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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Fremdsprachen
- Sprache: Englisch
Master the written aspects of Italian? Easy. Grammar is one of the most difficult aspects to master when learning a language. The various parts of speech, verb tenses, conjugations, and moods are the building blocks of the Italian language, and must be thoroughly understood in order to be truly fluent. Italian Grammar For Dummies is your first step toward mastering the written aspects of Italian. By emphasizing the complicated conjugations and grammar rules, taking a narrower focus to improve comprehension, and enabling you to practice using the concepts right in the book, Italian Grammar For Dummies is your hands-on guide to mastering the written aspects of Italian. * Provides ample opportunities to practice proper Italian grammar * Serves as an excellent course supplement for those struggling with the complexities of the language * Offers instruction and practice exercises for both speaking and writing the language, giving you greater confidence in your ability to communicate in Italian If you're looking to master fluency in the Italian language but struggle with the details of grammar, Italian Grammar For Dummies has you covered.
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Italian Grammar For Dummies®
Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774 www.wiley.com
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2013938103
ISBN 978-1-118-56600-8 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-118-565896-6 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-56602-2 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-56606-0 (ebk)
Manufactured in the United States of America
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Italian Grammar For Dummies®
Visit www.dummies.com/cheatsheet/italiangrammar to view this book's cheat sheet.
Table of Contents
Introduction
About This Book
Foolish Assumptions
Icons Used in This Book
Beyond the Book
Where to Go from Here
Part I: Getting Started with Italian Grammar
Chapter 1: Italian Grammar in a Nutshell
Recognizing the Parts of Speech
Nouns
Pronouns
Articles
Verbs
Adjectives
Adverbs
Prepositions
Conjunctions
Interjections
Conjugating Verbs in the Present Tense
Identifying infinitives
Establishing subject-verb agreement
Composing a Simple Sentence
Moving on to Other Verb Tenses
Chapter 2: That’s Italian! Sounding Out Italian Words the Right Way
Starting with Basic Italian Sounds
Sounding out the vowels
Sounding out the consonants
Adding Stress with Accents
Polishing Your Italian Sound: Intonation
Getting the Most Out of Dictionaries
Navigating a monolingual Italian dictionary
Using a bilingual Italian-English/English-Italian dictionary
Looking at visual dictionaries
Answer Key
Chapter 3: Talking about Things with Nouns and Articles
Distinguishing between Masculine and Feminine Nouns
Recognizing common noun endings
Sorting nouns into three classes
Moving from Singular to Plural with Regular Nouns
Forming Plurals of Irregular Nouns and Other Exceptions
Nouns adopted from other languages
Nouns with stressed final syllables
Nouns ending in -ista
Nouns of Greek origin
Nouns used primarily in the singular or the plural
Getting Specific or Speaking in General: A Primer on Articles
Dealing with the definite article, “the”
Saying “a” or “an” in Italian: Indefinite articles
Understanding plural indefinite articles
Deciding when to include (or leave out) articles
Using articles to determine plural or singular form
Using Suffixes and Prefixes with Nouns
Looking at the way words end: Suffixes
Seeing how it all begins: Prefixes
Answer Key
Chapter 4: Dealing with Numbers, Dates, and Time
Counting from Zero to a Billion: Cardinal Numbers
Building numbers in Italian
Speaking numbers like a native
Making sense of addresses
Putting Things in Order: Ordinal Numbers
Looking at the Calendar: Days, Months, and Seasons
Days of the week
Months and seasons of the year
Specific dates
Telling Time
Chatting about the Weather
Familiarizing Yourself with the Metric System
Answer Key
Chapter 5: Adding Dimension and Description with Adjectives
Getting to Know Common Italian Adjectives
Using and Forming Italian Adjectives
Matching gender and number
Forming regular adjectives
Using irregular adjectives
Looking at invariable adjectives
Adding adjectival suffixes to nouns and adjectives
Putting Adjectives in Their Proper Place
Answer Key
Part II: Forming Simple Sentences and Asking Questions
Chapter 6: Jumping into Action with Italian Regular Verbs
Conjugating Regular Verbs in Italian
Conjugating -are verbs
Conjugating -ere verbs
Conjugating -ire verbs
Moving Past the Present Tense
Communicating quickly with verbs
Looking More Closely at Personal Subject Pronouns
Answer Key
Chapter 7: Using Irregular Verbs in the Present Tense
To Be or Not to Be: Conjugating Essere
To Have and to Hold: Conjugating Avere
To Make or Do: Conjugating Fare
To Give: Dare
To Ask How Others Are: Stare
To Come and Go: Venire and Andare
Declaring Your Needs, Wants, and Abilities: Dovere, Volere, and Potere
Do Tell: Dire
Stepping Out: Uscire
Bottom’s Up: Bere
The -orre, -urre, and -arre Verbs
Using Irregular Verbs in Idiomatic Expressions
Idiomatic expressions with essere
Idiomatic expressions with fare
Idiomatic expressions with dare and stare
Answer Key
Chapter 8: Substituting Pronouns for Nouns
Replacing Nouns with Subject Pronouns
Introducing the subject pronouns
Putting pronouns with verbs
Telling What or Who with Direct Object Pronouns
Using Indirect Object Pronouns
Forming Double Pronouns
Putting Stress Where It’s Due: Stressed and Unstressed Pronouns
Looking at Ubiquitous Italian Pronouns: Ci and Ne
Checking out the characteristics of ci
Noting the numerous uses of ne
Answer Key
Chapter 9: Using Reflexive Forms and Expressing Imperative Moods
Reflecting on Reflexive Verbs
Pairing reflexive pronouns with reflexive verbs
Using reflexive verbs throughout the day
Altering the position of reflexive pronouns
Giving and taking with the reciprocal form
Using the impersonal “si”
Giving a Commanding Performance with the Imperative
Constructing positive and negative commands (of the tu, noi, and voi variety)
Dealing with irregular imperatives
Commanding politely: Forming the Lei and Loro forms of the imperative
Adding pronouns to the imperative
Answer Key
