Archive

Review time: Round 2

The theme here is: I'm given flash cards, and I need to accurately translate the sentence into Italian. Let's Go! The living room Didn't know Answer: Il soggiorno The bathroom Guessed: Il bagno Corretto! The entrance hall Didn't know Answer: L'

Vocabulary: Week 17

Here's what I have on the docket. I'll test myself at the end of the week to verify that I have retained this. A bunch of the verbs I already know, but I haven't made the connection with infinitive, present and past participle. My

Status Sunday: Week 17

The "getting things back on track for real this time" edition. It's been about four months since I started learning Italian, and for more than one full month of that time, I didn't do any practice. So, here's the point where I

Study time! Part 1

I'm set to start Dante Global's A2 class on Friday, and I'm embarrassed to share that, in the month between the A1 and A2 classes, I basically haven't practiced. Now, the time is great to start cracking away at the 240 review

Status Sunday: Week 13

The "getting things back on track" edition. I was down with a pretty nasty bug through most of October, so I am completely off track with both blogging and studying. My plan this coming week is to blog about some pretty basic stuff to refamiliarize myself with some

How to Tell the Time In Italian

Telling the time in Italian follows a straightforward structure, but there are a few key differences from English. I'll cover these below. Che ore sono? This is the most common way to ask, "What time is it?" You're literally asking, "what are the

Those Words In Italian That Capture The Essence of Life

As I've mentioned a few times on this blog, the key to effectively learning a language is to understand the idioms, phrases and words that give the language its character. Otherwise, you're just speaking in your native language and subbing in Italian words. Italian also has

When and How to Use -issimo, -issima, and -issimi

One of the ways you can emphasizes intensity or extremes in Italian, is with the use of the superlative suffixes -issimo, -issima, and -issimi. The superlative form is used to express the highest degree of a quality, often translated as "very," "extremely," or "most"

What's the longest word in Italian?

Let's take a little break from the usual learning elementary Italian and have some fun with words. Precipitevolissimevolmente is widely regarded as the longest in the Italian language, consisting of 26 letters. It is an adverb that can be translated as "in a hasty or headlong manner&

What Is Included In The Italian B1 Language Exam?

To give you a little background as to why I'm learning Italian, my wife is currently going through the process of claiming Italian citizenship as a member of the worldwide Italian diaspora. I don't have any Italian blood relatives, so for me to gain Italian citizenship

Status Saturday: Week 10

My, how the time flies! I skipped a week on here. Babbel Progress Current lesson: Beginner A2 - Course 1 * Despite the characteristically hectic week, I did finish Babbel's newcomer unit, and now I'm on to Beginner A2. Review average score: NA * Didn't practice

Status Monday: Week 8

Come sto andando? Diamo un'occhiata. Babbel Progress Current lesson: Newcomer II (A1.2) - Unit 10 * Last week sneakily turned into another hectic work week, so I wasn't able to practice as much as I'd like. Review average score: NA * Didn't practice

10 'False Friends' for English-Speaking Italian Learners

As I've mentioned in previous blogs, I'm starting to build up an elementary vocabulary in Italian. As you do that, you run into these things called "false friends." What are false friends? False friends are words in two languages that look or sound similar

Start Memorizing Here: The 20 Most Common Verbs

One of the most daunting parts of starting to learn a language is building your vocabulary. I mean, I've spent almost 40 years speaking English, and I'm still learning new words. It's estimated that there are around a half-million words in the Italian language.

Introduction to Passato Prossimo

One of the most challenging parts of starting to learn a language is being patient. If you're like me, you're eager to start forming more and more complex sentences in the language you're learning. However, this can become problematic if you haven't

Status Saturday: Week 7

The getting back into the swing of blogging edition. Babbel Progress Current lesson: Newcomer II (A1.2) - Unit 10 * It was another busy week, so I didn't make much progress in Babbel or blogging, but the good news is that things look like they're going

Status, uh, Monday: Week 6

Come sto andando? Diamo un'occhiata. Babbel Progress Current lesson: Newcomer II (A1.2) - Unit 9 * As expected, it's been a busy week, so I haven't had any time for blogging. I've got another hectic week ahead, so I expect we'

Status Saturday: Week 5

Come sto andando? Diamo un'occhiata. Babbel Progress Current lesson: Newcomer II (A1.2) - Unit 8 * Lately, the focus has been on the irregular verb fare, as well as the verbs piacere and preferiscere. * After disappointing progress in Weak 4, I really leaned into things things week. I

When to put the adjective before the noun, and when to put it after

As I've been working through my elementary esercizi, I've been noticing that adjectives sometimes go after the noun and sometimes they go before. This came as a bit of a surprise. I had assumed that Romance languages always stuck the adjective after a noun. However, that&

How to use 'mi piace' and 'mi piacciono'

We spent a recent session in my Dante Global course learning how to use the phrase mi piace. Mi piace and mi piacciono are used to express likes or preferences. It's pretty simple, but this one is a little tricky for English speakers, because the subject of the

