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BASIC INFORMATION
Approximately 70 million (70,000,000) people speak the language in Italy and
in areas where there is a high rate of Italian migration. In many ways,
standard Italian remains more of a concept than a living language. Italy offers
one of Europe's finest examples of dialectal variation, and some "dialects"
such as Sardinian, Corsican and Sicilian are truly separate languages. Others,
such as Neapolitan and Milanese, hardly match the Tuscan-based vocabulary and
structure of the standard language.
PRONUNCIATION
The pronunciation of Italian is rather regular, most every letter always
represents the same sound except where written as double:
| Lettera/Lettere ~ Letter/Letters | Pronuncia ~ Pronunciation | Esempio ~ Example |
| a | father | parlare (to speak) |
| b | boy | bicchiere (glass) |
| c | cash before a/o/u, check before e/i | ecco (here is), c'è (there is) |
| ch | cash (always) | chiamare (to call) |
| d | dog | di (of, some, from) |
| e | let or say* | è (is) |
| f | fish | formaggio (cheese) |
| g | girl before a/o/u, gymnasium before e/i. | gusto (taste), giorno (day) |
| gu | anguish (always) | guidare (to drive, to guide) |
| gh | guy (always) | ghiotto (greedy) |
| gl | million | figlio (son) |
| gn | onion, canyon | ogni (every, any) |
| h | (silent) | ho (I have) |
| i | seem | in (in) |
| l | light | là (over there) |
| m | me | mettere (to put) |
| n | nice | no (no) |
| o | often or so* | non (not) |
| p | spite | per (for) |
| qu | quick (always) | qui (here), acqua (water) |
| r | slightly trilled | ragione (reason) |
| s | safe; pays between vowels | sei (you are), francese (French) |
| ss | sick (always) | essere (to be) |
| t | stair | testa (head) |
| u | soon | luce (light) |
| v | vase | vendere (to sell) |
| z/zz | cats or dads | tizio (guy), pizza |
*Although there is an ideal Italian pronunciation where both these sounds exist mutually exculsive from each other in the language, many speakers simply use a constant sound for these letters: "e" more like let, and "o" more like so. Take care with "e"; however, for the accent -é at the end of a word means that it must be pronounced as in say, -è that it must be pronounced as in let.
As a general rule, the stress falls one syllable back from the last (called the penultimate). Luce, then, is pronounced "lOO-chay", with a great amount of weight on the first syllable. Stress is rather heavy in Italian. If the last letter of a word is a vowel and carries the stress, it needs an accent mark: verità truth, perché why/because.
Most every vowel takes a grave accent mark (à, è, ì, ò, ù) in the final stressed position. For simplicity's sake, the typed accent mark often becomes nothing more than an apostrophe beside the letter (hence verita', perche' ).
Long consonants (written as double bb, cc, dd, etc.) are pronounced with twice the length of the single consonant. You will never see the combination "ct" in Italian; it becomes long "tt" (dottore [doctor], fatto [fact], etc).
BASIC GRAMMAR
The Italian noun has either a masculine
or feminine gender. In the singular, masculine tends to end
in -o, feminine in -a, and words in -e can be of either gender.
Words in -zione/sione (related to Spanish -ción/-sión, Portuguese -ção/-são, French -tion/-sion, Romanian -t¸ie [sometimes -t¸iune]/-sie [sometimes -siune], and Catalan -ció/-sió) are feminine, just as in those languages.
When forming the plural, an -o becomes -i, an -a becomes -e, and an -e becomes -i. If we take the word espulsione (expulsion; as Spanish expulsión, Portuguese expulsão, French expulsion, Romanian expulsare, and Catalan expulsió), for example, the plural is espulsioni.
The articles agree with the number and gender of the noun:
Indefinite (a/an)
| Masculine | Masculine, before s+consonant or z | Feminine | Feminine, before vowel |
| un letto (a bed) | uno specchio (a mirror) | una settimana (a week) | un'arancia (an orange) |
Definite (the)
| Masculine | Masculine, before vowel | Masculine, before s+consonant or z | Feminine | Feminine, before vowel | |
| Singular | il letto (the bed) | l'amico (the friend) | lo specchio (the mirror) | la settimana (the week) | l'arancia (the orange) |
| Plural | i letti (the beds) | gli amici (the friends) | gli specchi (the mirrors) | le settimane (the weeks) | le arancie (the oranges) |
The articles usually accompany the noun, and it is common to see them where English would reject them: Parli lo spagnolo, signore? (Do you speak Spanish, sir?).
The Italian verb follows the same basic principles as its sister languages, so don't be surprised if you recognize a verb, verb form, or usage of a verb as being similar to Spanish, French, etc. As in any Romance Language, the present indicative active of the verb often occurs where English would use the present participle (in Italian, for example, parlo means "I speak" or "I am speaking").
Italian has three verb terminations ("infinitive endings"): -are, -ere, and -ire. Here are the regular present indicative tense conjugations for each of the infinitive endings, including sample verbs:
| -are | parlare (to speak) | -ere | vendere (to sell) | -ire* | finire (to finish) | |
| Io (I) | -o | parlo | -o | vendo | -(isc)o | finisco |
| Tu (you)* | -i | parli | -i | vendi | -(isc)i | finisci |
| lui (he) | -a | parla | -e | vende | -(isc)e | finisce |
| lei (she) | -a | parla | -e | vende | -(isc)e | finisce |
| Lei (you)* | -a | parla | -e | vende | -(isc)e | finisce |
| Noi (we) | -iamo | parliamo | -iamo | vendiamo | -iamo | finiamo |
| Voi (all of you)* | -ate | parlate | -ete | vendete | -ite | finite |
| loro (they) | -ano | parlano | -ono | vendono | -(isc)ono | finiscono |
| Loro (all of you)* | -ano | parlano | -ono | vendono | -(isc)ono | finiscono |
*Tu is used for familiar/informal situations when addressing a single person, Lei for more formal ones. Voi is the plural of tu, hence it is less formal than Loro.
* Quite a few verbs in -ire take this -(isc)- before the verb endings.
Adjectives agree with the noun, and most always follow them: un letto rosso (a red bed), i letti neri (the black beds). An adverb is simply formed by adding -mente to the feminine form of the adjective: rapidamente (quickly, rapidly; from rapido quick, fast, rapid).
BASIC WORDS AND PHRASES
These phrases reflect the standard language, and do not account for
the many dialectal variationsof Italy:
Buon giorno! = Goodday!
Ciao! = Hello! (also: Bye!/Ciao!)
Come stai? = How are you?, How's it going?
Come sta? = How are you? (formal)
(Sto) bene. = (I'm) well.
Male. = Badly.
Così così. = So-so.
Molto... = Very...
Come ti chiami? = What's your name?
Come si chiama? = What's your name? (formal)
E tu? = And you?
E Lei? = And you? (formal)
Signore. = Sir.
Signor (+ nome). = Mr. (+name).
Signora. = Madam, Mrs. (with or without name).
Signorina. = Miss (with or without name).
Piacere. = Pleased to meet you.
Per favore. = Please
Per piacere. = Please
Scusi. = Excuse me.
Ecco... = Here is...
C'è... = There is...
Ci sono... = There are...
Sì. = Yes.
No. = No.
Grazie. = Thank you.
Prego. = You're welcome.
Che (cosa)? = What?
Cosa? = What?
Chi? = Who?
Perché? = Why?
Che ora è? = What time is it?
Arrivederci / ArrivederLa! = Goodbye!, See you later! (informal/formal)
Joshua Rudder, talktume@hotmail.com.