Chapter 10: Declaring Your Likes (and Dislikes) with Piacere
Understanding How to Use Piacere
Working with indirect object pronouns
Conjugating piacere
Using piacere with indirect object pronouns
Expressing Likes (and Dislikes) in Any Tense
Working with the subjunctive and past absolute conjugations of piacere
Checking out more conjugations for piacere
Using piacere as a noun
Looking at Other Verbs that Work Backward
Answer Key
Chapter 11: Asking and Responding to Questions
Looking at Ways of Asking Questions in Italian
Adjusting your intonation
Flipping the word order: Inversion
Getting started with some common questions
Digging Deeper: Asking More Complex Questions
Calling for specifics in number: Interrogative adjectives
Requesting the location and time: Interrogative adverbs
Inquiring about who, what, which one, and how many: Interrogative pronouns
Providing More Detailed Answers to Questions
Answering Questions in the Negative
Answer Key
Part III: Beefing Up Your Sentences
Chapter 12: Prepositions: Little Words, Big Challenges
Combining Prepositions with Articles
Looking at the Common Connectors: Italian Prepositions
The various functions of a
Expressing possession with di
The multiple uses of da
Using in to mean more than just in
Expressing physical position with su
Using con and senza
Expressing for and through with per
The somewhat interchangeable tra and fra
Answer Key
Chapter 13: Qualifying Nouns with Demonstrative, Indefinite, and Possessive Words
Talking About Questo (This) and Quello (That)
Keeping It Vague with Indefinite Adjectives
Conveying Something Indefinite with Pronouns
Assigning Ownership with Possessive Adjectives and Pronouns
Replacing Nouns with Possessive Pronouns
Answer Key
Chapter 14: Making Transitions, Forming Connections, and Commenting
Connecting Words or Sentences with Coordinating Conjunctions
Connecting Clauses with Subordinating Conjunctions
Joining Clauses with Conjunctions
Linking Independent Clauses to Dependent Clauses with Relative Pronouns
Using Other Transitional Elements
Interjecting and Commenting with Interjections
Saying hello and goodbye
Making toasts
Expressing dismay or surprise
Giving congratulations and compliments
Answer Key
Chapter 15: Describing Actions with Adverbs
Getting Acquainted with Italian Adverbs
Forming adverbs from adjectives
Getting to know the original adverbs
Sorting Adverbs by Function
Telling how: Adverbs of manner
Telling when: Adverbs of time
Telling where: Adverbs of place
Telling how much: Adverbs of degree
Placing Adverbs in Sentences
Making Comparisons with Adverbs
Equalities
Inequalities
Comparatives and relative and absolute superlatives
Answer Key
Part IV: Talking about the Past, Future, and Conditional
Chapter 16: Been There, Done That: Talking in the Past Tense
Forming the Present Perfect Tense
Choosing Avere or Essere as Your Auxiliary Verb
Transiting action with avere
Moving with essere
Deciding between avere and essere
Conjugating with avere
Conjugating with essere
Over and Done with: The Past Absolute
Once Upon a Time: The Imperfect Tense
Forming the imperfect
Perfecting the use of the imperfect
Adding Nuance to Meaning with Verb Tense
Answer Key
Chapter 17: Reflexive Verbs in the Past
Looking at Commonly Used Reflexive Verbs
Forming the Present Perfect of Reflexive Verbs
Using Reciprocal Verbs in the Present Perfect
Forming the Imperfect of Reflexive Verbs
Checking Out Reciprocal Forms in the Imperfect
Answer Key
Chapter 18: Future Tense and Conditional Mood
Understanding Tense and Mood
Forming the Future Tense
Spelling out -are exceptions with the future tense
Working with irregular roots in the future tense
Talking about the Future
Forming the future perfect tense
Talking about the hypothetical future
Testing the Conditions: The Conditional Mood
Forming the present conditional
Spelling out -are exceptions with the conditional mood
Working with irregular roots in the conditional mood
Speaking with the conditional
Forming the conditional perfect
Answer Key
Part V: Expressing Subjectivity and Giving Orders
Chapter 19: Dealing with Conditions Beyond Our Control: “If” Clauses and Passive Actions
Expressing Types of Conditionals
Conditions within the realm of reality
Navigating hypothetical constructions of probability (and possibility)
Considering the impossible
Putting a Personal Touch on the Impersonal and the Passive
Forming the impersonal in the present
Forming and using the passive voice
Answer Key
Chapter 20: Getting into the Subjunctive Mood
Identifying When to Use the Subjunctive
Forming the Present Subjunctive
Taking a Closer Look at the Present Subjunctive
Forming the Imperfect Subjunctive
Answer Key
Chapter 21: Second-Guessing Your Actions with the Past Conditional
Forming the Past Conditional
Expressing What Might Have Been and What May Yet Be
Saying What You Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve Done
Answer Key
Chapter 22: I Hope That You’ve Had Fun! The Past Subjunctive
Forming the Subjunctive with Triggers
Piecing Together the Present Perfect Subjunctive
Constructing the Past Perfect (Pluperfect) Subjunctive
Sequencing Tenses in the Subjunctive
Answer Key
Part VI: The Part of Tens
Chapter 23: Ten Common Italian Grammar Mistakes (And How to Avoid Them)
Assuming Cognates Are What They Seem to Be
Confusing Conoscere and Sapere
Confusing “di” and “da”
Forgetting to Make Words Agree in Number and Gender
Mixing Up “a” and “in”
Overusing Possessive Adjectives
Pronouncing the Endings of Words Incorrectly
Repeating the Prepositions in Verbs That Already Include a Preposition
Translating Idioms Word by Word
Using Subject Pronouns Unnecessarily
Chapter 24: Ten Italian Expressions You’ll Use Every Day
Salve
Un Abbraccio(ne)
Figurati or Non C’è Di Che
Ecco
Allora
Buon Appetito and Altrettanto
Fallo Pure
Non Vedo L’ora
Ti Parlo Da Amica/Amico
La Solita Menata
Introduction
In your mother tongue, you need to know very little about grammar to communicate accurately and efficiently. You may not know a predicate adjective from a walrus, but you don’t have to. To pick up a second language, like Italian, however, you definitely need to understand grammar. Grammar is the foundation on which you lay vocabulary — and vocabulary makes up the walls, roof, and furnishings that go on the foundation and that allow you to communicate. Grammar and vocabulary come together to produce something greater than the sum of its parts: communicative, living (read: useful) language.
