Complexities Of Learning Italian
Like any other language, Italian has its own specificities that need
to be addressed. Being a Latin language, it bears several similarities
to other European languages. However, native English speakers often
struggle with several aspects of Italian. This article describes some of
the difficulties encountered by beginners.
Pronunciation
This is the first and foremost difficulty that the foreigner
encounters when trying to speak Italian. While the alphabet is identical
to English, the ways the letters are pronounced are very different. The
first step is to memorize pronunciations as this greatly facilitates
understanding. For example, pronunciation of vowels is as follows:
Vowel Pronounced as
A ah
E eh
I ee
O oh
U oo
Consonants are also pronounced differently. For example, “CH” when found
before “E” is pronounced as “CK” as in “click”. Another pronunciation
quirk of the Italian language is the stress put on “r”. Native
English-speakers often find it difficult to replicate this sound. It
comes only with great practice. Italians also put inordinate stress on
the second syllable before the last. For example, “signore” is
pronounced as “si-YORE-ay”.
Grammar
Italian grammar is characterized by the use of a large number of
articles, propositions, and interjections which all have to be memorized
together with the contexts in which they can be used. For example,
different articles will be used depending on the gender of the
word/noun, whether it is in singular or plural, and whether it starts
with single consonants, double consonants or vowels. For example:
Masculine, singular with a single consonant: il teatro (the theatre)
Masculine, singular with a double consonant: lo specchio (the mirror)
Masculine, singular with a vowel: l’orso (the bear)
There are also exceptions to the presence of the article. For example,
in exclamations there are not articles. For example: “Che bel uomo!”
(What a handsome man!).
Another intricacy of Italian grammar is that some articles and
propositions can be combined to form entirely new words. For example:
Proposition + Article =
A + il = AL
(At)
Gender and Number
Italian, like English, uses two genders (masculine and feminine) and
two numbers (singular and plural). Nouns have different endings
depending on their gender and number agreement as shown below:
Singular Plural
Masculine -o -I
Feminine -a -e
To complicate matters further, there are many exceptions to this rule as
well!
It must further be noted that when a noun is masculine, all its articles
become masculine as well.
Diminutives
Like English, specific word endings indicate a smaller version of the
noun. However, the list of diminutives is much longer in Italian. For
example, “-ino” can be added to “ucello (bird)” to become “ucellino
(little bird) in the same way as “-ie” would have been added to form”
birdie”.
Questions
Of more interest to foreigners, is how to ask questions in Italian.
The list of interrogative pronouns is as follows:
Che cosa? WHAT?
Chi? WHO? WHOM?
Quale? Quali? Which one(s)?
Quanto How many?
The above pitfalls are certainly not the only ones beginners will
encounter. A lot of practice is required to be a master of Italian
language.
From: www.italianphrases.org.uk
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