Let's talk about Italian (1 Viewer)

Martin

Senior Member
Dec 31, 2000
56,913
#1
To make people feel a little more comfortable in here, let's have a thread where we can talk freely about Italian, but in English.

Do you like it? Do you speak it? Would you like to know it? Do you already have a history with it?

Tell us :)
 

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RAMI-N

★ ★ ★
Aug 22, 2006
21,469
#10
I always like Italian but couldn't learn it... I had to learn Japanese because I went to Tokyo and then had to learn German because I was coming to Germany :D
So, I didn't have time to learn Italian.
I want to learn it, even if I'm 60 years old :D
 
OP
Martin

Martin

Senior Member
Dec 31, 2000
56,913
  • Thread Starter
  • Thread Starter #18
    Always wanted to learn Italian. How does it compare to nordic languages?
    It's quite different. The sentence structure is not the same and you have to get used to how pronouns are used differently, for instance:

    - I drive the car.
    - (Io) guido la macchina.

    Io is usually left out because it is inferred from the form of the verb (different for every person). When you use a pronoun instead it moves to stand in front of the verb:

    - I drive it.
    - (Io) la guido. (I-it-drive.)

    Negation comes before both pronoun and verb:

    - Jeg gïør det ikke.
    - (Io) non lo faccio. (Jeg-ikke-det-gjør.)

    And vocabulary wise there are many roots in common with English, so many words you can guess. But there are also many roots that don't appear in English. Typically words that come "later" in human history, like "organization" = "organizzazione" are borrowed, while words that came early are not "foot" = "piede".
     
    OP
    Martin

    Martin

    Senior Member
    Dec 31, 2000
    56,913
  • Thread Starter
  • Thread Starter #20
    I would've done it at school but my school only did French, German and Spanish. I did Spanish instead.
    Then you are well along to Italian anyway, because they have great many similarities. You need to know what basic verbs like querer, poder, ir, hacer, ser, tener are in Italian, and such basic verbs are almost always different from language to language. (But beyond that many are the same or similar.) Once you have that you can probably read some Italian right away.

    The great thing about learning a language from a certain language family is that the better you know it, the more of a head start it gives you with another of the same family.
     

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