Grammar doesn’t mean diagramming sentences and labeling parts. It’s more like building a house. The goal of this book is to enable you to construct solid Italian from the ground up and to have fun while doing so.
About This Book
Each chapter of Italian Grammar For Dummies introduces a particular piece of grammar, explaining what it is and showing you, through examples and practice, what it does. Each chapter ends with an answer key, which allows you to check your work as you go.
Italian Grammar For Dummies begins with the essentials — parts of speech, pronunciation, nouns, numbers, and descriptive words. These elements alone allow you to communicate, though at a rather basic level. So moving through the book, you discover how to add in verbs (in all their tenses and moods) and other critical parts of language, parts that let you elaborate and elucidate.
You probably don’t want to read straight through this book, unless you’re starting at the very beginning with Italian. (If you’re a complete beginner to Italian, you may want to first check out Italian For Dummies by Teresa Picarazzi, Francesca Romana Onofri, and Karen Möller, published by Wiley.) If you’re somewhat familiar with Italian, though, you can pick and choose chapters that clarify for you a particular grammar point.
I use the following conventions to make use of this book easy.
Italian words, phrases, and sentences appear in bold.
English equivalents, set in italic, follow the Italian.
When putting Italian into English, I’m not always literal. For example, the Italian prego literally means I pray, but it’s often used to mean you’re welcome, go ahead (if you’re holding a door for someone), or May I take your order? (when a waiter says it to you in a restaurant). In this book, I repeat the importance of context as a way to grasp meaning; prego is a good example of how important context is.
At the end of each chapter is an answer key that provides the correct responses to all the practice exercises in that chapter.
This book doesn’t give you phonetic pronunciations after Italian texts. It focuses on grammar and written communication. The obvious source for pronunciation (besides Chapter 2) is the dictionary, though Italian movies, television, music, and radio can also be especially helpful.
Foolish Assumptions
As I was writing this book, I assumed the following things about you.
You already know some Italian and may be interested in honing your communicative skills. (If you’re truly a beginner, I recommend starting with Italian For Dummies [Wiley].)
You want to practice skills as you review or learn them so you can cement and retain them.
You love Italian — its sounds, its idiosyncrasies, its culture as expressed in language, and its grammar. Well, maybe not the last. Remember, though, that grammar makes the rest of language feasible for you.
Icons Used in This Book
To make certain kinds of information easier to reference, I use the following icons in this book.
This icon highlights information that’s especially critical to your mastery of Italian. If you don’t read anything else, read text marked with this icon.
This icon gives you tips for understanding Italian grammar.
This icon advises of something perhaps illogical, irregular, or just plain tricky about Italian grammar.
This icon leads you to practice exercises you can use to make sure you understand the concepts being discussed.
This icon gives more technical insights to Italian grammar.
Beyond the Book
In addition to the material in the book you're reading right now, this product also comes with some access-anywhere goodies on the web. Because verbs are critical to communication, you'll find more information on them on the free Cheat Sheet at www.dummies.com/cheatsheet/ItalianGrammar. Other useful information related to Italian Grammar can be found at www.dummies.com/extras/italiangrammar.
Where to Go from Here
You decide your next step. Do you need to review the basics? Go to Chapters 1 and 2 for pronunciation and general comments on the structure of Italian. Chapters 3 and 5 reinforce the idea that nouns have genders (masculine and feminine) and numbers (singular and plural) in Italian and that they need to agree with just about everything, including adjectives, articles, and verbs. Speaking of verbs, you can find all the nitty-gritty details — tenses and moods, reflexive or not, regular or irregular — in Parts II, IV, and V. You can also find chapters on particular verb forms here.
Each chapter in this book is self-contained; that is, you can pick and choose what you want to work on. The more chapters you read and work through, the better your Italian will be. In bocca al lupo! (Good luck!)
Part I
Getting Started with Italian Grammar
For Dummies can help you get started with lots of subjects. Visit www.dummies.com to learn more and do more with For Dummies.
In this part . . .
Broaden and deepen your communication skills in Italian with the road map to Italian grammar. Get familiar with Italian grammar basics and prepare to master the language.
Practice stressing the right syllable, adjusting your intonation, and pronouncing vowels, consonants, and diphthongs to help your Italian sound bello (beautiful).
Expand your vocabulary by mastering not only the words for things but also how to recognize a noun’s gender (yes, Italian nouns have gender!), how to make a noun plural, and how to use definite and indefinite articles.
Add precision and context to your growing Italian by talking about when and where events occur, using numbers, dates, and times.
Chapter 1
Italian Grammar in a Nutshell
In This Chapter
Getting to know the parts of speech
Figuring out how to conjugate verbs in the present tense
Putting together simple sentences
Looking at different verb tenses
Italian grammar is both complex and logical, or as logical as any language’s grammar may be. It has a lot of rules — and a lot of exceptions to those rules. So in this chapter, I provide an overview of all that’s involved with Italian grammar before diving into the more specific aspects of grammar throughout the rest of this book.
Grammar consists of the parts of speech and their interrelationships and is the basis of the Italian (and any) language. Understanding grammar lets you expand your knowledge and control of the language.
Fortunately, Italian grammar is a lot like English grammar, and the two languages share the same parts of speech. Working from what you already know, you can use this chapter to begin building or to reinforce your command of Italian.
Recognizing the Parts of Speech
Learning another language involves starting with the basics — in this case, the parts of speech — and then putting those basics together. The parts of speech serve as a foundation for content to come and allow you to create and support content.
This section provides an overview of the parts of speech (which you probably haven’t seen since elementary school) and shows their purpose and relation to each other.
