Interesting about the Italian language.
History, facts, modernity.
Let's start with a couple of words about the current status of the language, it is obvious that Italian is the official language in Italy, the Vatican (simultaneously with Latin), in San Marino, but also in Switzerland (in its Italian part, the canton of Ticino) and in several counties in Croatia and Slovenia, where there is a large Italian-speaking population, Italian is also spoken by a part of the inhabitants on the island of Malta.
» Learning Italian from scratch. Easily!
One of the most popular types of questions on services like "Mail.ru Answers" or "Google Answers" are questions from people who are interested in studying certain foreign languages, but decisive, before starting classes, "test the ground" and find out what they need to mentally prepare for.
With this article, I would like to address, first of all, precisely such people. However, it will be interesting in itself for those who wish to broaden their horizons.
The article is divided into 2 antonymous parts:
Characteristics will be given in comparison with other major European languages (mainly English) for greater clarity.
I will start talking about Italian with a few interesting facts. Modern Italian can be considered an artificial language, which was developed after the unification of the country in the 60-70s. XIX century based on the Tuscan dialect. Even during the First World War, Italians from different regions could hardly understand each other, and it was then that the imposition of official Italian began especially actively.
Now I can say from my own experience that no one has problems with understanding. Dialets have not gone away, but now they are used mostly in the plane of personal, friendly (if friends are from the same region) and family relationships. The vast majority of the population speaks Italian without any problems, the only exception is provincial Italy, and even then it is mainly its elderly contingent, which communicates with each other almost exclusively in dialect (for example, the conversations of Trentino pensioners living in mountain valleys, an Italian from another risks not understand completely).
In fact, many dialects are essentially independent languages. For example, it is very interesting that the Sicilian dialect is a direct descendant of Latin itself, and has nothing to do with Italian. And, for example, the Sardinian language is completely independent language, having its own dialects.
How does one start learning any language? Of course, from phonetics. For those who know English, it will not be difficult to read Italian competently - probably, in terms of phonetics, Italian is the easiest language in the world. There are 21 letters in total (which is 5 less than in English language) plus combinations of letters that form sounds that are easy to reproduce in Cyrillic (gn - н, gl - л, sc - sh, etc.) and will never cause such despair among beginners as the same English sound "th" or its the Spanish analogue of "c" / "z" (without this word in Spain you will not be able to pronounce correctly, for example, the word "beer" (cerveza)), not to mention the nasal sounds of the French language, without knowing which you will not be able to correctly pronounce even the most elementary words like "bon" (good).
With regard to the relationship between vowels and consonants, the situation against the background of the Russian language with a gigantic host of phonetic rules seems simply elementary: vowels are pronounced exactly the same as on paper, consonants do not change or soften, and the reading of some of them is regulated by a few very elementary rules.
The incredible ease of Italian phonetics, unfortunately, goes sideways for native Russian speakers, whose speech is "captive" to a huge number of Russian pronunciation rules that are automatically put into action when speaking in Italian.
The Italian ear is very sensitive. Often, when changing one sound, they refuse to understand the word as a whole. This is especially detrimental to the acane, the significance of which in the matter of mangling Italian words can be overestimated:
"doloroso" [doloroso], but by no means [dALArozo].
"mortalita" [mortalita], nor not [martalita].
The softening of consonants sounds especially terrible in Italian:
"livello" [livello], here "l", sounds the same as in the word "scrap", but not like in the word "rainstorm".
That is, the difficulty for the Russian speaker, paradoxically, lies precisely in the ease of pronunciation, that is, in the absolutely accurate reading of each vowel and consonant of Italian words.
In addition, do not neglect the meaning of double consonants, of which there are a lot in Italian.
It is strongly not recommended to pronounce at the pace of a high-speed train. If the name of the famous musician Ramazzotti is spelled with two "t" and two "z" (Ramazzotti), then it should be pronounced like this: not [ramozotti], but [ramazzotti].
Italian language is analytical. This means the absence of cases, the function of which is performed by prepositions. Despite the obvious lexical similarity with Latin, Italian is nevertheless very far from Latin in terms of grammar: in Italian there is, as I said, terrifying for students in 6 cases, there is no neuter gender and there are many other differences.
