indiebird

We have just been to the barbers to get ds's hair cut and I could understand a lot of the general chit-chat!! don't know if it is just a 'good day' but I would like to believe I am turning a corner with the lingo.... until the next stupid thing I say!!

JLFS

I have just been trawling through this thread, and I must congratulate you all.

I like the relaxed way you have the willing to help/willing to listen senario.

I am from the Spanish forum, and everytime we talk about language and stuff, it endus up a real slanging match.

I like the way you all help eachother, and that way you will all progress further and in record time compared to the Spanish forum.

I would like to learn Italian, I know a lot of vocabulary, because I am Spanish, I uderstand the rule about plurals, which is different to Spanish.

What I would really like to know is would it be easier for me to learn using the

" I have bought, I have seen, I have eaten formation, as opposed to

I bought, I saw, etc.

Cheers

Lorna at Vicenza

Hi JLFS,

thanks for the nice compliments.

Which past tense you learn in Italian can often depend on where you live in Italy.

I'm in the North and the people here use the simple past tense all the time.

Ho comprato una macchina.
Ho studiato francese.
Ho mangiato squalo.

It doesn't matter whether they bought the car, studied French or ate shark ten years ago, yesterday or this morning.

37100

Thanks JFLS. It's nice to start the day with a compliment.

We progress rapidly with our Italian because it's a case of sink or swim here. Italians expect you to make the effort to speak Italian and not vice versa. They'll happily listen to you murder Italian even if they are fluent in another language.

Agree with Lorna. We do tend to use the simple past when the past definite would be more appropriate but everyone does it even the media.

Bare in mind that most Italians use a dialect and often drag the quirkiness into their Italian. For example, in Trieste the say twenty and one instead of twentyone and omit double letters.

Have a nice day.

JLFS

Thanks for the replies folks, I will bear in mind what you say.

I like the idea of not bothering with double letters, because we dont really have any in Spanish.
Of course we have ll, but it has a completely different sound to l, and is very easy to follow.
The double rr, is about the only other one, not like English with ss, gg, rr, mm
ll, pp and loads of others.
I feel it should not take me long to get to grips with this, if I make time to study.
The good thing about Spanish Italian and Portugese is that once you reach a good level in any one of the three, you can understand a big chunk of the other 2.

I hope you dont mind me popping in.

Cheers, and ciao

Lorna at Vicenza

Feel free to pop in anytime.

You won't get any slanging matches here as we are all a pretty nice bunch of people...... a bit of sarcasm now and again and of course the infamous British sense of humour but nothing too untoward.

JLFS

Thank you again, it will make a refreshing change.

Could you give me a little pointer on "letter sounds".

I have figuered out about the "ch" as in Al pacino, and the rule that with no "h" written the h is sounded. (I think)

I would like to know about the Gs. Does it change to marry up with the following vowel? If so would it happen with any other letter.

Cheers

Lorna at Vicenza

Words that begin with or include the letters GI are soft and take on the sound of the vowel afterwards :

GI ....... jee
GIO ........ joh
GIA ..........ja
GIU ........... jew


If there is an H the sound is a hard G like the word GHIACCIO ....gee-atch-oh

JLFS

thank you very much, that will help alot. I will wait for the opportunity then pounce with my newfound knowledge.

JL

lynnxa

hey - come & have a beer in Spain - we had a discussion about language without bloodshed!

clint

this is not a good idea, if there are double consonants you need to pronounce both of them as in some case it alters the meaning of the word

palla= ball pala= shovel

pappa= food papa= pope

classic mistake but an amusing one is:

Quanti ani hai? instead of quanti anni hai?

37100

Agree with Clint. Didn't mean that you could get away with never pronouncing doubles even if it is what they do in Trieste, just that there is no need to get too hung up about getting things right. The 'right' way may not be the done way locally.

JLFS

So how do you pronounce double "P" or double "N"

PAT M

ppppapaaaa nnnnonnnnooo, daft i know, just exaggerate each letter

JLFS

That sounds ok to me. A lot of the words you listed have exactly the same meanig in Spanish, so I think I will concentrate on the grammar and use the Spanish word for now.

I will add an "e" on the end of most of the verbs and nouns eg caminar =caminare. Vison = visone.

That way I should be right a good deal of the time. It wil be very hit and miss I know, but I dont know that much vocabulary in Italian. And instead of getting bogged down I gonna go with the Spanish.
Ithink I need the grammar practice more than vocab.

Thanks for the tips,

Deseo a tutti un buon fine settimana

Cheers