Lesson 1

This Week's New Words:

 ciao - hello, goodbye (familiar)

 salve - hello
 addio - goodbye
 bene - well
 egli - he (literary)
 lui - he (common speech), him
 ella - she (literary)
 lei - she (common speech), her
 esso - it (masculine)
 essa - it (feminine)
 essi - they (persons or things)
 loro - them (persons or things), they (common speech, persons)
 grazie - thank you
 spiacente - I'm sorry
 noi - us, we (plural)
 signore - sir, mister, mr.
 signora - madame, mrs.
 signorina - miss
 tu - you (informal)
 voi - you (plural, formal and informal)
 io - I
Numbers 1-10

 0 zero
 1 uno
 2 due
 3 tre
 4 quattro
 5 cinque
 6 sei
 7 sette
 8 otto
 9 nove
 10 dieci

Pronunciation

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 The gli (followed or not by another vowel) in Italian is pronounced more or less as ll in
Spanish

However there are words like glicine (flower name), negligente, anglicano in which, for
etymological reasons, g and l are pronounced as two separate sounds as in English.

Thus, the Italian word coniglio (rabbit) is pronounced like conihlyo. and the
word conigli (rabbits) is pronounced like conihli.

gn
The gn is the same sound as Spanish ñ i.e. is the same sound as the ny pair in the
word canyon.

Thus, signore is pronounced like sin-yore.

h
The Italian h is always silent and as such an Italian speaker won't pronounce it when it
occurs in foreign origin words (e.g. hotel). Moreover the letter h in Italian occurs only in
the groups ch and gh (see below) and in the present tense of the verb "to have".
Thus, ho ( [I] have ) is pronounced o and hanno ( [they] have) is pronounced anno, the
same as the word anno (year).

Lesson 2 - La Casa (the house)

This week's new words:

NOUNS
 la casa - house
 la cucina - kitchen
 la stanza - room
 il bagno - bathroom
 la tavola - table, board
 il tavolo - table, desk
 la parete - wall
 il muro - wall
 la porta - door
 la sedia - chair
 il telefono - telephone
 la televisione - television
 la finestra - window

VERBS
 stare - to stay (seldom, to be)
 essere - to be
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PREPOSITIONS
 di - of (belonging to, sometimes equiv. to English from)
 da - from
 in - in (something)
ADJECTIVES
 antipatico(-a) - unpleasant
 carino(-a) - pretty
 buono(-a) - good/well
 comodo(-a) - comfortable
 contento(-a) - happy/glad
 malato(-a) - sick, ill
 brutto(-a) - ugly
 grande - big
 pulito(-a) - clean
 cattivo(-a) - bad
 nervoso(-a) - nervous
 simpatico(-a) - sympathetic (person, situation)
 sporco(-a) - dirty
 tranquillo(-a) - calm, quiet
 vecchio(-a) - old

Numbers 11-99

 11 undici
 12 dodici
 13 tredici
 14 quattordici
 15 quindici
 16 sedici
 17 diciassette
 18 diciotto
 19 diciannove
 20 venti
 21 ventuno
 22 ventidue
 23 ventitre
 24 ventiquattro
 25 venticinque
 26 ventisei
 27 ventisette
 28 ventotto
 29 ventinove
 30 trenta
 40 quaranta
 50 cinquanta
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  60 sessanta
 70 settanta
 80 ottanta
 90 novanta

Colors

 bianco(-a) - white
 giallo(-a) - yellow
 arancione - orange
 rosa - pink
 rosso(-a) - red
 azzurro(-a) - blue
 verde - green
 marrone - brown
 grigio(-a) - grey
 nero(-a) - black

Pronunciation

Most of the Italian alphabet is exactly like the English alphabet. Here are some exceptions from
words in this lesson.
c, ci, ch
The Italian c has 2 possible sounds. It can sound like the ch in chip, or like
the k in kite. Unlike English, there are very strict rules about when the Italian c sounds like
a ch or a k. If the c precedes (comes before) an e or an i, the c will have a ch sound. For
example, undici. If the group ci precedes an a, o or u, it is also pronounced as ch ANDthe i
is mute : ciao sounds as English chao. If the c precedes any other letter (a, o, u, or a
consonant, although the latter is very rare), then it will have a k sound, as incomodo. If the
group ch precedes an i, or an e, it is pronounced as k : chi sounds as English kee. The
word cucina has both types of c in it - the first c makes the k sound, and the
second c makes the ch sound.
g, gi, gh
The Italian g has 2 possible sounds. It can sound like the g in got, or like
the j or dg in judge. The rules are similar to the ones described above for c. Thus getto is
pronounced as English jet-toh, and gioia as English joy-ah. While gotto and ghetto are
pronounced as English got-toh and get-toh.
jy
In Italian j and y are not used, and when they occur (in foreign or arcaic words), they are
pronounced as an Italian i.
w
In Italian w is not used, and when it occurs (in foreign words), a native Italian would
pronounce it as a v.