The absence of a case system always makes life much easier. Those who studied German understand this. Although there are only 4 of them, even this number is enough to cause panic attacks in beginners when they see tables of case declensions of German articles, adjectives and numerals.
Let's make a visual comparison:
English: My brother's younger sister gave her mother 2 pieces of bread.
Italian: Mia sorella minore di mio fratello ha dato 2 fette di pane alla sua mamma.
As you can see, in the Russian version we did without prepositions at all, while the analytical structure of the Italian language means a very active use of them, which, of course, is easier to learn even for native speakers of the "mega-synthetic" Russian language.
Another initial theme, which, it would seem, should not cause problems is articles. The rules for their use are seemingly simple, but in fact, speakers of Russian and other languages who are not "burdened" with this language tool make a lot of mistakes here, which greatly disfigures Italian speech.
There is a lot to be learned just by cramming. Using English as a guide will not help matters - there are too many differences.
I'm going to the theatre: Vado a treatro (no article).
I'm going to the cinema: Vado al cinema (with the article).
Without going into details, we can especially dwell on the fact that in Italian articles are obligatory for possessive pronouns, which contrasts with most European languages. Compare:
English: I see my car.
German: Ich sehe mainen Wagen.
French: Je vois ma voiture.
Spanish: Veo mi coche.
English: I see my car.
Italian: Vedo la mia auto (la is the article, mia is mine).
As you can see, only in Italian, when using a possessive pronoun, is it worth paying attention to the corresponding declension of the article referring to the noun.
The derivation of many Italian nouns (in particular, household items) is a great example of how often the language does not "steam" and goes in the most straightforward way.
Many words are a banal "verb + noun" link in an almost completely modified form, which greatly simplifies their memorization:
portare (carry) + cenere (ash) = portacenere (ashtray).
portare (carry) + container (container) = portacontainer (container ship).
portare (carry) + bagagli (luggage) = portabagagli (trunk).
lavare (wash) + stoviglie (dishes) = lavastoviglie (dishwasher).
aspirare (inhale) + polvere (dust) = aspirapolvere (vacuum cleaner).
spazzare (sweep) + neve (snow) = spazzaneve (snowplow).
asciugare (wipe) + mani (hands) = asciugamani (towel).
And many other words.
In addition to the simplicity of word formation of such nouns, their ease lies in the fact that they are invariable, that is, the transition to the plural is grammatically displayed only by changing the article.
The subjunctive mood (congiuntivo), the use of which in Romance languages is approximately functionally similar, presents difficulties for Russian speakers. Strongly (very strongly) generalizing, the subjunctive mood means that the information provided is either doubtful or emotionally colored. Sometimes Italians deliberately replace the subjunctive with the indicative in order to give their words more power and authenticity, but in doing so they make a grammatical error.
In practice, the use of the subjunctive means that you must always remember the appropriate forms of the verb when expressing hope, expectation, emotion, dissatisfaction, etc.
For example:
Information presented as fact:
Black car = L "auto e nere.
Now let's add a little "personality factor":
I think his car is black = Credo che la sua auto sia nera.
Both in the first phrase and in the second - 3 persons, singular. the number of the verb "to be", but as you can see, in the second version it has changed: it is not already stated here that the car is really black, but only our opinion, that is, that we believe that it is black.
Complicating the situation with the use of the subjunctive is the fact that it is used in a huge number of the most used phraseological units, for example, after the words "although", "in order to", "in order to" and so on, and you need to get used to it, otherwise, the speech will not only be illiterate, but even "difficult to understand."
You study almost all other romantic languages at the same time - they have such similar vocabulary. In addition, in learning Italian, knowing an English dictionary, which also contains many Latin elements, will be of great service to you.
Here are just a thousandth of such words:
Russian - English - Italian
allow - permit - permettere
stunning - splendid - splendido
huge - enorme
page - page - pagina
apartment - apartment - appartamento
terrible - terrible - terribile
accurate - accurate - accurato
casual - casual - casiale
diary - diary - diario
pen - pen - penna
powerful - potent - potente
and many, many other words.
What's even more interesting. In addition to vocabulary, you will also find a huge number of grammatical similarities with other romantic languages as well. Their number is incalculable: from the most common to the conjugation of irregular verbs.