Nouns
A noun (sostantivo) names a person, place, or thing. In Italian, a noun can be singular or plural, collective, concrete or abstract, common or proper, and even masculine or feminine. A noun functions as any of the following:
Subject: the person, place, or thing performing an action or simply existing — that is, in a state of being, if that’s not too existential
Direct object: the person, place, or thing receiving the action transmitted by the verb from the subject
Indirect object: to or for whom or what the action is directed
Object of a prepositional phrase: the person, place, or thing that follows any of the prepositions
For example, in the sentence Mario dà il regalo a Fausta (Mario is giving the gift to Fausta), Mario, the subject, performs an action with the verb dà (is giving); il regalo (the gift) is the direct object, or what was given, so it receives the action; and Fausta, the indirect object, is the person to whom the action was directed. Technically, a Fausta is also a prepositional phrase serving as the indirect object, with Fausta, the person, following a (to), a preposition.
Just as nouns have different roles in a sentence, nouns also have different characteristics. A noun can be proper, common, abstract, or concrete. A name of a person, city, or country is a proper noun (in English, proper nouns are usually capitalized): Mario, Fausta, Roma, Italia. (In Italian, days of the week and months of the year aren’t capitalized. For more on dates, see Chapter 4.)
Common nouns are objects, such as a cat, dog, car, or school. Common nouns aren’t capitalized in Italian or in English. An abstract noun may be something intangible, like your thoughts or desires; a concrete noun is anything you can touch, see, or taste.
Collective nouns, like family or people, are singular in Italian. For example: La famiglia è molto tradizionale. (The family is very traditional.) La gente è proprio simpatica. (The people are really nice.) — note the plural verb in English. For more information on nouns and their number, gender, and functions, see Chapter 3.
Pronouns
Pronouns take the place of nouns and add variation to a sentence. They have the same jobs as nouns but are simply a little more vague. Table 1-1 lists the most commonly used pronouns in Italian.
Table 1-1 The Most Common Pronouns Used in Italian
Pronoun as . . .
Singular
Plural
Personal subject
io (I)
tu (you, familiar)
lui, lei, Lei (he, she,you formal)
noi (we)
voi (you, familiar; you guys, y’all)
loro, Loro (they, you formal)
Direct object
mi (me)
ti (you)
lo (him)
la (her)
la (you, formal)
ci (us)
vi (you)
li (them, masculine)
le (them, feminine)
le (you, formal)
Indirect object
mi (to/for me)
ti (to/for you)
gli (to/for him)
le (to/for her)
le (to/for you, formal)
ci (to/for us)
vi (to/for you)
loro, gli (to/for them)
loro, gli (to/for them)
loro, gli (to/for you, formal)
In general, loro, which follows the verb, has been replaced by gli, which precedes it. For the full story on Italian pronouns, see Chapter 8.
Articles
Articles are the small words that precede nouns and can be specific, or definite, meaning the, such as the book; or they can be indefinite, or vague, meaning a or an, such as a book.
Definite articles: il, l’, lo, la (singlar); i, le, gli (plural)
Indefinite articles: un, un’ (singular); una, uno (plural)
Articles must agree in number and gender with the nouns they accompany. When using articles, you also need to consider the beginning letters of the words following the article. That’s why so many articles exist: masculine singular, feminine singular, feminine plural, and masculine plural. Chapter 3 covers articles in much more detail.
Verbs
Verbs bring a language to life. You use verbs to show action and states of being, to comment and to question, to contemplate and to create. Language really doesn’t exist without verbs, at least not sentient and sophisticated language.
For example: Giovanni scrive canzoni ed è molto felice. (John writes songs and is very happy.) Scrive (he writes)shows action; è (is) tells you how John is feeling.
Verbs change shape — must change shape — to show who’s doing something or what’s happening. Italian verbs characterize themselves by their infinitives, the unconjugated verb form that translates into the English to form (to eat,to play, and so on). After you understand the appropriate forms of conjugation for different verbs, you can use those same forms for hundreds of other verbs in the same category.
Besides the subject of the verb, you need to keep in mind verb tense (when an action is taking place), mood (the mood or point of view of the subject), and voice (active or passive). Verbs come in 14 tenses (past, present, and future, to name a few); they have four moods (indicative, subjunctive, conditional, and imperative); and they have two voices (active and passive). They follow a strict set of sequencing rules, as do English verbs.
Verbs are both complex and central to mastering the Italian language, but discovering verbs in all their forms will expand your vocabulary exponentially. For all the nitty-gritty details of Italian verbs, see Chapters 6, 7, 9, 10, and 16–22.
Adjectives
Adjectives add flavor, dimension, interest, and opinion. They let you describe in detail people, places, and things. They make self-expression possible.
Adjectives accompany nouns and pronouns. To say someone is happy or something is new, you use adjectives. Adjectives agree in number and gender with whatever they modify. For example, rosso (red) has masculine singular, masculine plural (rossi), feminine singular (rossa), and feminine plural (rosse) forms.
Here are a couple more facts about Italian adjectives:
Some adjectives end in the letter e and have only two forms: singular, ending in e, and plural, ending in i:importante (important) in the feminine and masculine singular becomes importanti in the feminine and masculine plural, as in una donna importante (an important lady), due donne importanti (two important ladies); un ragazzo importante (an important boy), due ragazzi importanti (two important boys).
Adjectives of nationality often end in e:inglese (English), francese (French), and svedese (Swedish).
For details on how to form and use adjectives, and to liven up your language, see Chapter 5.
Adverbs
Similar to adjectives, adverbs add detail and description but to actions rather than things. Adverbs can exaggerate, and they can understate. How much did you study? A lot. When? Constantly. Where? Nearby. For how long? Endlessly. How exactly did you go about studying? Obsessively. Really? Absolutely. Adverbs tell you the place, time, quantity, and quality of what’s happening.
The good news about adverbs is that they’re invariable. As the very name says, a (to) verbi (verbs), adverbs generally accompany verbs and, thus, don’t have number and gender agreement issues. Even when they qualify adjectives, adverbs remain unchanged.
The most common adverb, in almost any language, is very (molto). For example: La ragazza è molto bella. (The girl is very pretty.); I cani sono molto docili. (The dogs are very tame.); Le macchine sono molto eleganti. (The cars are very elegant.) To delve more deeply into adverbs, see Chapter 15.
Prepositions
Prepositions are the unruly children of Italian. They are ever present, unpredictable, and idiosyncratic. They vary widely (and wildly) in meaning, depending on context.
