For many Italian language speakers—even for those whom Italian is their madrelingua—the phrase parti del discorso might seem foreign. English speakers know the concept as "parts of speech," but it's probably a term vaguely remembered from grade school grammar.
A part of speech (whether Italian or English) is a "linguistic category of words generally defined by the syntactic or morphological behavior of the lexical item in question." If that definition intrigues you, then an introduction to Italian linguistics might be a jumping off point. Suffice it to say that linguists have developed a classification system that groups specific types of words according to their roles.
For anyone whose primary goal is to speak like an Italian, perhaps it's enough to be able to identify each of the parti del discorso to facilitate learning the language. By tradition, grammarians recognize nine parts of speech in Italian: sostantivo, verbo, aggettivo, articolo, avverbio, preposizione, pronome, congiunzione, and interiezione. Below is a description of each category with examples.
Sostantivo
A sostantivo (noun) indicates persons, animals, things, qualities, or phenomena. "Things" can also be concepts, ideas, feelings, and actions. A noun can be concrete (automobile, formaggio) or abstract (libertà, politica, percezione). A noun can also be common (cane, scienza, fiume, amore), proper (Regina, Napoli, Italia, Arno), or collective (famiglia, classe, grappolo).
Verbo
A verbo (verb) denotes action (portare, leggere), circumstance (decomporsi, scintillare), or state of being (esistere, vivere, stare).
Aggettivo
An aggettivo (adjective) describes, modifies, or qualifies a noun: la casa bianca, il ponte vecchio, la ragazza americana, il bello zio. In Italian, there are several classes of adjectives, including: aggettivi dimostrativi (demonstrative adjectives), aggettivi possessivi (possessive adjectives), aggettivi indefiniti (indefinite adjectives), aggettivi numerali (numerical adjectives), and gradi dell'aggettivo (degree of comparison adjectives).
Articolo
An articolo (article) is a word that combines with a noun to indicate the gender and number of that noun. A distinction is usually made between articoli determinativi, articoli indeterminativi, and articoli partitivi.
Avverbio
An avverbio (adverb) is a word that modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb. Adverb types include manner (meravigliosamente, disastrosamente), time (ancora, sempre, ieri, place (laggiù, fuori, intorno), quantity (molto, niente, parecchio), frequency (raramente, regolarmente), and interrogative (perché?, dove?).
Preposizione
A preposizione (preposition) connects nouns, pronouns, and phrases to other words in a sentence. Examples include di, a, da, in, per, and tra.
Pronome
A pronome (pronoun) is a word that refers to or substitutes for a noun. There are several types of pronouns, including pronomi personali soggetto, pronomi diretti, pronomi indiretti, pronomi riflessivi, pronomi interrogativi, and the particella ne.
Congiunzione
A congiunzione (conjunction) is the part of speech that joins two words, sentences, phrases or clauses together, such as: quando, sebbene, anche se, and nonostante. Italian conjunctions can be separated into two classes: congiunzioni coordinative (coordinating conjunctions) and congiunzioni subordinative (subordinating conjunctions).
Interiezione
An interiezione (interjection) is an exclamation that expresses an improvisational emotional state: ah! eh! ahimè! boh! coraggio! bravo!
