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    The Everything Italian Phrase Book: A quick refresher for any situation
    The Everything Italian Phrase Book: A quick refresher for any situation
    The Everything Italian Phrase Book: A quick refresher for any situation
    Ebook434 pages2 hours

    The Everything Italian Phrase Book: A quick refresher for any situation

    By Ronald Glenn Wrigley

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    About this ebook

    For tourists who hope to have a unique, “off the beaten path” experience in Italy, learning a little of the native language is crucial. Just knowing they find the train station (stazione del treno) or say “thank you” (grazie) can relieve some of the stress that traveling can bring. Featuring hundreds of commonly used phrases, this pocket-sized guide provides travellers with the words they need to order dinner, talk on the phone, read street signs and train schedules, shop with confidence, and more. This book even features the basics of Italian grammar and pronunciation as well as common idioms and slang words. Conveniently organized and indexed by category, this quick reference guide is a one-stop guide for quick, practical phrases for any situation.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster
    Release dateNov 17, 2008
    ISBN9781440501654
    The Everything Italian Phrase Book: A quick refresher for any situation

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      Book preview

      The Everything Italian Phrase Book - Ronald Glenn Wrigley

      THE

      EVERYTHING®

      ITALIAN

      PHRASE

      BOOK

      A quick refresher for any situation

      Ronald Glenn Wrigley, M.A.

      3

      Copyright © 2009, F+W Media, Inc.

      All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher; exceptions are made for brief excerpts used in published reviews.

      An Everything® Series Book.

      Everything® and everything.com® are registered trademarks of

      F+W Media, Inc.

      Published by Adams Media, an F+W MEdia Company

      57 Littlefield Street, Avon, MA 02322 U.S.A.

      www.adamsmedia.com

      ISBN 10: 1-59869-756-0

      ISBN 13: 978-1-59869-756-8

      eISBN: 978-1-4405-0165-4

      Printed in Canada.

      J I H G F E D C B A

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      available from the publisher.

      This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information with regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional advice. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought.

      —From a Declaration of Principles jointly adopted by a Committee of the American Bar Association and a Committee of Publishers and Associations

      Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book and Adams Media was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed with initial capital letters.

      This book is available at quantity discounts for bulk purchases.

      For information, please call 1-800-289-0963.

      Visit the entire Everything® series at www.everything.com

      Dedication

      For Ellen and Matthew

      Acknowledgments

      Many thanks to my beautiful wife, Ellen, for her support, to Matthew for his good cheer, and to my family for their inspiration. And many thanks to Lisa Laing and Elizabeth Kassab, and to all of the folks at Adams, for their guidance along the way.

      Contents

      INTRODUCTION

      CHAPTER 1: Introduction to Italian

      Reading and Pronouncing Italian

      Introduction to Nouns

      Definite and Indefinite Articles

      Cognates

      False Friends

      CHAPTER 2: Introducing Yourself

      Verbs and Conjugation

      The Verbs Essere and Avere

      The Past Tense

      Forming a Sentence

      Adjectives

      Adverbs

      Prepositions

      Mastering Pronouns

      CHAPTER 3: Essential Italian

      Survival Italian

      Language Basics

      Being Polite

      Numbers 1 Through 100 and Beyond

      Che ora è? Che ore sono?: Telling Time in Italian

      The Calendar

      Exchanging Money

      CHAPTER 4: Meeting People

      Greetings

      Nationalities and Languages

      Family Members

      Telephoning to and from Italy

      CHAPTER 5: Airports, Trains, and Hotels

      The Verb Volere.

      The Verbs Andare and Venire .

      Airport and Flight Vocabulary

      Baggage Claim, Immigration, and Customs

      Train Vocabulary

      At the Hotel

      CHAPTER 6: Getting Around Town

      Asking for Directions

      Some Useful Destinations

      Types of Transportation

      Renting a Car

      Finding Your Way Around

      Useful Driving Verbs

      CHAPTER 7: The Art of Dining Out

      Dining Out

      What to Order?

