Author: Ann Maria

Hello my Italian fellow learners! Here is an article about Italian nouns for beginners.
Italian nouns have a gender and number pattern. Most nouns have a predictable pattern, and a few of them are ” irregular ” not following a precise scheme.

Generally, nouns indicating people and animals have both genders, nouns stating things have a gender fixed by grammar, and nouns ending with -E are miscellaneous. To determine the gender of a noun look at the end of the word.

Genders

• NOUNS ENDING WITH -O are usually masculine singular

• NOUNS ENDING WITH -A are usually feminine singular

• NOUNS ENDING WITH -E are miscellaneous, to determine their gender, look at the noun’s surroundings (articles, adjectives).

EX. ” Il pied-E piccol-O ” the word piede is next to a masculine singular adjective ending with -O.

EX. ” La chiav-E piccol-A ” the word chiave is next to a feminine singular adjective ending with -A.

• NOUNS ENDING WITH A CONSONANT are masculine singular.

Plurals

To pluralise a noun observe the end of it.

• NOUNS ENDING WITH -O are pluralised with -I

EX. ” Un ragazz-O ” ( a boy ) ” Due ragazz-I ” ( two boys )

” Un tavol-O ” ( a table ) ” Due tavol-I ” ( two tables )

• NOUNS ENDING WITH -A are pluralised with -E

EX. ” Una ragazza ” ( a girl ) ” Due ragazz-E ” ( two girls )

” Una mel-A ” ( an apple ) ” Due mel-E ” ( two apples )

• NOUNS ENDING WITH A CONSONANT don’t change

Remember that nouns, determiners, and adjectives must agree with each other in gender and number.

You decided to learn Italian, you bought your books, and now it’s time to start practising. In this article, we’ll break down the rules to build Italian sentences. We need to differentiate the kinds of phrases.

• AFFIRMATIVE SENTENCES
• SIMPLE INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES
• INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES WITH QUESTION WORDS
• NEGATIVE SENTENCES

AFFIRMATIVE SENTENCES

To form an affirmative Italian sentence, you need to follow the SVO rule:

SUBJECT + VERB + OBJECT

EX. ” He eats an apple ” = ” Lui mangia una mela ”

EX, ” We read a book ” = ” Noi leggiamo un libro ”

THE SUBJECT IS OMITTED SOMETIMES

Often, the subject is omitted because the verb conjugation tells you exactly who is performing the action.

EX. ” Leggiamo un libro ”

EX. ” They eat a pizza ” = ” Mangiano una pizza ”

ADJECTIVES ACCORDANCE & COLLOCATION

Most of the times the adjective is placed after the noun and matches the gender and the number of the noun.

EX. ” Carla buys nice bags ” = ” Carla compra borse belle ”

EX. ” They eat red apples ” = ” Mangiano mele rosse ”

EX. ” They eat a red apple ” = ” Mangiano una mela rossa ”

SIMPLE INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES

In Italian, the ” DO structure ” doesn’t exist; we form questions by using a question mark at the end of the sentence, and we change tone of voice while pronouncing the phrase.

EX. ”Do you eat red apples? ” = ” Mangi mele rosse? ”

EX. Do you want a coffee? ” = ” Vuoi un caffè?”

INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES WITH QUESTION WORDS

To form a question by using the question words you must follow this pattern:

QUESTION WORD + VERB:

EX. ” What do you eat? ” = ” Cosa mangi?”

EX. ” Where do they go? ” = ” Dove vanno? ”

NEGATIVE SENTENCES

To make negative sentences, we use NON, which must be placed BEFORE the verb, and sometimes is located between a proper noun and the verb.

EX. ” Carla doesn’t buy bags ” = ” Carla NON compra borse ”

EX. ” They don’t eat apples ” = ” NON mangiano mele ”

Last but not least, remember that Italians form their sentences using accordance. The noun matches the article, the adjective agrees with the noun.

I hope this article helped you go through Italian sentences! Have a good one!

Hello everybody, and welcome to Italian learners. Today I’m talking about the first steps to learn Italian, almost (not completely) on your own.
Let’s start with things you must avoid doing :

1. Don’t rush
2. Don’t be shy
3. Don’t overload your brain with too much information

1 DON’T RUSH

Means that you need to begin from scratch with the alphabet and basic sentence building.

You can use many videos on YOUTUBE to master the Italian alphabet and pronunciation, and I personally suggest you buy ”FACILE FACILE A0” if you are an absolute beginner.

2 DON’T BE SHY

You don’t need to perform a perfect conversation from the beginning, find a partner to practice with and start talking as much as you can.

3 DON’T OVERLOAD YOUR BRAIN WITH TOO MUCH INFORMATION

You might be tempted to research tons of grammar rules at first, but this will lead you to read a lot of notions and retain nothing. Instead plan your study schedule and set a number of hour you want to dedicate to Italian.

Once you cooled down, the need to learn as fast as you can, here is what you need to do in order to progress constantly and ineluctably.

FIRST STEP: SET YOUR SCHEDULE

Brainstorm a little bit, sit at your desk and plan the amount of time you want to use in studying Italian. If you are at the very beginning I suggest 3 hours per week maximum.

SET YOUR GOALS

What level of Italian do you want to reach? A1 – A2 – B1 – B2 – C1 – C2 ?

Are you studying just to travel in Italy, or are you studying it for your job or to study there?

If you’re willing to get a certification you need a teacher that helps you to pass the exams and learning the language by yourself won’t be enough.

On the other side if you’re learning the language solely for personal interest you might need a teacher once in wile or at least a speaking partner.

This goal affects the study schedule you want to create.

GRAB THE MATERIAL

Once you’ve setted the goal and decided how much time you want to study, you can decide which material suits your needs.

You can buy your books. From my experience, I’ve always used the ” FACILE FACILE A1 ”, ” FACILE FACILE A2 ” and ” FACILE FACILE B1 ”. In these books, you’ll find a few grammar rules and exercises to start practising Italian. You also need to grab at least a tailored narrative book (letture graduate in italiano) because, in the meantime you learn the grammar and do the exercises you need to put together the rules and gain an acquaintance with sentence building.

Choose a website or a blog where you can find interactive exercises.

Choose a Youtube channel (no more than two) where you can find the grammar rules explained by an expert. My suggestion are : ” Vaporetto italiano ”, ” Learnamo” and ” Easy Italian ”.

FINAL TIP: WRITE, WRITE, WRITE

Every time you learn new words and structures, write down some phrases for the sake of practice. Create a scenario in your head and try to write down a brief conversation, this will help you to get through conversations once you land in Italy, wether is for your free time or for your job.

I hope these tips will help. Did you find them useful?

And you? What are your experiences? What are your worst nightmares in learning Italian? Are you facing a tough chapter in the process? Let me know in the comments!