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rr and all other double consonants.
All times a double consonant is written, it is actually pronounced twice. It takes practice
to do it well.
v
Sounds exactly like in English.
s
The Italian s may have two pronounciations. One of them is like English z or s : rosa is
pronounced similarly to English rose with a terminal ah. The other one is like
English se.g. in set : sette is pronounced like set-teh. There are no definite rules on two
pronounciations (although some dictionaries report the "correct" one), and there are
regional variations in the pronounciation of the same word. In general you will be
understood, even if your pronounciation may sound strange. As a rule of
thumb, s followed by vowel in the second or further syllable of a word, has the z sound
(e.g. rosa, casa), while s followed by vowel or consonant (usually t or p) at the beginning
of a word is an ssound : sette, stare.
z
The Italian z is pronounced much harder than an English, like sound ts, or tz, like in
word tzar. There are actually two variant of the z sound in Italian, which are marked in
dictionaries, but are subject to regional variations and make little difference for the
everyday speaker.

Two (not so) confusing verbs - essere and stare

If you have already read the New Words section, you probably noticed that the two verbs
introduced this week sometimes may mean both "to be". In fact however essere is the proper
verb corresponding to "to be". Stare means "to stay", and is used where an English speaker
would expect to use "to be" only in two cases. Confusing the two verbs is proper of popular
speech in Southern Italy but feels somewhat uncouth.

Verb Conjugation

As in English, verbs are conjugated, or take various forms, in Italian. In the present tense, there
are 6 verb forms ("persons"), depending on who the subject of the verb is. Here are the
conjugations for essere and stare:

essere - to be

 io sono ("I am")

 tu sei ("you are")
 Lei /egli (lui) /ella (lei) /esso(-a) è ("you (formal)/he/she/it is")
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  noi siamo ("we are")
 voi siete ("you (plural) are")
 Loro/essi(-e)/loro sono ("you (old formal plural)/they (things and persons)/they
(persons) are")

stare - to stay

 io sto ("I stay")

 tu stai ("you stay")
 Lei /egli (lui) /ella (lei) /esso(-a) sta ("you (formal)/he/she/it stays")
 noi stiamo ("we stay")
 voi state ("you (plural) stay")
 Loro/essi(-e)/loro stanno ("you (old formal plural)/they (things and persons)/they
(persons) stay")
Note that the conjugations for Lei (you), egli (he), ella/lei (she) and esso(-a) (it) use the same
form of the verb. The same goes for their plurals (though the singular and the plural use different
forms).

* - You will note there are formal and familiar forms for the second person, unlike English
where forms like "thou" are in disuse. It is important to use the proper one otherwise you'll look
uneducated. In the singular form you use tu when addressing to a relative, a friend, a colleague
or a child.

It is felt uneducated and unkind to use tu when addressing a person you do not know. In such
cases the form now preferred in modern Italian is Lei (literally, she, and verbs are conjugated
like in the third person singular). I'll write this Lei with a capital L to make it clear. This is not
necessary, although it is used e.g. in commercial letters. Note that the feminine form is used also
when addressing to men : this is because "she" is "your Lordship" and the word Lordship in
Italian is of feminine gender. In the popular speech in Northern Italy this is felt strange, and
sometimes you'll hear Lui (literally, he) as a courtesy form for "you" when addressing a man.
This usage is not recommended.

Another courtesy form used to address a person instead of tu is Voi (literally, "you", i.e. the
plural form, like in English, and using the same conjugation of the plural form). This form is felt
somewhat archaic (it might be used in the South or in the countryside, and was favoured by the
Fascist regime).

In the plural, nowadays use goes for voi both as a familiar and as a formal form. You would
sound unusually formal, if you'd use Loro (literally, they) when addressing more than one
persons. However sometimes it is used.

I will include with all verb conjugations all the 6 main forms.

A further note regarding the third person. Egli and ella, for he and she, are literary forms, which
in spoken Italian are usually replaced by lui and lei (literally him and her). These are the

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masculine and feminine forms for persons. Esso and essa are the forms for "it", and have a
masculine and feminine form according to grammatical gender of the noun of the thing to which
they refer. In the plural, essi and esse are respectively the masculine and feminine form for
"they" for persons and things. However nowadays spoken Italian prefersloro (literally, them) for
persons.