Post navigationIn this section you can find and download free Italian tutorials.
Book: Practical Italian course
Dobrovolskaya. Yu.A.
Chapter: language training
Type of: home tutor
Pages: 460
Year: 2006
Format: pdf
The size: 2.1 mb
Description: This electronic edition is addressed to both students and anyone who wants to learn the language. Exercises are full of turns of necessary speech, most texts abound with dialogues. which distinguishes the textbook as a practical guide to mastering the language.
Excellent classic textbook of classical Italian. Everything the diligent learner needs to master the language at the highest level.
The textbook material is presented in a clear, concise, accessible and concise manner. The book contains the necessary information on the history, geography, economy and culture of Italy. Much attention is paid to everyday vocabulary.
Book: Italian self-instruction manual. The fastest Italian.
Format: PDF
Number of pages: 130
The manual is intended for intensive teaching of the Italian language - oral speech, reading, understanding and communication. Covers vocabulary on 12 major everyday topics. Includes grammar information needed to communicate fluently in Italian. Contains country-specific information about Italy. Unlike many other textbooks, this most attention paid not to grammatical information, but to vocabulary - in the book you will find the most common in modern language words and expressions that can be useful in practical situations, when communicating with native speakers, on a business or tourist trip, etc. Instead of traditional lessons, the textbook consists of twelve weeks, each of which consists of seven days, and the day is divided into morning, afternoon and evening. We recommend practicing every day: a quarter of an hour a day will be enough to begin to understand and speak Italian in three months. On the last day of each week, you will be offered exercises to consolidate the material covered during the week. Answers to the exercises are given in the section "Keys to the exercises"
M.: 2006. - 376 p.
The new generation self-instruction manual is addressed to those who have not previously studied Italian and want to master it quickly and independently. The manual includes an introductory course aimed at mastering the rules of reading and pronunciation, 11 lessons of the main course on vocabulary and grammar, lesson dictionaries, Italian-Russian and Russian-Italian dictionaries, a short grammar guide, exercises of varying degrees of difficulty with keys. The self-instruction manual is supplied with an audio appendix on a CD containing texts and dialogues voiced by Italian speakers, as well as a color insert illustrating the regional study materials of the lessons. Accessible and step-by-step presentation of the material, explanations in Russian, efficient system self-control make the manual indispensable for both children and adults - for those who have never studied languages or think that they have no ability for them. After completing the entire course, the reader will be able to communicate in Italian in typical situations, read Italian texts of medium complexity and not get into an awkward position due to ignorance of Italian customs and norms of linguistic behavior.
Format: pdf
The size: 24.6 MB
Watch, download: drive.google
cd- disk.
Format: mp3/zip
The size: 54.3 MB
Download: drive.google
CONTENT
To readers 3
How to work with this book 4
introductory course
Lesson #1
ft 1. Italian alphabet 6
Rules for pronunciation of vowels and consonants. Accent Rules 7
ft 2. Reading exercise No. 1 ....8 Reading rules: letters c, g before a, o, and, letter s; letter e; letter!; double consonants 8
ft 3. Reading exercise No. 2 ....8 Grammar:
§ 1. Noun gender 11
§ 2. Indefinite article: forms and main cases of use 11
§ 3. Question Che cosa e? 13
Lesson #2
Reading rules: letter s (continued) 16
ft 4. Reading exercise No. 1 16
Reading rules: letter i; letter i; letter q c, g before i, e 17
ft 5. Reading exercise No. 2 ....18
Grammar:
§ 1. Plural of nouns 19
§ 2. The concept of mixed gender .... 20
