Come to the Italian Language Gym

Hello students, think of the forum as an Italian Language gym, Max and I are your personal Italian trainers! Like physical exercise, you have to do the work, but we are here to support you and motivate you, Max maybe more inclined to the "stick" method and I may be more bent towards the "carrot" - but the truth is we are here for you.

The forum is a great place to practice your developing writing skills. Even if you feel that writing is too advanced, all you need to know is a few words to actually write a sentence.

If you don't know the Italian, don't be shy, insert as much of the corresponding English as you need. The goal is to communicate and put your words and phrases to use. We will give you feedback and gradually complete what you have written.

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Let's start with a first writing exercise: Tell us something about why you are learning Italian - in Italian.

Here's an example from a beginning student (and Max will give me feedback)

Studio Essential Italian. Ho fatto la lezioni 1-6. Ho fatto due etutor lezioni. Mi piace Italiano. I want to viaggiare a Italia prossima estate e parlo con persone quando sono in Italia.

Coraggio studenti!

Giulia

Bene. Scrivo qualcosa in italiano. Non sono uno studente d'italiano ora, ma ho studiato molti anni fa. Ora studio il giapponese perchè vado a (in?) Giappone in aprile. Faccio molte, molte domande nel foro giapponese! Studio casi tutti i giorni, ed ora faccio il secondo libro, Intermediate. Posso parlare un po’, ma non posso leggere i ‘kanji,’ solamente il hiragana, chi è come un alfabeto. Voglio anche praticare l’italiano, perchè come vedete, ho molto dimenticato !

I never though about being a personal trainer, but I like the idea.

Bravo Alan. Your Italian is very good, you could definitely work for Living Language! Basically, you made no mistakes, only 2 things.

1) "vado a (in?) Giappone in aprile" 'IN". Rules goes IN + State or Region and A + cities. Example: Vado a Roma in aprile. Vado in Russia in gennaio.

2) "Studio casi tutti i giorni" should be "Studio quasi tutti i giorni". It is just a very minor mistake, Giulia will tell you more about QU vs. CU.

Other students want to comment? This is a good exercise, thanks Alan.

Giulia, any more comments?

Grazie! Devo studiare il giapponese ora, ma forse vado a tornare a l'italiano, perche vedo che ci sono eTutors molti bravi! (Come in giapponese!)

"Come nel forum giapponese"

Ciao Alan,

You did a great job, complimenti!

Let me add one more thing. As Max hinted at, the spelling of the word quasi as well as words such as cucina quando, acqua. What these words have in common is that they are pronounced "kuh", but have very different spellings. Incidentally, this also highlights that even in Italian, which has a pretty transparent or phonetic spelling system, there are also irregularities: i.e. the same sound unit spelled differently depending on context.

Let's figure out the "rule" or to use a term I prefer, the generalization for cu vs qu.

Here it goes:

If the sound sequence "ku" is followed by a consonant, the spelling is C not Q

Examples: cucina (kitchen), cugino (cousin), cuscino (cushion/pillow)

If the sound sequence "ku" is followed by a vowel, the spelling is Q not C

quasi (almost) quando (when), quadro (painting), Pasqua (Easter)

Exceptions: i.e. individual words that do not follow the general pattern, so words where the sound is followed by a vowel but still spelled with c, not q. can you think of any before reading on??

You might have thought of these:

cuore, scuola, cuoco

They all contain the "ku" sound sequence followed by a vowel, but are still spelled with cu

Finally, there is one more spelling convention for "ku" sound sequences, and this concerns the cases where "ku" is part of a "strong" sound, so called "doppie" geminates or double consonants. There are found frequently in Italian, but not in English, so they require some practice

acqua "water"

acquisto "purchase"

Keep on writing!

Ciao

Giulia

Giulia: too long...this is a gym.

Salve, mi chiamo Doreen. Io sono di Sun Ca. I want to learn italian to help me with my work and challenge myself. I am just starting out, today is my second day. :) Ciao Gratzie

Bene. Welcome to Living Language. So, if it is your second/third day, I assume you are still studying lesson 1 and 2.

Would you mind to write four or five very short/simple sentences with "C'e' " and "Ci sono"? (There is/There are). Example: Ci sono due gatti (There are two cats). I will correct them if needed. I know, it may be very easy, but please do so so that we can get to more complex ones with articles and more. Avanti! :)

PS: it is Grazie not gratzie.

Ciao Doreen, here's some examples - to make it functional, imagine telling someone about the town you live in

Ci sono due ristoranti

c'e' una banca

c'e' un ufficio postale

ci sono due cinema

can you add a couple more? If you don't know the word off the top of your head, you can either look it up, guess (some italian words are close to the English -- as you can see above -- once you get used to the different spelling and some changes in pronunciation)

Go for it!