Now that you have this pretty little conjugation, what does one do with it? Make sentences, of
course. The conjugation of a verb tells you which form of the verb to use depending on who is
the subject of the verb. In English we conjugate without thinking about it - I am, you are, he is,
etc. You don't (normally) say "I are" or "you is", because it's gramatically incorrect. Likewise in
Italian, you don't say "io sei", because it's just plain wrong. Here are some examples of
using essere and stare:

 Io sono vecchio. ("I am old.")

 Tu sei carina. ("You are pretty.")
 Noi siamo nervosi. ("We are nervous.")
 Lei sta sulla sedia. ("She is on the chair.") Note that
 Lei e' seduta. (literally "She is seated") is the form for "She is in the chair."
 Essi sono sporchi. ("They (the males) are dirty.")
Now it's time to explain the differences between essere and stare, before we go any further.
Essere means "to be" or "to exist", while stare usually means "to stay" but can be used where
English idiomatics use "to be". The rules are summarized here:

essere is used to indicate more permanent aspects of people or things, such as -

1. Identity - Io sono Carla. ("I am Carla")

2. Profession - Egli è un professore. ("He is a professor.")
3. Origin - Noi siamo di Milano. ("We are from Milan.")
4. Religious or political affiliation - Tu sei cattolico? ("You are Catholic?")
5. Time of day or date - Sono le otto. ("It is 8 o'clock.")
6. Possession - La casa è di Giovanna. ("It is Giovanna's house.")
7. Nationality - Sono Italiano. ("I am from Italy.")
8. Physical aspects or characteristics of something - Le sedie sono verdi. ("The chairs are
green.")
9. Essential qualities of something or someone - Sono vecchio. Sei antipatico. ("I am old.
You are unpleasant.")
10. Location - La sedia è in cucina. ("The chair is in the kitchen.")
11. but also, more rarely - La sedia sta in cucina. ("The chair is in the kitchen.")
12. Condition or emotion that is subject to change - Sono malato. ("I am sick.")
13. Personal observations or reactions, how something "seems" or "feels" - La cucina è
pulita. ("The kitchen is (seems) clean.")

stare is used to indicate precise locations, in idioms and as auxiliary, such as -

1. Idiomatic sentences - Sto bene.("I am well.")

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 2. Idiomatic sentences - Sto male.("I feel bad.")
3. Location - La sedia sta in cucina. ("The chair is in the kitchen.")
4. Continuous tense - Sto correndo.("I am running.")

Notes: Notice that the verb form used for things like la sedia is the egli/ella/esso(-a) form. A
chair is an "it" (below, you'll see that it's actually a "she"), which uses theegli/ella/esso(-a) form
of the verb. Also notice that you can make sentences like Sono Italiano, without including the
pronoun. To English speakers this may seem like saying "Am from Italy", which we would
never do, but in Italian, because the subject can be figured out by the form of the verb used
(since the sentence used sono, the subject must be io, or I), there is no confusion about who the
subject of the sentence is and the pronoun can be left out. If it would be unclear what the subject
of the sentence is, then the pronoun has to be included.

The above lists of when to use essere and stare have to be memorized - using them incorrectly
means you will be less likely to be understood, and people will definitely know you are not a
native speaker. The same goes for the conjugations of essere and stare. Every Italian verb has a
conjugation, and memorizing them just goes along with learning the language.

Il, lo, la, un, uno and una (definite and indefinite articles)

In Italian, as well as all the other Romance languages (French, Spanish, etc), all nouns have a
gender associated with them. "Chair" is feminine, "telephone" is masculine. The way to tell
whether a noun is masculine or feminine is to look at the il/lo or la that precedes the noun in the
New Words section of these lessons. Il is the definite article that corresponds to masculine nouns
- il professore, il telefono. La is the definite article that corresponds to feminine nouns - la casa,
la tavola, la finestra. Whether a noun is considered feminine or masculine is generally based on
the last letter of the noun. If the noun ends with an "a", as in sedia or cucina, then it is most
probably a feminine noun. If it ends with an "o", such asmuro or orologio (wristwatch), then it is
always a masculine noun. Exceptions do exist to this rule - poeta (poet) is masculine - but the
majority of Italian nouns behave normally. Nouns ending with an "e", can be masculine or
feminine, usually according to the meaning (like padre (father) and madre (mother) - but
e.g. parete is feminine). The exceptions just have to be memorized as you come across them.