The preposition a, for example, can mean to, at, or in:Vado a Roma. (I’m going to Rome.) Sto a casa. (I’m at home.) Abito a Firenze. (I live in Florence.) Likewise, in can mean to, at, or in:Vado in Italia. (I’m going to Italy.) Sono in ufficio. (I’m at the office.) Lavoro in giardino. (I’m working in the garden.)
Prepositions are small words with big impact. They connect nouns and pronouns to each other or to other phrases. They show the relationship among individual words, phrases, actions, places, and times.
Although prepositions are always first and foremost prepositions, they can function as adverbs, objects, or adjectives (usually as part of a phrase). They announce themselves by being prepositioned, or coming before a phrase: The girl with the pearl earring. The hordes are at the gates. For a complete rundown on prepositions, see Chapter 12.
Conjunctions
Conjunctions, as their name indicates, (con)join words, phrases, or sentence clauses. They make compound and complex sentences possible. The most common forms of conjunctions are e (and), ma (but), perché (because), and come (as). For example: Il cane è grande perché mangia molto. (The dog is huge because he eats a lot.)
In Chapter 14, I show you how to use conjunctions and transitional elements to move beyond simple sentences, such as “The dog is huge,” to more complex ones, like “The dog is huge because he eats a lot.”
Some conjunctions foreshadow the subjunctive mood, which I address in Chapter 20.
Interjections
Interjections are individual words or short phrases that express emotions. They’re exclamatory, and Italian is peppered with them. You use interjections to say hello and goodbye (ciao), and you use them to be polite (grazie). Interjections can be mild or heated, sincere or sarcastic.
Interjections aren’t only verbal. Hand gestures and whole body poses can be as expressive as words. I recommend leaving gestural language alone until you’re completely comfortable speaking Italian, though. All too often foreign speakers of Italian misinterpret gestures they pick up from stereotypes in B-grade movies or television.
Hundreds of interjections exist, making up some of the most basic expressions. For example, did you know that ciao (hi, bye)is an interjection? These words often change, just as they do in English, to reflect current usages. Find out more about interjections in Chapter 14.
Conjugating Verbs in the Present Tense
When using and conjugating verbs, you not only have to know the meaning, and thus be able to choose which verbs to use, but you also have to keep in mind a bunch of other considerations, such as the following:
The verb has to reflect and agree in number with the subject (be first-, second-, or third-person singular or plural).
The verb has to tell when something is happening (present, past, future, and so on).
The verb has to reveal the attitude or mood of the subject (indicative or factual, subjunctive or subjective, conditional or what if, imperative or commanding).
The verb has a voice (active or passive).
All these elements allow you to conjugate a verb to make it useful and pertinent. To begin, you choose the infinitive and change endings that show tense, mood, and voice. I explain all these verb parts in the following sections, but I focus on the present tense. Rather than overwhelm you with fourteen different ways to conjugate verbs, I give individual space to the other tenses, all of them, in Chapters 9, 10, and 16 through 22.
Identifying infinitives
The infinitive form of a verb is raw — it shows no tense, mood, or voice. It has no subject. It reveals no action. An English infinitive uses to as an indicator that the verb hasn’t been put into action; for example, to eat, to sing, to sleep, and to travel are infinitives.In Italian, most infinitives end in -are, -ere, or -ire, such as parlare (to speak), scrivere (to write), and dormire (to sleep).
To conjugate a verb, you drop the characteristic ending and add new endings that show the subject, tense, and mood.
Establishing subject-verb agreement
To conjugate a verb, you need to know who or what is doing the action of the sentence. The verb must agree with the subject in person (for example, I, we, you, they, he, it) and number (I is singular, and we is plural, for example). (Check out subject pronouns in Chapters 6 and 8.)
After you establish the subject, you choose the correct ending to the verb, which I explain in detail in Chapter 6.
In the present tense, you first remove the infinitive’s ending (-are, -ere, or -ire), leaving the verb stem. Parlare (to speak), for example, drops the -are and leaves you with parl. You then add the infinitive’s present tense endings. Present tense endings are letters that indicate who is doing the action of the verb.
The following table shows a simple conjugation of the -are verb parlare in the present tense. Notice that the subject pronoun and the verb endings both tell who’s doing the action. Because the verb endings are so different, the conjugated verb alone often suffices to name the subject. So instead of saying io parlo, you can say simply parlo (I speak). However, because the third-person singular and plural forms have conjugations for multiple subjects, you may want to keep the specific subject named in those cases.
Check out Chapters 6 and 7 for more details and practice using verbs in the present tense.
Composing a Simple Sentence
In Italian, composing a sentence can be remarkably easy. You need a subject, a verb that agrees with that subject, and a tense, mood, and voice to tell you when and how something happened.
Taking a simple sentence like io parlo or parlo (I speak), you can embellish what you’re saying by adding adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, or objects. And you can use conjunctions to make the sentence more complex. For example, here’s a building process that makes a sentence more interesting:
Io parlo (I speak)
Io parlo italiano (I speak Italian)
Io parlo italiano bene (I speak Italian well)
Io parlo italiano bene perché lo parlo con degli amici italiani (I speak Italian well because I speak it with some Italian friends)
Chapters 6, 7, and 9 tell you how to put present tense verbs to use. Chapters 16–22 show you how to use endings to indicate tense, mood, and voice. You can find all you need to know about special verbs (those that express liking and missing, for example), which don’t behave the same way as most verbs do, in Chapter 10.
Because you won’t always make affirmative statements, Chapters 6, 7, and 9 also tell you how to make any statement negative. Italian can be emphatic in its use of negatives; sometimes it not only doubles but triples negative words in a single sentence! Chapter 11 shows you how.
To ask questions in Italian, you can invert subjects and verbs, or you can simply change your intonation. To invert a subject and verb, you can change Carlo parla italiano (Carlo speaks Italian) to something like Parla italiano Carlo? (Does Carlo speak Italian?)
Intonation makes the first sentence a statement by changing the high and low pitch of your sentence, much as you do when speaking English. The words he speaks Italian can be either a statement (He speaks Italian.) or a question (He speaks Italian?), depending on the tone and pitch of your voice.