Lesson #3
Reading rules: letter combinations gn, gli, che, chi, ghi 24
ft 6. Reading Exercise No. I 24
Language and culture: Signora? Signorina? (Signora? Signorina?) 25
Grammar:
§ 1. Indefinite article: cases of non-use 26
§ 2. Plural indefinite article 26
§ 3. Adjective: forms and place in sentence 27
§ 4. Agreement of an adjective with a noun 28
Lesson #4
Reading rules; letter g 32
ft 7. Reading Exercise No. 1 32
Grammar:
§ I. Definite article: forms and main uses 33
Italian lifestyle: Non solo un cafie (Coffee and more) 37
Lesson #5
Reading rules: letter combination sc 39
ft 8. Reading Exercise No. 1 39
Grammar:
§ 1. Personal pronouns 40
§ 2. Irregular verb essere 40
§ 3. Non-use of the article in the answer to the question about the profession 41
ft 9. Dialogo No. 1 (Dialogue No. L): Ciao! (Hey!) 42
ft 10. Dialogo #2: Buon giorno! (Good afternoon!) 44
Grammar:
§ 4. Designations of nationalities 45
ft I. Dialogo No. 3: Di dove siete? (Where are you from?) 47
Italian way of life: Caffe di nuovo! (And one more time about coffee!) 48
Traveling in Italy:
L "ltalia. Profilo geografico (Italy. Geographical portrait) 49
Lesson #6
ft 12. Reading exercise JN "Q 1 51
ft 13. Reading Exercise No. 2 51
ft 14, Reading exercise, \ "e 3 51
Grammar:
§ 1. Irregular verb avere 52
ft 15. § 2. Intonation schemes 54
ft 16. II testo della lezione (Text of the lesson): Chi e 0 16
§ 3. Adverb anche ..117
§ 4. Irregular verbs venire, tenere .118
§ 5. Irregular verbs stare, dare 119
§ 6. Cardinal numbers from 21 to 1000 000 000 120
ft 25. II testo della lezione: A casa di Sergio (Sergio's House) 121
ft 26. II dialogo della lezione: Nelsalotto (In the living room) .129
Language and culture:
Comunicare con la gente (How people communicate).133
Itmyan way of life: Fcste nazionali e religiose (National and religious holidays) 133
Traveling in Italy: Colosseo (Coliseum) 133
Quinta lezione (lezione 5)
Grammar:
§ 1. Modal verbs 135
§ 2. Unstressed personal pronouns 137
§ 3. Personal pronouns with modal verbs 140
§ 4. The use of possessive pronouns with terms of kinship 143
§ 5. Irregular verbs conoscere, sapere 144
§ 6. Irregular verb dire 145
ft 27. II testo della lezione: Presentazioni (Introduction) 146
ft 28. II dialogo della lezione: Discorsi sul lavoro (Talk about work) 15)
Language and culture: Tee o Lei? (“You” OR “You”?) 156
Italian way of life: Rapporti con i parenti (Relationships with relatives) 157
Traveling in Italy: Foro Romano (Roman Forum) 158
Sesta lezione (lezione 6)
Grammar:
§\. Reflexive verbs 160
§ 2. Che ora e? Che or sono? - What time is it now? 164
§ 3. Use of the words molto, tanto, troppo, poco, alcuno 166
§ 4. Gender of nouns ending in -ma, -ta, -ca 169
§ 5. Invariable nouns 169
§ 6. Irregular verbs uscire, riuscire 171
ft 29. II testo della lezione: Una giornata di lavoro (Working day) 171
ft 30. II dialogo della lezione: Acena (Dinner) 180
Italian way of life: La dieta mediterranea (Mediterranean diet) 187
Traveling in Italy: L "immagine di Roma Antica (Image ancient rome) 189
Settlma lezione (lezione 7)
Grammar:
§ 1. Passato prossimo (near past tense). Participio passato (past participle) 190
§ 2. Circumstance of time.... 198 § 3. Forms of words bello and quello ....199 § 4. Irregular verb piacere 201
§ 5. Irregular verbs nascere, crescere, salire, porre ....203 ft 31. II testo della lezione: E arrivato Sergio! (Sergio has arrived!) 205
ft 32. II dialogo della lezione: Olga racconta le sue avventure (Olga talks about her adventures) 212
Language and culture:
Un po" sulla storia della lingua (A little about the history of the language)....218
Traveling in Italy: La Roma cristiana (Christian Rome) 219
Ottava lezione (lezione 8)
Grammar:
§ 1. Passato prossimo (near past tense) (continued) 221
§ 2. Passato prossimo (near past tense) modal verbs 223
§ 3. Place of unstressed personal pronouns with verbs in passato prossimo (near past tense) 225
§ 4. Designations of the days of the week 226
Language and culture: Perche si chiamano cosl (Where did these names come from) 227
Grammar:
§ 5. Designations of dates 227