When using nouns, you must make sure that you use the correct gender and number when using
an identifier. The identifiers are il, lo, la, i, gli, le, un, uno and una. Il, lo and laare singular
definite articles, which means you are talking about a specific thing. La sedia means "the chair" -
you are talking about a specific chair. Un, uno and una are singular indefinite articles, which
means you are taking about any member of a group of things. Una sedia means "a chair" - you
are talking about any chair in general. The use of these identifiers is identical to the way you
would say it in English - if you want to say "a table", use una, and if you want to say "the table",
use la. i and gli are the plural of il and lo, andle is the plural of la. You use these plural definite
articles when you are talking about several specific members of a group - i tavoli means
"the tables". There are no plural forms ofuno and una, and to translate "some" when used in
sentences, one must use indeterminate pronouns - dei tavoli means "some tables".

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Note however that for uncountables nouns, where English uses no article ("Wine is red"), Italian
will use an article (Il vino e' rosso).

You may wonder why there are two forms for the masculine articles (il and lo, and their
plurals i and gli, as well as un and uno). The first form is used when a noun begins with a
consonant (il telefono), the second form is used when a noun begins with a vowel (un Italiano),
or with s followed by a consonant, or with z, gn, ps or x.
As a further complication, if a (masculine or feminine) noun begins with a vowel, the
articles lo and la) are not written in full form (Lo Italiano, "the Italian man", or "Italian
language") unless a new line starts across the two words, but in abbreviated form (L'Italiano)
separated by an apostrophe. The apostrophe means something has been elided (left out). Even
trickier (but this is how one recognizes who knows Italian !), with indefinite articles, the
apostrophe is needed only for the feminine form (since for the masculine one
REPLACES uno with un which is a valid existing form, thus : un Italiano ("an Italian man")
but un'Italiana ("an Italian woman").

Here are some examples using these articles:

 Le stanze sono grandi. ("The rooms are big.")

 Delle sedie sono in cucina. ("Some chairs are in the kitchen.")
 Il telefono è verde. ("The telephone is green.")
 La parete è brutta. ("The wall is ugly.")

Di, da and in

Di is Italian for of (or from, in the way sometimes used in English). La casa di Teresa means
"Teresa's house" (literally, "the house of Teresa"). Sono di Milano means "I am from
Milan". Di is used most often to show posession or origin, as per the preceding examples.
When di is followed by an il, as in la casa di il professore, the di and il are combined into del. So
the only and correct way to say "The (male) professor's house" would be la casa del professore.

Da is Italian for from, in all cases this indicates a motion. Since we haven't seen any verbs of
motion, we can't make examples yet.

In is Italian for ... in, as in inside something (not necessarily inside a physical object). It can be
used to mean that something is inside something else, as in la sedia sta in cucina("the chair is in
the kitchen"), or that someone is somewhere, Marco è in Italia ("Mark is in Italy").

Adjectives

Agreement

Adjectives are words that describe things, words like "red", "fast", and "pretty". In English, there
isn't much to using adjectives because they never change - "the fast car" or "the cars are fast". In
Italian, the adjective has to agree, in both gender and number, with whatever it is describing. If
the adjective modifies a feminine noun, then the adjective uses a feminine ending. If the
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adjective modifies a masculine plural noun, then the adjective uses a masculine plural ending.
Here are some adjectives with their various endings:
carino - pretty
 singular masculine - carino
 singular feminine - carina
 plural masculine - carini
 plural feminine - carine
comodo - comfortable

• singular masculine - comodo

• singular feminine - comoda
• plural masculine - comodi
• plural feminine - comode

brutto - ugly

• singular masculine - brutto

• singular feminine - brutta
• plural masculine - brutti
• plural feminine - brutte

sporco - dirty

• singular masculine - sporco

• singular feminine - sporca
• plural masculine - sporchi
• plural feminine - sporche

bianco - white

• singular masculine - bianco

• singular feminine - bianca
• plural masculine - bianchi
• plural feminine - bianche

nero - black

• singular masculine - nero

• singular feminine - nera
• plural masculine - neri
• plural feminine - nere

The above rules are good for any adjective that ends in an -o or -a. Adjectives
like grande and verde, that end in -e, do not have separate masculine and feminine forms and
make plural in -i. So, you would say la stanza e' grande ("the room is big"), and il muro e'

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grande ("the wall is big"), as well as le sedie sono grandi ("the chairs are big"). There are
exceptions to this rule, but that will be addressed in another lesson.

