means posto di lavoro
disponibile
Vacanza is translated as “vacation or
holiday”

Vicious means brutale

Vizioso is translated as “bad,
dissolute”

Vile means orribile, brutto

Vile is translated as “cowardly”

Villan means “il cattivo”

Villano is translated as “lout, peasant,
rude”
 ANSWERS TO
PRACTICE
QUESTIONS

Chapter 9
1—C; 2—D; 3—D; 4—C; 5—C; 6—
D; 7—A

Chapter 10
1—calda; 2—simpatica; 3—colorate;
4—buona; 5—bianco; 6—magra; 7—
educati; 8—timidi; 9—moderno; 10—
alto; 11—pigri; 12—azzurro; 13—
medici; 14—matura

Chapter 11
A.(variable)

B.
213: duecentotredici
1,977: millenovecentosettantasette
12,865:
dodicimilaottocentosessantacinque
524,329:
cinquecentoventiquattromilatrecentoventin
1,250,326: un milione
duecentocinquantamilatrecentoventisei
92,325,424 novantadue milioni
trecentoventicinquemilaquattrocentoventiq
4,786,755,233: quattro miliardi
settecentottantasei milioni
settecentocinquantacinquemiladuecentotre

C.
04/03/1843: il quattro marzo
milleottocentoquarantatre
14/4/1912: il quattordici aprile
millenovecentododici
25/07/1963: il venticinque luglio
millenovecentosessantatre
14/01/1977: il quattordici gennaio
millenovecentosettantasette
31/08/2013: il trentuno agosto
duemilatredici

Chapter 13

Part A.
 1—mangio; 2—credi; 3—sente; 4—
amano; 5—vediamo; 6—accadono; 7—
cantate; 8—scrive; 9—dorme

Part B.
1—capisco; 2—costruiscono; 3—
finisce; 4—infastidiscono; 5—preferite

Chapter 14

Part A.
1—a; 2—d; 3—c; 4—b; 5—d

Part B.
Antonio è un mio compagno di classe.
(Io) sono italiano.
Riccardo ha una macchina nuova.
Il Signor Rossi è un professore di
italiano.
Noi siamo tutti parenti.
Molti bambini africani sono poveri.
I diamanti sono molto costosi.
(Io) seguo una dieta ed ora sono in
forma.
La preistoria è molto interessante.
(Tu) hai gli occhi verdi.
Io e Alessia siamo sorelle gemelle.
L’America è molto grande.
(Tu) Sei molto alto.
Le autostrade sono molto pericolose.
(Noi) Abbiamo un regalo per te.
Gli inglesi hanno le automobili con la
guida a destra.
Il dizionario ha molte pagine.
Gli italiani hanno la pizza migliore
del mondo.
 Mia madre ha i capelli biondi.

Chapter 18
1—va; 2—possiamo; 3—vengo; 4—
fai; 5—stai; 6—Date, veniamo; 7—
andiamo; 8—sta; 9—vengono; 10—
sappiamo; 11—rimango; 12—dice; 13
—bevete

Chapter 19
1. Given
2. Non scrive mai lettere?
3. È molto gentile, Lei.
4. Mi ha telefonato, Lei?
5. È mai stato a Roma, Lei?
6. Vuole uscire con me sabato?
7. Sa che ore sono?
 Chapter 20

1—Mio; 2—Tua; 3—I suoi; 4—

Nostra; 5—Il loro; 6—La mia; 7—I tuoi;
8—Il tuo; 9—Le nostre; 10—I vostri; 11
—La sua

Chapter 22

1. Un bambino va al parco con la

mamma.
Un bambino èandato al parco con la
mamma.

2. (Tu) scrivi una lettera.

Tu hai scritto una lettera.

3. Anna sposa Marco.

 Anna ha sposato Marco.

4. Gli studenti tornano in classe.

Gli studenti sono tornati in classe.

5. Il leone corre nella foresta.

Il leone ha corso nella foresta.

6. (Noi) leggiamo molti libri.

(Noi) abbiamo letto molti libri.

7. Tu e Mario mangiate la pizza.

Voi (tu e Mario) avete mangiato la
pizza.

8. Pinocchio dice molte bugie.

Pinocchio ha detto molte bugie.
 9. Quanto costano questi gioielli?
Quanto hanno costati questi gioielli?

10. Le mele cadono dall’albero.

Le mele sono cadute dall’albero.

