Articles Index

Counting in Italian
How to count in Italian from one to one hundred. Includes a discussion of Italian cardinal numbers and links to workbook exercises.

Counting in Italian
How to count in Italian from one hundred and greater. Includes a discussion of Italian cardinal numbers and links to workbook exercises.

Italian Capitalization
Many words that are capitalized in English are not capitalized in Italian. These include: the days of the week, the months of the year, proper adjectives, a few proper nouns, and titles such as Mr., Mrs., and Miss.

Italian Apostrophes
In Italian the apostrophe (l'apostrofo) is generally used to indicate the dropping of the final vowel before the word that follows it.

Italian Ordinal Numbers
The Italian ordinal numbers correspond to English first, second, third, fourth, and so on. Italian ordinal numbers show the place in a sequence or in a numbered series.

Italian Language Week
Italian Language Week

An Italian Would Never Say That
You'll never sound like an Italian native if you persist in repeating linguistic dead giveaways - that is, grammatical mistakes, habits, or tics that always identifies a native English speaker regardless of how competent that person is in Italian.

Italian Modifying Suffixes
Sometimes an Italian noun can be modified to express a particular quality without using a qualifying adjective. These nouns are created by taking the root of the noun and adding a suffix. Italian nouns formed this way are called i nomi alterati (altered, or modified, nouns).

Think Like An Italian, Speak Like An Italian
If you want to learn Italian, forget your native tongue. If you want to achieve competency in Italian, you must think like an Italian - and that means getting rid of the helpers that are really hindrances and standing on your own two (linguistic) feet.

Fra Virgolette
Italian quotation marks are sometimes treated as an afterthought in the classroom and in textbooks, but to English-speaking natives reading Italian newspapers, magazines, or books, it's fairly obvious that there are differences in both the symbols themselves and how they are used.

La D Eufonica
In the Italian language la d eufonica is an euphonic phenomenon, in both spoken and written Italian, in which the letter d is appended to the words a, e, and o when the following word begins with a vowel.

Italian Accent Marks
Italian accent marks include the accento acuto (acute accent) and the accento grave (grave accent).

Beware False Friends in Italian
There are many types of Italian friends, for example: amici del cuore (close friends), amici fraterni (fraternal friends), and amici d'infanzia (childhood friends). There are also amici per la pelle (best friends), amici della buona sorte (fairweather friends), and amici di penna (pen pals). One type of Italian friend to beware of, though, is the falso amico.

Italian Language Week: Italian Language in the Piazza
That's the theme chosen for the eighth annual Italian Language in the World Week, which will take place from October 20th to the 26th. The initiative, inaugurated with much success in 2001 both in Italy and abroad, renews the commitment of Italian institutions to the promotion and diffusion of the Italian language and culture.

Getting Beautiful
Emboldened by her language successes and shocked by her shaggy reflection in the salon window, Bonnie decides to brave a haircut. Will the hairdresser slip clients in front of her? Will she sit wet-headed forever?

Mangled Menu Italian
misspelled italian menu italian

Every Tom, Dick, and Sempronio
Every Tom, Dick, and Harry. Ever hear someone use that expression to indicate multiple unspecified people? In Italian, the analogous phrase is: ogni Tizio, Caio, e Sempronio.

Forgotten Italian Subject Pronouns
Usually one of the first Italian language lessons that beginners study is Italian subject pronouns (pronomi personali soggetto). Too often, though, there's a whole subset of Italian subject pronouns that's given scant attention, including egli, ella, esso, essa, essi, and esse.

Top 10 Myths About Learning Italian
Do you want to learn Italian, or do you want to spend your time coming up with excuses for why you can't learn Italian? Like other self-improvement activities you can convince yourself with a multitude of excuses why you can't pronounce Italian words or conjugate Italian verbs, or you can use that time and energy to learn Italian.

The Best Way To Learn Italian
The secret to learning Italian? Practice, practice, practice. Any method is appropriate, whether it's reading an Italian textbook, taking a language course at a university or local language school, or conversing with a native Italian speaker.

Getting Limoncello
Enjoying her last night in Rome, Bonnie receives a compliment and makes a promise to return to Italy. Only next time maybe she'll stay a long, long time and finally become fluent.

Eavesdropping
Overhearing conversations, the author understands more than she should. Why was that Italian woman greeting her lover good evening at nine o'clock in the morning. And why hadn't he known she was in Rome?

Immersing Myself
Shopping for lotion in her no-tourist neighborhood, Bonnie discovers the dangers of full-immersion. She becomes immersed in Italian, but not in the way her Italian teachers had in mind.

Xke No-ing? Or Connecting With Friends
Wanting a social life, Bonnie struggles to master her cell phone and text messaging in Italian. It seems as if SMS is the new way of writing and communicating in Italian.

Being Naive
Determined to finally speak Italian fluently, the author heads to Rome and is shocked at how little Italian she knows.

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