Placement of adjectives

In Italian, adjectives generally (poetry is different !) go after the noun they are describing. For
example, il telefono rosso ("the red telephone"), and le professoresse vecchie ("the old (female)
professors"). If you want to say that "something is something", then the sentence structure is the
same as in English, using the correct forms of essere: il telefono è rosso ("the telephone is
red"); le professoresse sono vecchie ("the (female) professors are old").

Numbers 11-99

The numbers 11-16, like the numbers 1-10 in Lesson 1, have slightly irregular forms - however
they follow some patterns, much like they do in English. 17-19 follow another pattern. Eleven
is undici, which is actually a contraction (shortening) of uno e dieci, or "1 and 10". Seventeen
is Diciassette, or "10 and 7", and so on. Much like the "teens" in English - fourteen, fifteen,
sixteen, seventeen, etc.

Twenty in Italian is venti. Twenty-one is ventuno (a contraction of venti e uno or "twenty and
one"), 22 is ventidue ("twenty and two"), and so on. Thirty is trenta, 31 istrentuno, 38
is trentotto ("thirty and 8"). This pattern holds for all of the numbers 11 through 99 - first learn
the base (such as venti ("twenty"), quaranta ("forty"), or ottanta("eighty")), then to make
numbers in-between the bases, add the word for the second number onto the end
(ventidue ("twenty-two"), quarantacinque ("forty-five"), ottantanove("eighty-nine")). If two
vowels meet, the first one is dropped like in vent(i)uno ("twenty-one"). Isn't that easy?

Examples

Here are some examples of sentences you can now make, using the words and grammar from
these 2 lessons:

• Sono di Milano
• Tino è in cucina.
• La signorina è carina.
• Tu sei antipatico.
• La sedia è comoda.
• Milano è in Italia.
• Il professore vecchio è malato.
• Il telefono verde è sporco.
• Il bagno è in casa.
• La casa di Maria è arancione. (what a funny colour ?)

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Italian Lesson 3 - a scuola (at school)

This week's new words:

NOUNS
 la biblioteca (bib-lee-o-tek-a) - library
 la biologia (bee-o-lo-gee-a) - biology
 l'amico/la amica (ah-mee-ko, ah-mee-ka) - friend
 il cancellino (can-chel-lee-no) - chalkboard eraser
 il quaderno (kwa-der-no) - notebook
 la classe (klas-say) - class (people), classroom
 la lezione (let-zee-oh-ne) - class (lesson)
 il dizionario (dik-zee-o-nar-eeo) - dictionary
 il danaro (dah-nar-oh) - money
 i soldi (sol-dee) - money
 l'economia (eeko-nom-eea)- economics
 l'italiano (ee-tah-lya-no) - Italian
 lo studente (stoo-dehn-tay) - student (male)
 la studentessa (stoo-dehn-tays-sah) - student (female)
 lo scolaro/la scolara (sko-lah-roh, sko-lah-rah) - schoolboy, schoolgirl
 il banco (ban-koh) - desk
 la scuola (skwoh-la) - school
 la geografia (geeo-gra-fee-a) - geography
 l'ora (or-a) - hour
 l'inglese (eeng-lay-seh) - English
 la matita (mah-tee-tah)- pencil
 il libro (lee-bro) - book
 la matematica (mat-ay-mat-ee-kah) - math
 la pagina (pa-gee-na) - page
 la carta (kar-tah) - paper
 la lavagna (lah-vah-nya) - chalkboard
 la penna (pen-nah) - pen
 l'orologio (oh-roh-lo-joe) - clock/watch
 il compito (kom-pee-toh) - homework
 il tempo (tehm-poh)- time
 il gesso (jehs-soh)- chalk
 l'università (oo-nee-ver-see-tah)- university
VERBS
 amare - to love
 ascoltare (as-kohl-tah-reh) - to listen
 studiare (stoo-dee-ah-reh) - to study
 parlare (par-lah-reh) - to speak/talk
 chiamare (kee-ah-mah-reh) - to call
 ritornare (ree-tor-nah-reh) - to return
 lavorare (lah-voh-rah-reh) - to work
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INTERROGATIVES
 quale (kwahleh)- which
 quando (kwahndo) - when
 quanto(-a) (kwahnto) - how much
 quanti(-as) (kwahntee)- how many
 dove (doh-vay) - where
 perché (payr-kway)1 - why
 che cosa (kay kohsah) - what
 chi (kee) - who
CONJUNCTIONS
 perché (payr-kway)1 - because
 e (ay) - and
PREPOSITIONS
 a (ah) - at, to, the dative a
ADJECTIVES
 corto(-a, -i, -e) (korto) - short
 quarto(-a, -i, -e) (kwar-toh) - quarter (one-fourth)
 difficile (-i) (deef-fee-chee-lay) - difficult
 facile (-i) (fa-chee-lay) - easy
 lungo(-a, -hi, -he) - long
 largo(-a, -hi, -he) - wide, broad
 mezzo(-a, -i, -e) (metz-zoh) - half