When to use a definite article with a possessive

When you want to express a possession of something in Italian, you typically structure it in the following format: 💡Definite article + Possessive + Noun * Il mio cane - My dog, literally "the my dog" * I suoi colleghi - His colleagues, literally "the his/her colleagues" * Tua nonna

Status Saturday: Week 4

Come sto andando? Diamo un'occhiata. Babbel Progress Current lesson: Newcomer II (A1.2) - Unit 5 * Currently learning helpful phrases like "No capisco" and "Cosa significa?" * It was a busy workweek, so I had minimal time to work in Babbel or to blog about

Simple prepositions in Italian

I'm starting to learn prepositions! This is Part 1 of a two-part series. Let's cover some of the more common prepositions in Italian today, and tomorrow I'll review how these interact with definite and indefinite articles in sentences. So, let's start with

Status Saturday: Week 3

Come sto andando? Diamo un'occhiata. Babbel Progress Current lesson: Newcomer II (A1.2) - Unit 5 * Now we're talking about prepositions. Review average score: 51% OOOF! * Practiced this week on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday * Some stuff is coming easy, and some stuff hasn't sunk

When to use c'è and ci sono

Work is getting busy, so it's a short one today. I'm starting to get the hang of using c'è and ci sono in conversation. What are they, and when should you use them? C'è and ci sono are both used to express

Make sure your nouns agree with everything else

One of the things I really enjoy about learning a new language is the way it challenges you to shift the way your brain works. As a native English speaker and until I started learning German as a high schooler, I conceived the world in English. It was the house,

The rules for indefinite articles

A few days ago, I wrote out a blog post covering the rules for forming definite articles in Italian. Let's briefly review: Singular nouns * Il - Most masculine nouns that start with consonants. * Lo - Masculine nouns that start with a s+consonant, z, y, ps, pn, gn,

Il Condizionale, or 'How to not sound like a jerk'

I'm plugging along with my lessons in Babbel, and lately, I've been coming up on a lot of phrases that include the word vorrei. Of course, I'm dying to know more about what vorrei means, how you form it and when you should use

The rules for definite articles

One of the things I really love about the Italian language is how lyrical it is. Everything sounds beautiful, even when you're describing a brown pair of pants (pantaloni marroni). One of the ways that Italian does this is through its rules for definite articles. Definite articles are

Let's learn the months of the year in Italian

Last week, I shared some tips I made up for memorizing the days of the week in Italian. As a native English speaker, one of the things I was finding tricky about remembering the days of the week in Italian is that they sometimes don't sound like the

Status Saturday: Week 2

Come sto andando? Diamo un'occhiata. Babbel Progress Current lesson: Newcomer I (A1.2) - Unit 11 * Now we're talking about professions, foods and clothes. Review average score: 82% * Practiced this week on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday * After a frustrating Week 1, I felt a lot

The 5 W's (and more!)

Both my Società Dante Alighieri and Babel courses have heavy focuses on immersion. They drop you into do-able cases where you are either understanding or constructing sentences in Italian, and the repetition and context helps you learn other words and usages naturally, as if you were learning Italian as your

Present tense conjugations of the verb Avere

Last week, I got some practice writing down the present tense conjugations of the word Essere ("to be"). This week, let's do Avere ("to have"). As you might imagine, Avere is very commonly used in Italian, so it's an important one to

Let's count to 100 in Italian

I have been learning and practicing my numbers a lot this week. In that spirit, let's count to 100! Numeral Italian 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

Handy phrases in Italian: Super beginner edition

Fluency is the ability to easily express yourself in a language, written or spoken. While vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation are obviously big parts of that, it's important to also learn the idioms and phrases that add flavor to the language. After all, there's no better way

Status Saturday: Week 1

Learning new language is all about being consistent and methodical. It's learning a little bit every day, practicing, and making sure it sinks in. To help keep myself honest, I'll update with my status every Saturday - Babbel Progress Current lesson: Newcomer I (A1.1) -

Here are two tricks to remember the days of the week

Back when I was taking high school German, our teacher would have us start each class by reciting the conjugations of sein, haben and werden in order. Ich bin, du bist, er ist, sie ist, man ist (take a breath) Wir sind, ihr seid, Sie sind (repeat) I can'

Present tense conjugations of the verb Essere

Let's start at the very beginning, shall we? After all, you can't do anything else until you are. Essere means "to be." It's the most-used verb in the Italian language, and it's used in a number of different contexts, including:

A little bit more about my approach before officially kicking off this blog

I minored in German in college, so I have the experience having learned a new language in an academic setting. This is my first time "learning a language on my own," but having gone through the experience in German, I've learned a few lessons that will

Andiamo! And off we go

This is my first post, and it's going to explain the point of my blog. I'm going to link to it from the navigation so it's easy to find for folks who stop by. Hi, I'm Justin and I'm learning