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    The Phonetic Guide to Italian: Learn Italian in About a Year
    The Phonetic Guide to Italian: Learn Italian in About a Year
    The Phonetic Guide to Italian: Learn Italian in About a Year
    Ebook967 pages6 hours

    The Phonetic Guide to Italian: Learn Italian in About a Year

    By Matthew Lawry

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    About this ebook

    This book is about learning the phrases and sentences and getting to grips with saying the language without going into the grammar first. In that way, you can have fun learning how to say certain things and also you do not come up against stumbling blocks and frustrations.

    The idea behind this thinking was because when I was a child, my parents used to tell me words before they taught me how to learn the alphabet, so I thought that was a better way round: get used to the language first.

    I wrote this book to how I thought the student of the language could assimilate and understand it and get a basic grounding of the language. I thought to myself, what was the best thing to learn first, for instance; what the differences between masculine and feminine are; what does the accent mean, so I put this information in the chapter header pages so then I could use more space to actually learn the language.

    I have also put in a conceptual stage, so then you can think about the language for instance. English has quite a few routes to it, like Latin, so quite a few words are very similar, even though the accent can throw us off. It sounds like proper English for instance: disgraceful, which means scandaloso in Italian, which is nearly the same in English.

    I believe there is no right or wrong way to learn; it depends on what you want it for. You may want to practise it on holidays, or you may want to read the Italian newspapers, so sometimes you do not necessarily have to learn the alphabet or the grammar. I like to read newspapers on holidays and watch films in Italian; that is why I wanted to learn it.
    It can also be useful in attaining knowledge for quizzes.

    The only good criticism is a constructive one, not a destructive one.
    Matthew Lawry.

    I hope you enjoy this book as much as I have in writing it.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAuthorHouse UK
    Release dateJul 27, 2012
    ISBN9781477219270
    The Phonetic Guide to Italian: Learn Italian in About a Year
    Author

    Matthew Lawry

    I was learning Spanish and I was finding it really hard. So before I knew it. I naturally started to work out how I thought a student would find it easier to learn a language in a direct way. I had various materials to work with and I just could not take the information in. When I was at School we were learning the languages and I had a vision of a book that gave the information in a simple and effective way. Which lead me to writing my latest book which is called The Phonetic Guide to Italian. I am just a man with a dream to make languages more accessible and more fashionable.

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      Book preview

      The Phonetic Guide to Italian - Matthew Lawry

      © 2012 by Matthew Lawry. All rights reserved.

      No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

      Published by AuthorHouse 07/23/2012

      ISBN: 978-1-4772-1928-7 (sc)

      ISBN: 978-1-4772-1929-4 (hc)

      ISBN: 978-1-4772-1927-0 (e)

      Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

      Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

      Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

      Contents

      Preface

      Introduction

      Prepositions and Pronouns

      Chapter one      Capitolo uno

      Chapter two      Capitolo due

      Chapter three      Capitolo tre

      Chapter four      Capitolo quattro

      Chapter five      Capitolo cinque

      Chapter six      Capitolo sei

      Chapter seven      Capitolo siete

      Chapter eight      Capitolo otto

      Chapter nine      Capitolo nove

      Chapter ten      Capitolo dieci

      Chapter eleven      Capitolo undici

      DEDICATION

      Preface

      I thought I would write a book that would give the reader the basic rudiments to learning and get rid of the problems that I faced and help people learn Italian the easiest way possible.

      Most people learn Italian in which one of the first steps of learning is to learn the alphabet, but I feel that learning Italian through phrases in an associative way and leaving the more complicated sides to learning, after getting the basic language learnt.

      In this book you will learn the language by going through the phrases, speaking them to yourself and learning them in a direct and logical way, although obviously in life you only get what you put in.

      The first couple of chapters are going to be about learning greetings and general knowledge about people. The next chapters I will go into what I call Primary similarities and Secondary similarities, which are ways to help us glean learning through association. Primary similarity is a word that roughly means the same in Italian as in English; like capacità which is capacity, where as Secondary similarity is an Italian word that you can learn and is not quite as straight forward such as questione which means matter or issue, so you can remember it by relating it to an English word.

      The book is about 520 pages long so you can get a wide understanding in about a year if you read two pages in an average day.

      This book is designed for associative learning so then it is not so hard to take in, but obviously, you still have to apply yourself and repeat the words and phrases and sentences which do not necessarily stay in your memory.

      All the phrases will be written down phonetically so then you can learn the pronunciation more easily.

      I hope you enjoy this book.

      Introduction

      I have decided to write a book about the Italian language to iron out any problems that I found while studying the language, such as even remembering basic phrases. I found that grouping phrases together for instance is a great help so I have decided to put words and sentences that are connected together.

      It took me ages to get to grips with it, because we have such a fast life; you do not necessarily have the time to learn it in the text book way. I have put the alphabet at the end of the situational phase of the book the reason for that is; you can then concentrate on the learning of the words and pronunciation without coming up to learning blocks which make you feel like giving up.

      This book is designed to help you have fun in expressing the language and guide you through from general phrases to the more complicated sentences.