Numbers 100-999.999

 100 cento (chen-toh)

 101 centouno (chen-toh oo-no)
 102 centodue
 103 centotre
 110 centodieci
 120 centoventi
 199 centonovantanove
 200 duecento (doo-ay-chen-toh)
 201 duecentouno
 255 duecentocinquantacinque
 282 duecentoottantadue
 300 trecento (tray-chen-toh)
 400 quattrocento (kwat-troh-chen-toh)
 500 cinquecento (cheen-kwe-chen-toh)
 600 seicento (say-ee-chen-toh)
 700 settecento (set-tay-chen-toh)
 800 ottocento (ot-toh-chen-toh)
 900 novecento (no-vay-chen-toh)
 1.000 mille (mil-lay)
 1.001 milleuno
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  1.010 milledieci
 1.100 millecento
 1.538 millecinquecentotrentotto
 1.999 millenovecentonovantanove
 2.000 duemila
 3.000 tremila
 9.000 novemila
 10.000 diecimila
 15.000 quindicimila
 27.000 ventisettemila
 76.000 settantaseimila
 99.999 novantanovemilanovecentonovantanove
 100.000 centomila
 210.005 duecentodiecimila e cinque
 305.111 trecentocinquemila centoundici
 500.000 cinquecentomila
 860.789 ottocentosessantamila settecentoottantanove
 911.222 novecentododicimila duecentoventidue

Notes

1. There is a single word in Italian for "why" and "because", that is perché.
The accent on perché, as well as on any other word in Italian, tells you that the stress is
on that syllable. Accents in Italian are written only to indicate that the stress is on the last
syllable (contrary to the majority of words which is stressed on the penultimate syllable).
On dictionaries accents are always written on the stressed syllables, but this is not done in
common writing.
2. The letter "q" (as in quando) is always followed by an "u" and another wovel, and is
pronounced "kw" (as in English "quill"). The same identical pronunciation is used for the
group "cu" followed by a vowel (as in scuola). There is no rule on when to use either
forms in writing, but it is a serious mistake to use the wrong one (in fact, writing "squola"
with "q" is the prototype of mistakes in jokes). There are a few words with a double-sound
(k-kw), which are always written as "cqu + vowel" (like acqua "water", pron. "ak-kwah"),
with a single exception of double "q" in the word soqquadro ("sok-kwa-droh", "a mess").

Regular -are (1st conjugation) verbs

All Italian verbs fall into one of three categories (conjugations) - they either end in are, ere,
or ire. Within each category, there are regular and irregular verbs. Regular verbs all conjugate
with a similar pattern - all the new verbs in this lesson are regular (as you'll see soon). Irregular
verbs don't follow a pattern, and each verb's conjugation has to be memorized separately - the
two verbs you learned in Lesson 2, essere and stare are irregular.

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Here are the new verbs for this lesson: amare, ascoltare, studiare, parlare, ritornare, lavorare.
These are all regular -are verbs. Here are the present-tense (present indicative) conjugations of
them all:

 io parlo ("I speak")

 tu parli ("you speak")
 lei,[lui]parla ("you (formal), [he,] she speaks")
 noi parliamo ("we speak")
 voi parlate ("you (plural) speak")
 essi,esse,loro parlano ("they (male), they (female). you (formal plural),speak")
Regular verbs are made up of a body (parl), and a suffix (are). To conjugate regular verbs,
replace the infinitive suffix (are, ere, ire) with the correct conjugation suffix from the example
conjugation for parlare above. For example, take amare, and conjugate it:
 io amo ("I love")
 tu ami ("you love")
 lei,[lui] ama ("you (formal), [he,] she loves")
 noi amiamos ("we love")
 voi amate ("you (plural) love")
 essi,esse,loro amano ("they (male), they (female) you (formal plural), love")

All verbs can be split into a body/suffix pair, but only regular verbs follow these patterns. There
are 3 different regular-verb patterns - one for -are verbs, one for -ere verbs, and one for -
ire verbs. (In the next lesson, we'll learn the rules for regular -ere and -ire verbs.) In summary, to
conjugate any regular -are verb in the present (present indicative) tense, remove the -are suffix,
and add one of the following (depending on who is the subject of the verb):

 io -o
 tu -i
 lei,lui,esso -a
 noi -iamo
 voi -ate
 essi,esse,loro -ano
Here are complete conjugations of 2 more verbs from this lesson:
lavorare
io lavoro, tu lavori, lei lavora, noi lavoriamo, voi lavorate, essi lavorano
ritornare
io ritorno, tu ritorni, lei ritorna, noi ritorniamo, voi ritornate, essi ritornano
Now that we have the conjugation for these regular -are verbs, we can make sentences with
them, like this:

• Amo Tania. ("I love Tania")

• Lavora all'università. ("He works at (in) the university")
• Noi ascoltiamo la professoressa. ("We listen to the teacher")
• Essi studiano alle otto. ("The men study at 8")
• Esse parlano italiano. ("The women speak Italian")
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 • Io ritorno all'università alle tre. ("I return to the university at 3 o'clock")
• Studiate matematica ? ("Do you study math?")

A - At or To, and the dative A

In a few of the sentences above, the preposition a is used, as in Essi studiano alle otto.
The preposition a translates to the English "at" or "to", depending on the sentence. The
preceeding sentence ("essi studiano...") is an example of a meaning "at". The sentence io ritorno
all'università is an example of a meaning "to". When the a comes before an article, as in io
ritorno a la università, the a and the la combine to form alla. This is the so-called articulated
preposition. Moreover, if the next noun begins with a wovel, the last vowel of the articulated
preposition falls and is replaced by an apostrophe So the correct way to write the preceeding
sentence is: io ritorno all'università.

Note that the English "at" may translate to either a or in in Italian, depending on the
sentence. In is usually used to refer to something being at something else, such as sono in
università - "I'm at the university". A usually refers to a state or condition (sort of) of something,
such as "at great speed", or when referring to time, such as alla una ("at one o'clock").

In two more cases, the a isn't either of the above two meanings, but is used for English "to". One
case is when a motion to somewhere is involved, like in "Io vado all'università"(I go to the
university, the verb used is irregular). Another one is when a person or name of a place is
the destination of a verb, an a is placed before the object, as in La professoressa parla agli
studenti. ("The teacher talks to the students"). The preposition a is NOT needed for transitive
verbs (when the object is direct, as in Io amo Tania ("I love Tania").

Numbers 100 to 999.999

If you've looked at the numbers in the New Words section, you may already have seen some
patterns developing in Italian numbers. First, the numbers 100, 200, 300, etc., all have a similar
form - cento, duecento, trecento... If you look carefully, and remember the numbers 2 through 9,
you'll see that each hundred above 100 is just "two hundred" (duecento), "three hundred"
(trecento), and so on. To form numbers in between the hundreds, you use the numbers 1-99 you
learned in the last 2 lessons, but add the hundreds on to the front. Eleven is undici, 111
is centoundici. Three-hundred and twenty is trecentoventi, and so on. Putting spaces between
parts of a compound number is optional.

Mille is Italian for 1.000. No, this isn't "one point zero zero zero zero", this is one-thousand.
English uses a comma to separate thousands, millions, etc., in a number. Italian traditionally use
the period (".") instead. In English, we would expect to see this number: 12,399,100. In Italian,
the same number is written: 12.399.100. In much the same way, where English uses the period to
denote numbers between whole numbers (as in "12.99"), Italian uses a comma ("12,99"), but this
will be discussed in another lesson. In scientific practice we often use the English convention,
particularly for fractionary numbers. Public administration uses the Italian convention, and this is
what was taught in schools in my times.
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Multiples of 1000 are treated as such - 2000 is duemila, literally "two thousands". Three
thousand is tremila, and so on. This pattern is the same for thousands up to 999.000 (that's nine-
hundred ninety-nine thousand), so that 50.000 is cinquantamila, and 231.000
is duecentotrentunomila. Combining these two rules for numbers, we can read numbers like
123.456 (centoventitremila quattrocentocinquantasei) and 784.675
( settecentoottantaquattromila seicentosettantacinque). So now, practice saying things like:

 The current year. (millenovecentonovantacinque)

 How many miles are on your car. (centomiaquattrocentotrentadue)
 The number of pages in the book you're reading. (trecentoottanta)
 The number of CDs and tapes you own. (duecentocinque)
 Your yearly salary. (uh, in Lira that will be in millions ... :-) )