Chapter 25
A. Fill in the gaps using the
imperfetto.
Quando la polizia arrivò, i ladri non
erano piú in banca. Una donna,
visibilmente incinta, non smetteva di
piangere, ma stava bene. Un uomo
a nzi a no ripeteva: “Sono andati da
quella parte! Sono andati da quella
parte!”. Il cassiere dava la descrizione
dei ladri: “Tutti indossavano una
maschera di Topolino!” L’ispettore
faceva domande a tutti e prendeva
appunti. Fortunatamente nessuno era
ferito, solo una signora anziana aveva
bisogno di... un dentista perchè non
trovava piú la sua dentiera!

B. Fill in the gaps using the

imperfetto. The verbs to be used are
given at the bottom without order.
“Quando ero piccolo”.
Quando ero piccolo andavo spesso
con mia nonna al parco.
Ero molto affascinato dai cigni che
nuotavano nel laghetto. Un cartello
diceva: “Non dare cibo ai cigni”, ma
mia nonna portava sempre un po’ di
pane secco per loro, ed il guardiano del
parco, non si arrabbiava.
 Molti bambini giocavano al parco,
alcune coppie passeggiavano, gli
anziani chiacchieravano o leggevano il
giornale. La nonna aveva un’amica che
alcune volte veniva al parco con noi e
portava sempre dei dolci per me. Mi
divertivo molto al parco, da piccolo.
Adesso vado lì con i imiei bambini, ma
loro passano tutto il tempo con i loro
videogames.
Avere, Chiacchierare, Giocare,
Portare, Dire, Essere, Andare, Nuotare,
Arrabbiare, Passeggiare, Leggere,
Venire, Portare.

Chapter 27
1—tornerai, andremo; 2—studierai,
supererai; 3—arriveranno; 4—andremo;
5—sposerá; 6—verranno; 7—dovró; 8
—inizierete; 9—compreremo

Chapter 27
Conjugate the verbs using EITHER
the passato prossimo OR the imperfetto.

1. Era già tardi e faceva freddo. Io

ero stanco, così h o preso un taxi e
sono tornato a casa.
2. Mentre passeggiavo in centro
ho incontrato Fabrizio. Siamo andati in
un pub e abbiamo chiacchierato un po’.
3. Mario è andato al concerto. Il
violinista era bravissimo, ma il pianista
non ha suonato per niente bene.
4. Quando ero piccolo avevo un gatto
di nome Gigi. Io e Gigio stavamo
sempre insieme. Una volta Gigio è
sparito per un giorno intero, e dopo
qualche mese sono arrivati sei gattini!
Così ho capito che Gigio era femmina.
5.Molti anni fa mio padre vendeva
formaggi in paese. I formaggi erano di
ottima qualitá, e così mio padre è
diventato molto conosciuto. Pochi anni
dopo ha comprato un piccolo negozio e
lì un giorno hai incontrato mia madre,
che era una cliente.
FINAL PRACTICE
EXERCISE

La cittá >> The City

Aeroporto >> airport
Albergo >> hotel
Banca >> bank
Bar >> (coffee) bar
Chiesa >> church
Cinema >> cinema, movie theater
Farmacia >> pharmacy
Museo >> museum
Negozio >> store
 Ospedale >> hospital
Piazza >> public square
Ristorante >> restaurant
Scuola >> school
Stazione >> station
Supermercato >> supermarket
Teatro >> theater
Ufficio postale >> post office
Universitá >> university
Via >> roadway
Zoo >> zoo

Mezzi di trasporto >> Modes of

Transportation
Aereo >> airplane
Autobus >> bus
Automobile >> car
Bicicletta >> bicycle
 Metropolitana >>
subway/underground
Motocicletta >> motorcycle
Motorino >> scooter
Taxi >> taxi
Treno >> train

Indicazioni >> Directions

A destra >> to the right
A sinistra >> to the left
Dritto >> straight
Lì, lá >> there
Qui, qua >> here
Lontano >> far
Vicino >> near

C’è...? Ci sono...? >> Is there? >>

Are there?
 Dov’è...? Dove sono…? >> Where
is? >> Where are?
Ecco! >> There (it is)!

Esercizio: which things in list B do

you associate with the things in list A?
A B
11. Ristorante = g a Viaggio
12. Ospedale = d b. Animale
c.
13. Scuola = e
Cappuccino
14. Stazione = j d. Dottore
e.
15. Aeroporto = f
Studentessa
16. Bar = c f. Aereo
 17. Ufficio g. Pizza
prenotazioni = a
18. Supermercato =
h. Banana
h
19. Via = i i. Motorino
20. Zoo = b j. Treno