To ask and respond to questions with more than a simple sì (yes)or no (no), you need interrogative words like chi (who), che, che cosa (what), quanto (how much), dove (where), and so on. Usually, these words come at the very beginning of a sentence: Chi è? (Who is it?)
For information about how to ask and understand answers to questions more complex than those requiring a simple yes or no answer, see Chapter 11.
Moving on to Other Verb Tenses
Italian has 14 verb tenses. Seven are compound, meaning they take a helping verb to form. In this book, I focus on the tenses you use most often: present, past, and future.
That sounds deceptively simple, but the present, past, and future tote up to the 14 tenses. For this reason, Chapters 6 and 7 open with the present tense; Chapters 9 and 10 also deal with present tense and include verbs that have their own idiosyncratic natures. The chapters in Parts IV and V introduce more tenses and show how tense and mood interact to make Italian both straightforward and nuanced.
Each tense has its own endings and peculiarities and combined with mood — conditional, what if; imperative, commanding; subjunctive, subjective; indicative, factual — makes speaking Italian both rewarding and challenging. Throughout this book, I show you how to combine tense and mood, and occasionally voice, to express yourself precisely and even elegantly.
Chapter 2
That’s Italian! Sounding Out Italian Words the Right Way
In This Chapter
Pronouncing vowels and consonants
Stressing the right syllable, with or without an accent
Adjusting intonation to sound Italian
Making use of a good dictionary
Mastering a second language, Italian in this case, means figuring out how to read, listen, speak, and write in a new language — usually simultaneously. Ideally, you have a fluent speaker nearby who can demonstrate sounds and constructions for you. Short of that, you can watch Italian movies (a great many are available these days), listen to Italian singers (and read along with printed lyrics), and even watch Italian television.
Italian is almost completely phonetic. Unlike English, it doesn’t use the same letters to produce several different sounds (consider the English enough, bough, though, and through). Italian is musical; it flows in patterns that make you feel as though you’re singing.
In this chapter, I show you how to pronounce and accent your Italian and how to use intonation or cadence to give authenticity to your pronunciation. I explain how to adjust your intonation to make your Italian pronunciation more authentic and understandable. I suggest ways a really good dictionary can help you not only improve your vocabulary but also guide you in the correct way to say the words in Italian.
Starting with Basic Italian Sounds
Italian, like English, has five basic vowels (a, e, i, o, and u), with j occasionally substituting for i. The remaining letters of the 21-letter alphabet are consonants; not included are j, k, w, y, and x, though they appear in some foreign words imported into Italian.
Both vowel and consonant sounds are clipped, meaning you don’t draw them out as you may in English, which allows you to speak clearly. Try holding your open hand about 2 inches in front of your mouth and saying the English word popcorn. Feel the air that you expel when saying popcorn. You don’t breathe out, or aspirate, sounds in Italian. You keep them crisp and clipped. As your vocabulary grows, you can occasionally try this hand exercise with Italian words; you shouldn’t feel air coming from your mouth as you speak.
The vowels e and o vary their pronunciation slightly. The consonants work in concert with the vowels to produce specific sounds. I explain the details of these sounds in the following sections.
Sounding out the vowels
Italian has five vowels, which produce seven sounds. The vowel sounds are crisp, clear-cut, and never drawn out. The sounds of a, i, and u are always the same. Both e and o, however, have slightly different sounds, called open or closed, and their pronunciations vary depending on where you are in Italy.
These variations aren’t consistent, but in general speech, the closed e (pronounced like the e in they) and the closed o (pronounced like o in cold) are predominant. I suggest following pronunciations as shown here and listening carefully to pick up regional variations.
a:ah, like the a in father
e (closed): eh, like the e in they
e (open): eh, like the e in hen
i: ee,like the second i in cuisine
o (closed): oh, like the o in cold
o (open): oh, like the o in or
u:ooh, like the u in duke
Pronouncing the “e” and “o”
The open and closed e and o often appear in one word. For example, you pronounce bene as beh- (open) -neh (closed) (well). And you pronounce modo as moh- (open) -doh (closed) (way, means). Note that the open e and o are always in the stressed syllable of a word.
As you say the words bene and modo, you can feel that the vowel sounds come from different parts of the mouth. The open o and e come from the back of your tongue (while your mouth is slightly open) to the front of the mouth (with the mouth, and the sound, more closed).
Sometimes an acute accent indicates a closed e, as in perché (pehr-keh)(why). This accent shows that you use the closed sound of e. It also tells you to stress the syllable in which it appears.
The distinction between open and closed vowels varies from region to region. You may hear the closed e almost exclusively in words like bene, for example. The open and closed o can also be indistinguishable, though not as common as with the e sound.
Combining vowel sounds
When two vowels combine to produce one sound, you call them diphthongs. In Italian, the first of the two vowels in combination is usually i or u. They assume the sounds of English y and w, respectively.
Here are some examples in which the i sounds like the English y:
ieri (yeh-ree)(yesterday)
invidia (een-veed-yah)(envy)
più (pyooh) (more)
In the following examples, the u sounds like the English w:
buono (bwoh-noh) (good)
figliuolo (fee-wohl-oh) (son, good chap)
Two diphthongs can appear in the same word, back to back, as these examples show:
muoio (mwoh-yo)(I’m dying): The uo diphthong sounds like the English woh; the iosounds like the English yo.
acquaio(ah-kwah-yo) (sink): The uahas the sound of the English wa; the iosounds like the English yo.
If three vowels combine to give a single sound, you call them triphthongs, but they’re relatively rare in Italian.
suoi (swoy) (your, his, her, its)
tuoi (twoy) (your)
Note: The u, which sounds like the English w, combines with oi to produce the English sound woy.
Sounding out the consonants
Italian has 16 consonants. Of these, b, d, f, l, m, n, p, t, and v represent the same sounds as their English counterparts. The difference is that you pronounce the Italian consonants in staccato, or clipped, fashion and not by drawing them out. The remaining consonants — c, g, h, q, r, s, and z — are also crisply pronounced, but their sounds change, depending on which vowels or other consonants follow them. I explore these consonant sounds in the following sections:
Checking out the consonant “c”
Just as in English, you can pronounce the consonant c in Italian in a couple of different ways, depending on what letter(s) follows it. Here are some guidelines:
Hard c: When c is followed by a, o, or u, it sounds like the English k, as in these examples: caffè (kah-feh) (coffee), con (kohn) (with),and Cupido (kooh-pee-doh) (Cupid).