Giulia

Grazie per questo. Mi amore tutti per Italia - mangiare, vino, cafe, museo, gente... Magari posso parlare con piu italiani. E difficile quando non parlare tutti i giorni. Ma, posso fare Living Langauage qualche tempi per settimana. Poi posso godere italia ancora piu!

Esatto!

Salve Giula e Max,

Mi chiamo e Corey. Io sono in New York. Io ho un famiglia di cinque: Padre, madre, fratello e una sorella. Mi padre, madre e sorella sono in Ohio. Mi fratello e in Texas. Io ho [other] familia in New Jersey: mi zio, zia e due cugini. Noi siamo Italiano.

Io sono [taking] italiano [because I have always wanted to and have plenty of free time on my hands due to a broken leg. womp womp. I am through lesson 4].

Grazie, ciao.
Corey

Bene Corey...See bold below for some very minor mistakes you made, this is a great beginning :) Congratulazioni!!! Too bad for you leg, but you can get something out of your temporary problem...

Mi chiamo e Corey. Io sono a New York. Io ho un famiglia di cinque: Padre, madre, fratello e una sorella. Mio padre, madre e sorella sono in Ohio. Mio fratello e in Texas. Io ho un'altra famiglia in New Jersey: mio zio, mia zia e due cugini. Noi siamo Italiani.

Io studio italiano perche' ho sempre voluto farlo e perche ho una gamba rotta. Ho finito la lezione quattro.

Corey -- come va la gamba?

Buena sera Max.

Ciao e grazie for asking. Mia gamba è cosi cosi. It's a long recovery with broken ankles; the accident happened in June and I cannot put weight on it until September. That said, it's feeling much better and physical therapy is going well.

After attending my 1st online tutoring session it was clear that while I am up to lesson 5, I still had to study lessons 1-4 again. Since that session, I studied how to conjugate essere. I have trouble remembering what goes after noi and voi, but hopefully with practice it will become second nature.

I had hoped to transcribe the above in Italian using the glossary, but I honestly have no idea how to say verbs. I see that "chiedere" means "to ask". how would I say "asking"?

Welcome, I am glad you are recovering ("rimettersi", "ricoverare" is a double false friend: it means "to be hospitalized". )

So I will give you a few glossary terms here and there vs your writing, and you will fill the gaps, bene?

ankle = caviglia

accident = incidente

weight = peso

feeling better = sentirsi meglio

session = sessione

to remember = ricordare

trouble = problema

glossary = glossario

practice = pratica or esercizio

Use the present of chiedere, you will be fine for now.

Riposati!

This is not the right place to ask this question, but, after my intermediate course, it says expires january 20, 2014.. What happens then, and how do I continue with courses thks

Hi Doedoe25,
If you have questions like these in the future, it's best to send them to [email protected].
Now, about your course expiring, the online course subscription lasts for one year, so presumably you activated your course on January 20, 2013. You can renew your subscription after it expires. In fact, when you try to access it after this date, you will be asked if you'd like to renew your subscription and redirected to the page to purchase the renewal.
If you need more details, just send us an email at [email protected].
Best,
Erin
Living Language

Buon giorno! Mi chiamo Patti. Today is my first day at Living Language. I want to learn Italian so I can travel to Italy and find out more about my grandparents. They were from Italy.

Ciao Patti,

Benvenuta a Living Language! Mi chiamo Roberta e sono una degli e-Tutor di italiano. Di dove sono i tuoi nonni (where are your grandparents from?)

Roberta (Italian e-Tutor)

Salve, I finished the Essentials course and started the Intermediate. I'm dying to jump in and start speaking/writing with someone. So, here goes...

Mi piace italiano. Mia ragazza speaks fluenti. Lei è my motivation. I haven't told her that I'm studying italiano. È a surprise for our primo anniversario.

Ok, that seemed like a lot. Looking forward to hearing from someone.

Dave

Buon Pomeriggio a tutti!

Io sono Piero. abito nella città di Guayaquil, in Ecuador.

Per imparare l'Italiano, tutti i giorni ascolto musica, radio, leggo i giornali e favole, tutto in italiano!!! , anche parliamo italiano con mia madre che è Italiana ( si ride perché non parlo perfetto come lei, ma, va bene.. sto imparando ancora =D )

Ho fatto già l'unità 3 dell'Italian Intermediate. devo dire che sono felice perche ho imparato moltissime cose fin'ora e voglio imparare più.

Saluti!!!

Ciao Piero,

se guardi anche film in italiano qui sotto c'è un elenco molto utile:

http://iloveitalianmovies.com/2013/02/09/30-best-italian-movies-of-the-new-millenium/

Buona visione!

Roberta
(Italian e-tutor)

Buongiorno a tutti!

Vorrei impararare italiano perché mi piace viaggiare in Italia con mia moglie. Questa estate siamo in viaggio per Piemonte e Toscana. Sono molto emozionato!!

A presto!

George

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