      At the beginning of the book I have put a glossary of pronouns and prepositions, so then you can check why they use certain grammar to form sentences: even though; you could learn it proficiently without looking at them. (Only use the prepositions and pronouns as a guide)

      I wrote this book from the point of view of how people that speak English would find it easiest to learn, so that’s why I have put less emphasis on the Italian alphabet and more emphasis on phonetics.

      This book will go from general easy phrases to more difficult ones. You can also skip certain sections depending on how advanced you are. However, all the chapters will be dealt with in a very in-depth way so it will be worth checking out each section. You will notice I have not used full stops, exclamation marks or question marks on the phrases because you can tell whether it is a question such as: Would you like a drink which is Prende qualcosa da bere?

      Prepositions and Pronouns

      (This section is just for guide purposes)

      IL GLOSSARIO

      This is just a quick section to show you the reasons why they put certain words in sentences. I have written these so then if you are not sure what sort of grammar it is you can have a quick look at this glossary.

      Il:—Is a masculine and a definitive article and means the, which comes before masculine singular nouns for instance, Il cavalo which means the horse.

      La:—Is feminine and a definitive article and means the, which comes before a feminine singular noun for instance, La casa which means the house.

      Lo:—Is a masculine and a definitive article and means the, which comes before masculine singular nouns for instance when you use +z, gn, pn, ps, x, and s+consonant.

      Un:—Is a masculine indefinite article and means a or an for instance, Un delfino which means a dolphin.

      Una:—Is a feminine indefinite article and means a or an for instance, Una vespa which means a wasp.

      Uno:—Is a masculine indefinite article and means a or an and is used when you use +z, gn, pn, and s+consonant.

      Lei:—Is a singular pronoun and is used after a preposition or in a comparison and means her or she for instance Lei non lo sa which means she doesn’t know.

      Lui:—Is a singular pronoun and is used after a preposition or in a comparison and means he or him.

      Io:—Is a singular pronoun for instance, Jeff e io which means Jeff and I and can mean Me if it is put at the front of a sentence.

      Sé:—Is a reflexive pronoun for instance Va da sé che which means It’s obvious that or Chi fa da sé fa per tre which means If you want something done well or properly do it yourself and Un uomo che s’é fatto da sé which means A self made man.

      Te:—Is a singular pronoun and it means you for instance Questo regalo è per te which means This present is for you and beata te which means Lucky you. (When stressed)

      Ti:—Is a singular pronoun and it means you for instance and it means you Ti telefono domani which means I’ll call you tomorrow. (When unstressed)

      Voi:—Is a masculine and feminine plural pronoun and it means you for instance Voglio vedere voi, non loro which means I want to see you, not them.

      Loro:—Is a masculine and feminine plural pronoun and it means They or Them for instance Voi lavorate sodo mentre loro si divertono which means You work hard while they have a good time and Lo darò a loro which means I will give it to them.

      Suo/a:—Is an adjective plural for his or her for instance Sua nonna e suo nonno which means her grandmother and grandfather or I suoi libri which means his her books but if it a female noun for instance La sua borsetta which means her handbag and male noun for instance Il suo moto which means his motorbike.

      Tuo/a:—Is an adjective singular for your e.g Tuo padre e tua madre which means Your father and your mother and for instance i tuoi which means your family.

      Vostro Is an adjective plural for your e.g Vostra figlia which means

      /a:—Your daughter and La vostra casa which means your home for instance È vostra quella casa which means is that house yours.

      E/Ed Is a conjunction which means and for instance e is used e.g e Offerta e domanda which means Supply and demand and for instance Il riscaldamento dell’atmosfera terrestre ed l’effetto serra which means the The global warming and the greenhouse effect.

      This is just a useful list to give you some idea of the reasons these words change to different circumstances in a grammatical way and to make it easier, so then we can start building the vocabulary.

      (Do not take this chapter too seriously)

      Chapter one

      Capitolo uno

      In this chapter we are going to cover how to introduce yourself to hobbies and how to ask questions about your job.

      I have put the Italian first, then the pronunciation and then the English; the reason for that is so you can look at the Italian word and get used to saying it before you bother to understand what it means.

      The phonetics I have used are exactly how you would say it in the simplest way, so then you can basically say it in your own accent, because I believe if you know enough your accent will kick in when you visit the Italian speaking country.

      The Italian language is divided into masculine and feminine. I have mostly used masculine e.g Il figlio which means The son because I am male but some feminine words you just have to add an a at the end for example La figlia which means The daughter. Un and Uno+z, gn, pn, s+consonant is male and Una and Un’+vowel is female as you learn the language you will get to know what is masculine and what is feminine instinctively.

      You will also notice in the odd pronunciation I have put a / to divide the words, so that you can pronounce it easier, because some words are more easily pronounced broken up.

      On pronunciation certain words like Giacca which is pronounced jahcah so I have written it down like jahcah, the reason for this is when you speak the word fast it will sound more like jahcah than jihahcah because of the speed of the speech, so the word should morph into jahcah.

      Don’t worry about trying to take everything in at once just look at the phrases and try and learn them by not mentally overdoing it. When you start wanting to learn more and more of the language I would recommend learning a page a day and then going at a pace that is most logical to you!

      Capitolo uno

      Greetings and General Expressions

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