Telling Time

Io ritorno in università alle tre. Telling time in Italian uses only 2 forms of the
verb essere: é and sono. Italian for "it is one o'clock" is é la una. Times are always given in the
feminine form because la ora ("hour", or "the time") is feminine. É la is only used if you are
talking about one o'clock, since "one" is singular. For all other hours, you use sono le, as in sono
le sei ("It's 6 o'clock"). Minutes are expressed as numbers after the hour, using
either e or mens to represent after or before the hour, respectively. At 15 minutes before or after
the hour, quarto ("a fourth") is commonly used instead of quindici ("fifteen"). Likewise, at 30
minutes after an hour, mezza ("half") is commonly used instead of trenta("thirty"). Mezza is
never used with meno. Here are some examples:

• É la una e venti. ("It's twenty after one", literally "it's one and twenty")
• Sono le due meno dieci. ("It's ten before two", literally "it's two minus ten") but also É la
una e cinquanta
• Sono le quattro e un quarto. ("It's a quarter after four.")
• Sono le quattro meno un quarto. ("It's a quarter before four.") but also Sono le tre e tre
quarti (literally, "it is three and three quarters") and Sono le tre e quarantacinque (literally,
"it is three and forty-five")
• Sono le dieci e mezza. ("It's half past ten.")
• É la una meno cinque. ("It's five (minutes) to one.")

To say that something is "at" a certain time, use alla or alle:

• A che ora é la lezione ? ("At what time is the lesson ?")

• La lezione é alle nove. ("The lesson is at 9 o'clock.")
• La lezione é alla una. ("The lesson is at one o'clock.")

To ask for the time in Italian, use Che ora é ("What time is it?"). To ask what time something
happens at, use A che ora ? ("At what time...?") as in A che ora é la lezione ?, or A che ora
ritorni in università ? ("What time do you return to the university?").

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To differentiate between AM and PM when telling time, Italian may add del mattino ("in the
morning"), del pomeriggio ("in the afternoon"), della (di) sera ("in the evening") anddella
notte ("in the night") to describe what time of day being referred to. Usually this is clear from the
context and is not specified explicitly. Another possibility is to use a 24-hour clock (this is
always done officially, e.g. when calling for meetings, in train and plane timetables, etc.). So 9
o'clock PM becomes sono le nove di sera, while 9AM is sono le nove della mattina, and 5PM
is sono le cinque del pomeriggio.

Questions and Question Words

Asking a yes or no question

There are many ways to ask questions in Italian, althoug there is no do-form as in English. The
simplest form of a question is to use a regular sentence but either add a question mark (when
written) or change the inflection (when spoken). Look at these 2 sentences:

• Marisa studia. ("Marisa studies.")

• Marisa studia ? ("Does Marisa study?")

When writing a question a question mark occurs at the end of the question. When speaking, you
must change the inflection of the sentence. A normal sentence ends on a low inflection, as in
"maRIsa sTUdia", with capital letters denoting syllable emphasis. When asking a question, the
sentence ends with a high inflection, as in "maRIsa studIA", much the same as English
questions.

It is also possible to change the word order when asking a question. Look at these sentences:

• Marisa studia italiano ?

• Studia italiano, Marisa ?

Both these sentences say the same thing, "Is Marisa studying Italian?" The subject of the
sentence, namely Marisa, can be placed or at the end of the sentence, for questions only. The
second sentence may mean "is she studying Italian or another language ?"

One other common way of asking a question is to add no ? or vero ? ("right?") to the end of a
sentence. So the question above could also be written: Marisa studia italiano, vero ? ("Marisa is
studying Italian, isn't she?" or "Marisa is studying Italian, right?").

Question words

All of these questions have implied either a yes or no answer - "Is Marisa studying?", "Is she
studying Italian?" To ask questions that require more than a yes or no answer, you generally
have to use a question word. Here is a list of some English question words and their Italian
equivalents:

1. What - che cosa

Bronzino 18
 2. Who - chi
3. When - quando
4. Why - perché,
5. Which - quale
6. How much - quanto(-a)
7. How many - quanti(-e)
8. Where - dove

Each question word, or interrogative, works similarly to its English counterpart. Perhaps the
easiest way to explain how to use them is through example sentences. Take a look at these:

1. Chi é Roberto ? ("Who is Roberto?")

2. Quando ritorna ? ("When is s/he returning?")
3. Dove studia ? ("Where does s/he study?")
4. Che ora é ? ("What time is it?")
5. A che ora é la lezione ? ("At what time is the lesson?")
6. Qual é il compito ? ("What is the homework (assignment)?")
7. Chi é in casa? ("Who is in the house?")
8. Dov'é la matita ? ("Where is the pencil?")
9. Perché torni a scuola ? ("Why do you return to school?")
10.In quale università studi ? ("At which university do you study?")
11.Quanti studenti ci sono in classe ? ("How many students are there in the classroom?")

Bronzino 19