Grammar:
§ 6. Names of seasons and months 228
Language and culture: La lingua, lelingue,.. (Language, languages...) 228
Grammar:
§ 7. Ordinal numbers 229
Language and culture: Secoli all "italiana (Centuries in Italian) 229
§ 8. Irregular verbs with -urre 231
ft 33. And testo della lezione: Olga si e iscritta ad un corso d "italiano (Olga signed up for Italian language courses) 232
Italian way of life: CompHiamo un modulo! (Let's fill out the questionnaire!) 239
Italian lifestyle: L "lstruzione in Italia (Education in Italy) 241
ft 34, And dialogo della lezione: Olga chiede la strada (Olga asks how to get through.,.) 244
Italian lifestyle: Studiare alFL "niversita (Studying at the university) 247
Traveling in Italy: Roma. Piazze e fontane (Rome. Squares and fountains) ....247
Nona lezione (lezione 9)
Grammar:
§ 1. Futuro semplice (future simple tense) 249
§ 2. Irregular forms of futuro semplice (future simple tense) 251
§ 3. Circumstance of time (continued) 252
§ 4. Futuro anteriore (pre-future tense) 253
§ 5. Participio passato (past participle) (continued) 254
§ 6. Degrees of comparison of adjectives 255
§ 7. Plural of nouns and adjectives in -ca, -ga and -so, -go 258
§ 8. Color designations 259
ft 35. II testo della lezione: Progetti di fine-settimana (Plans for the weekend) 261
Italian way of life: Le autostrade in Italia (Italian motorways) 264
ft 36. \\ dialogo della lezione: Prenotazione di albergo (Hotel booking) 268
Italian way of life: Al mare (On the sea) 272
Traveling in Italy: Firenze (Florence) 273
Decima lezione (lezione 10)
Grammar:
§ 1. Imperfetto (incomplete past tense) 275
§ 2.11 tempo - Weather 276
§ 3. Gerund 279
§ 4, Relative Pronouns 282
ft 37. II testo della lezione: Una storia d "amore (Love Story) 286
ft 38. II dialogo della lezione: Due telefonate (Two phone calls) 291
Italian lifestyle: Matrimonio all "italiana (Marriage in Italian) 297
Traveling in Italy: Musei di Firenze (Museums of Florence) 297
Undicesima lezione (lezione 11)
Grammar:
§ 1. Passive form of the verb 299
§ 2. Imperative 303
§ 3. Imperative mood of irregular verbs 307
ft 39. 11 testo della lezione: Un incidente stradale (Road accident) 310
Italian way of life: Andare in macchina in Italia (Around Italy by car) 313
ft 40. II dialogo della lezione: Dal medico (At the doctor's) 315
Italian way of life: La multa! (Penalty!) 320
ft 41.11 dialogo della lezione. Al ristorante (In the restaurant) 320
Travel in Italy: Venezia, citta sul mare (Venice, city on the sea) 327
Forms of irregular verbs 329
Italian-Russian Dictionary 330
Russian-Italian dictionary 347
There was a great desire to learn Italian language? Do you want to listen to Luciano Pavarotti and understand him in high tones? Or order in an Italian restaurant with confidence that you are ordering the right one? Statistics show that Italian is the fifth most studied language. On the this moment Italian is spoken by more than 70 million people. Another 150 million speak it as a foreign language. Therefore, Lingust simply could not bypass him. And here is what he offers you.
On the pages of the lessons of this section of the site you will find a specially created for beginners from scratch version of the tutorial from Celeste Zawadska & Maria Majdecka () by learning italian. Its task is to familiarize students with Italian pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary in such a volume that, having mastered the material of the self-instruction manual, they could speak colloquially and independently read journalistic and artistic works of medium difficulty. For this purpose, the tutorial is introduced as dialogues on everyday topics, as well as adapted excerpts from fiction. The self-instruction dictionary covers about 3,300 words from various areas of everyday, socio-political and cultural life. Well consists of 52 lessons + phonetics lesson. The keys to the lessons contain translations of Italian texts and assignment resolutions. The key is activated when the mouse is moved over it: .
Go to → list of lessons ← (Click)
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