To make the English k sound before e or i, you insert h between the c and the following vowel, for example, chi (kee) (who) and che (keh) (what, that).
Soft c: When followed by e or i, c sounds like the English ch, like in the words cello (chehl-loh) (cello), cinema (chee-neh-mah) (cinema),and cento (chehn-toh) (one hundred).
To make the English ch sound before a, o, or u, you add the letter i between the c and the following vowel. You don’t pronounce the i; it simply softens the hard k sound. Here are some examples: ciao (chou) (hello; goodbye), Luciano (Looh-chah-no) (Luciano), arancia (ah-ahn-chah) (orange), and cacciatore (kah-chah-toh-reh)(hunter’s style).
Getting familiar with the sounds of “g”
Lucky for you, g makes things a little easier because it follows the same pattern as c — when it comes to the vowels that follow it, anyway.
Hard g: When g is followed by a, o, and u, it uses the hard g sound, like the English g in go.Therefore, these words take the hard g:gala (gah-lah) (gala), gondola (gohn-doh-lah) (gondola),and gusto (gooh-stoh) (gusto).
To make the g sound before the letters e and i, you add an h after the g,like so: ghetto (geht-toh) (ghetto), laghi (lah-gee) (lakes).
Soft g: When followed by e and i, g sounds equivalent to the English j, like in the words gelato (jeh-lah-toh) (gelato) and pagina (pah-jih-nah) (page).
To make the g soft sound before a, o, and u, you insert an i between g and the following vowel. You don’t pronounce the i, though; it’s just there to soften the g. Here are some examples: già (jah) (already), Giovanni (joh-vahn-nee) (John),and Giuseppe (jooh-zehp-peh) (Giuseppe).
Sometimes g combines with li to form gli, which sounds similar to the English double l in billion:famiglia (fah-mee-lyah) (family), figlio (fee-lyoh) (son),and tagliatelle (tah-lyah-tehl-leh)(noodles).
When g is followed by n, it produces a sound like the English ny in canyon, for example: lasagne (lah-sah-nyah) (lasagna), bagno (bah-nyoh) (bath), signore (see-nyoh-reh)(mister),and signorina (see-nyoh-ree-nah) (miss).
Hearing (or not) the silent “h”
The consonant h often feels unnecessary because it doesn’t have any sound; in fact an Italian saying goes non vale un’acca (it’s not worth an h). Although h is silent, it’s no less important than the consonants with a voice. By simply adding an h, you can change the sounds and meanings of many words, including the following:
ci (chee)(there)becomes chi (kee) (who)
c’è (cheh)(there is) becomes che (keh) (what, that)
getto (jeht-toh)(I throw) becomes ghetto (geht-toh)(ghetto)
Consider this: Without the h, you wouldn’t have spaghetti (spah-geht-ti) (spaghetti).
Pairing “q” with “u”
As in English, the letter q in Italian is always accompanied by u and pronounced like kw as in the English word quack. It usually precedes a diphthong (see the earlier section “Combining vowel sounds”). Here are a few examples: qui (kwee) (here), qua (kwah) (here), and quadro (kwah-droh) (picture).
Rolling out the letter “r”
When you have a single r in a word, it has a sound comparable to the English d. For example, Mari sounds like Madi. You get this d sound by trilling the r — that is, by bouncing the tip of your tongue off the upper palate or right behind your front teeth. In English, when you say an r, you move the tongue toward the back of your mouth. Moving the tongue forward takes some practice. Try saying it in words like these: prego (preh-goh) (you’re welcome), arte (ar-teh) (art), grazie (grah-tsee-eh)(thanks).
Sounding out “s” with success
The consonant s takes on different sounds in Italian, but there’s no hard and fast rule about when s sounds like the English s and when it sounds like the English z. Where s appears in a word — at the beginning, between two vowels, or before a consonant — can influence the pronunciation, but it isn’t always consistent. To pronounce the s correctly, you need to listen carefully to others’ pronunciation. The following examples show general rules at work. Keep in mind that there are exceptions to these rules.
When preceding a vowel or a consonant inside a word (that is, when the vowel or consonant doesn’t start the word), s sounds like the English s, as in mouse. For example, salame (sah-lah-meh) (salami), sabato (sah-bah-toh) (Saturday), testa (teh-stah) (head), and festa (feh-stah) (party).
When used between two vowels or before a consonant that starts a word, s can sound like the English z, as it does in English word hose. Here are a few examples: rosa (roh-zah)(rose), sdegno (zdeh-nyoh) (disdain), tesoro (teh-zoh-roh) (treasure), and esercizio (eh-zehr-chee-zee-oh) (exercise).
When s is followed by c then a, o, or u, it has the English k sound, like so: pesca (peh-skah)(peach), fresco (freh-skoh)(fresh, cool),and scuse (skooh-seh) (excuses).
When sc is followed by e or i, it sounds like the English sh:pesce (peh-sheh) (fish), scena (sheh-nah)(scene), and sciagura (shah-gooh-rah)(disgrace).
When you see sch, followed by e or i (it’s never followed by a, o, or u), you pronounce it like the English k, like so: pesche (peh-skeh)(peaches) and scheletro (skeh-leh-troh) (skeleton).
The importance of spelling and pronunciation is never more clear than with words like pesca, pesce, and pesche. If you’re in a restaurant and order pesche, you get peaches; if you order pesce, you get fish. Quite a difference.
Getting your z’s in order
Last but not least in the sounds of single consonants, I give you z. It has two pronunciations:
z sometimes sounds like the English ts in gets when it’s doubled or when it has an i following it; for example, pizza (pee-tsah)(pizza), grazie (grah-tsee-eh) (thanks), and Venezia (Veh-neh-tsee-ah) (Venice).
z sounds like the ds in reds when it’s single, as in these words: zero (dseh-roh)(zero), zanzara (dsahn-dsah-rah) (mosquito), and zingaro (dseen-gah-roh)(gypsy).