      Beverages: Da bere

      Dishes and Silverware

      Ordering Your Meal

      CHAPTER 8: Shopping and Services

      Stores and Businesses

      Laundromat and Dry Cleaner

      Hair Salon and Barbershop

      Clothing and Jewelry

      Useful Adjectives: Colors

      Useful Adjectives: Sizes

      CHAPTER 9: Out on the Town

      Sports and Games

      The Verbs Fare and Giocare

      Hobbies

      Live Performances

      CHAPTER 10: Italian for Business

      Jobs and Professions

      Italian at Work

      On the Phone

      Office Supplies and Equipment

      Computers and the Internet

      In School

      CHAPTER 11: At the Doctor’s Office

      Common Ailments and Maladies

      Parts of the Body

      The Head

      Going to the Doctor

      Going to the Hospital

      Going to the Dentist

      Going to the Pharmacy

      Emergencies and Disasters

      CHAPTER 12: In Your Community

      At the Market

      Quantities,Weights, and Measures

      In the Coffee Shop

      At the Post Office

      Weather Words and Expressions

      CHAPTER 13: Italian at Home

      Things to Do at Home

      Inside Your Home

      CHAPTER 14: Common Italian Idioms, Expressions and Slang

      Idiomatic Expressions with the Verbs Avere, Essere, Stare, and Fare

      Common Idiomatic Expressions

      What Your Italian Teacher Never Taught You

      APPENDIX A: Italian/English Dictionary

      APPENDIX B: English/Italian Dictionary

      APPENDIX C: Essential Words and Phrases

      Introduction

      Forty million tourists visit Italy each year. Two of Italy’s major cities—Florence and Rome—are among the most visited cities in the world. On any given day of the year, this equates to 110,000 foreign tourists in Italy. Many travel guides recommend that tourists make an effort to get off the beaten path; to find that small, out-of-the-way place that few tourists ever visit. It is in these areas where the real Italy can be experienced; it is also in these areas where very little English is spoken by the general population. This book will be very useful for the 110,000 foreign tourists who hope to have a unique, off-the-beaten-path experience in Italy.

      This book will be a useful tool to help integrate both the inexperienced and experienced traveler into many essential aspects of daily life. For these tourists, a very basic understanding of the language can enhance their stay in Italy. Italians treasure politeness, and everywhere in the world people can appreciate the good manners of a thank you or you’re welcome. Italians will respond to your efforts to communicate in their language with wholehearted appreciation. By making an effort to learn some basic phrases and expressions, you will feel safer and more assured to take the path less traveled, you will discover useful and interesting facts, you will cope with unexpected situations, and you will be greeted with much greater kindness.

      This book will also be a useful resource for high school and college students who wish to enhance their in-class learning experiences. It will be a handy resource to help students sharpen their speaking ability by learning useful expressions (and their correct pronunciation) that pertain to everyday life.

      The Everything® Italian Phrase Book offers grammar and pronunciation sections for easier, more effective use and contains essential information for first-time and experienced travelers alike. It features more than 1,400 words and phrases, covering all subjects that people are likely to encounter in their travels—from reserving a hotel room or ordering dinner at a restaurant to using a cell phone or changing a flight. There is also a detailed phonetic pronunciation table plus an extensive word list and grammar guide that will enable travelers to construct basic sentences.

      Chapter 1

      Introduction

      to Italian

      Italian is a Romance language spoken by about 63 million people in Italy and parts of Switzerland. Modern standard Italian was adopted by the Italian government after the unification of Italy in about 1871 and has its roots in the region of Tuscany, in central Italy. There are many dialects of Italian spoken throughout the Italian peninsula. Dialects are generally not used for purposes of mass communication and are usually spoken in local, informal contexts by native speakers. Most all Italians speak a dialect (Venetian, Neapolitan, Sicilian, etc.), but they can easily switch to standard Italian.

      Reading and Pronouncing Italian

      Italian is based on a twenty-one-letter alphabet. Though you will come across the letters J, K, W, X, and Y in your travels, you will notice that these letters only appear in words borrowed from other languages (whiskey and jolly, to name a few). English and Italian share many cognates— words that are spelled similarly in the two languages. Some of these words are modern and are related to recent technology: telefono, calcolatrice, macchina. You will recognize many words related to musical terminology (alto, soprano, trombone) and to cuisine as well (al dente, biscotti, pepperoni).

      2 -FACT

      The vowels a and e can have two slightly different pronunciations. There is no way to tell by looking at a written word which pronunciation to use. Pesca (peach) is spelled the exact same way as pesca (fishing). There is a very slight pronunciation difference between the two: pesca (pronounced PAYS-ca) means fishing, pesca (pronounced PESS-ca) means peach.

      Pronunciation Guide

      4

      In addition to the twenty-one Italian letters, there are five foreign letters, used in words borrowed from other languages.

      Foreign Letters

      9781598697568_0017_002

      2 -QUESTION

      How can I practice my pronunciation?

      Pronunciation isn’t something that can be learned from a book, and learning to speak Italian won’t come from reading a book. Hire a native speaker as a tutor, watch Italian movies, and listen to Italian music to develop an ear for spoken Italian.

      Double Consonants

      Native speakers of English often have great difficulty in mastering the pronunciation of double consonants in Italian. One rule to keep in mind in learning correct pronunciation is that every letter in an Italian word must be pronounced. With this in mind, it logically follows that double consonants are pronounced longer than single consonants:

      sano (pronounced sa-no) / sanno (pronounced san-no)

      lego (pronounced le-go) / leggo (pronounced leg-go)

      fata (pronounced fa-ta) / fatta (pronounced fat-ta)

      papa (pronounced pa-pa) / pappa (pronounced pap-pa)

      The double s in Italian has a different pronunciation than the single s:

      casa (here the s is pronounced as in the English hose)

      cassa (here the ss is pronounced as in the English house)

      Accent/Stress

      Most words in Italian are pronounced with the stress falling on the next-to-last syllable.

      9781598697568_0019_001

      There is also a group of words that are pronounced with the stress falling in the last syllable. All of these words have a written accent:

      9781598697568_0019_002

      Many words are pronounced with the stress on the third-to-last or fourth-to-last syllable. There is no rule governing the placement of the stress in these cases. As you develop an ear for the language you will learn which pronunciation sounds better.

      Introduction to Nouns

      Singular Nouns

      Italian nouns almost always end in a vowel. Those that don’t are usually words borrowed from other languages. Generally speaking, nouns that end in –o are masculine, and words that end in –a are feminine. Nouns ending in –e can be either masculine or feminine. The gender of these nouns must be learned.

      libro (masculine)      LEE-broh

      casa (feminine)        KAH-zah

      madre (feminine)     MAH-dray

      padre (masculine)    PAH-dray

      2 -SSENTIAL

      When learning a foreign language, you will learn convenient grammatical rules to help you along. It is important to be open-minded. For every rule, there’s bound to be an exception. The rules presented here are very basic—you will notice exceptions to these rules throughout the book.

      Plural Nouns

      Masculine nouns that end in –o form the plural by changing the –o into an –i. Feminine nouns that end in –a form the plural by changing the –o into an –e. Both masculine and feminine nouns that end in –e form the plural by changing the –e into an –i. Here are some examples:

      libro (LEE-broh) changes to libri (LEE-bree)

      amico (ah-MEE-koh) changes to amici (ah-MEE-chee)

      gatto (GAHT-toh) changes to gatti (GAHT-tee)

      sorella (soh-REHL-lah) changes to sorelle (soh-REHL-leh)

      casa

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