Doubling up consonants
In Italian, you can double all consonants except for h. When you double consonants, you draw out the sound more than if the consonant was single. You have a sense of almost pausing between the two consonants. Note: When you have a double r, you roll it, like more of a sustained trill (see the earlier discussion on trilling r’s in “Rolling out the letter ‘r’”). The double s takes on the sound of the English s.
Here are some examples of doubled consonants:
bello (behl-lo)(beautiful)
ferro (fehr-roh) (iron)
mamma (mahm-mah)(mom)
Rossini (rohs-see-nee) (Rossini)
soqquadro (sohk-kwah-droh) (mess, confusion)
spaghetti (spah-geht-tee)(spaghetti)
Give the Italian spelling that produces the same sounds as you see in the following English words. Keep in mind that you’re not translating; you’re simply giving the Italian spelling that produces an equivalent sound to the English word.
Q.chow
A.ciao
1.get _______________
2.jealous _______________
3.shoe _______________
4.concerto _______________
5.herb _______________
6.familial _______________
7.Joe _______________
8.Quito _______________
9.Chile _______________
10. judo _______________
Adding Stress with Accents
In Italian, you use accent marks (grave, as on è, and acute, as on é) for two reasons. If the accent falls on the last syllable of a word, it tells you to stress that syllable, as in these examples: città (chee-tah) (city), cioè (choh-eh) (that is), però (pehr-oh) (however), virtù (veer-tooh) (virtue), and perché (pehr-keh) (why, because). If the accent is acute, as in perché or sé (seh) (themselves), the e is closed.
Accents also show you the different meanings of two words with the same spelling, as in the following examples.
è (eh) (is)
e (eh) (and)
sì (see) (yes)
si (see) (oneself)
però (pehr-oh) (however)
pero (pehr-oh) (pear tree)
là (lah) (there)
la (lah) (the, it, her)
né (neh) (neither, nor)
ne (neh) (some)
dà (dah) (gives)
da (dah) (from, by)
Accents don’t appear in the middle of words to show where you place stress. Knowing which syllable to stress is something you get from studying and practicing Italian. Placing stress on the appropriate syllable is important, because some words are spelled the same way but carry a different stress or pronunciation.
For example, in English, the words conduct (behavior) and conduct(lead, direct) are spelled the same, but you stress different syllables (underlined in this case) when you pronounce them to indicate which meaning you’re using. Some Italian examples follow:
ancora (ahn-coh-rah) (still)
ancora (ahn-coh-rah)(anchor)
subito (sooh-bee-toh) (suffered)
subito (sooh-bee-toh) (immediately)
pagano (pah-gah-noh) (pagan)
pagano (pah-gah-noh) (they pay)
Polishing Your Italian Sound: Intonation
Intonation is the musical quality, the lilt and pitch of your voice, that you use in language to clarify meaning. Consider the difference in how you say You’re going (a statement) and You’re going? (a question). When making a statement, the pitch of your voice drops at the end of the phrase or sentence. When asking a question, you raise the pitch of your voice at the end.
In Italian, you do the same thing. For example, when you say I bambini stanno mangiando (The kids are eating), you lower your pitch on the last two syllables, -giando. To make this same sentence a question, I bambini stanno mangiando? (Are the kids eating?), you raise the pitch of your voice on -gian and drop it slightly on -do.
As in English, you can raise or lower the pitch of your voice to emphasize any part of a sentence.
Learning a language is like learning to play a musical instrument or to sing — it takes practice and patience. And Italian is especially musical.
Getting the Most Out of Dictionaries
Dictionaries are both a help and a hindrance. Using them to look up every word you’re not sure of can be time-consuming and frustrating. It can also be misleading.
For example, trying to translate a recipe from English into Italian, a student once wanted to say, “First, you brush a chicken with oil.” His searches in the dictionary led him to say, “First, you sweep a chicken with petroleum.” Not quite the same thing, though it certainly is a compelling image. Another student kept using the word prep. I finally figured out that she was taking the first word of a dictionary definition, the word that indicates which part of speech is being defined, and using that.
Before giving you the meanings of words, dictionaries tend to give you their pronunciation, but usually only if the pronunciation deviates from the general rule that the stress in Italian words falls on the next-to-last syllable. They tend not to show the phonetics of words. They also show what part of speech words are. Here are two examples:
pizza, n.f. [noun feminine] Neapolitan savory flatbread with toppings.
medico, n.m. [noun masculine] (plural medici) mEdico [shows that the stress falls on the third-to-last syllable] Physician, doctor.
You can often decipher a word’s meaning from its context. For this reason, I suggest putting the dictionary aside until you’ve tried reading an entire paragraph, for example. The surrounding text may provide clues to an unknown word’s meaning.
If you do have to use the dictionary, I suggest making your own vocabulary list. Add words as you come across them for the first time, in a small notebook divided alphabetically, for example.
Navigating a monolingual Italian dictionary
There are many good monolingual Italian dictionaries, almost all of which include exemplary sentences that use words in context. Such dictionaries tend to be large and heavy, so I recommend using them online instead. And a bonus of using online dictionaries is that access is generally free.
Monolingual dictionaries give you two distinct advantages that bilingual dictionaries can’t. First, they keep you from translating everything from English to Italian; that is, they keep you from filtering everything through extra layers and thus contribute to your ease of learning. Second, they allow you to build your Italian vocabulary dramatically. By reading a definition, you expose yourself to additional vocabulary and undergo what may be called passive learning.
A particularly useful type of monolingual Italian dictionary is a dizionario ragionato dei sinonimi e dei contrari (dictionary of synonyms and antonyms). I find it helpful when trying to teach adjectives, for example, to give pairs, such as bello (beautiful), brutto (ugly); vecchio (old), giovane (young);and buono (good), cattivo (bad). Often, if you can’t remember one of the words in a pair, the opposite will trigger your memory.
Using a bilingual Italian-English/English-Italian dictionary
Choosing one Italian-English/English-Italian dictionary from the multitudinous offerings can be baffling and overwhelming.
