You might be wondering: Is learning Italian a walk in the park, or an Olympic challenge? Truthfully, Italian is neither inherently easy nor difficult. For many native English speakers, it’s easier to learn Italian if they know a little French or Spanish. That’s because these languages belong to the Romance language family, which means they have similarities in both vocabulary and grammar structures. Whether it’s easy or hard for you, though, you could probably use some tips to learn Italian.
Whatever your prior knowledge, you should focus on what’ll be easy for you and what matches your motivations for learning the language. Here are five specific tips to learn Italian so your learning journey is easy!
5 Excellent Tips To Start Learning Italian
Italian may look intimidating if you’ve never learned another language before, but its similarities to other Romance Languages make it one of the easier languages for English speakers to learn. The Foreign Service Institute places Italian in Category I of its language difficulty ranking, meaning it is closely related to English and takes approximately 24 weeks for the average English speaker to learn while the more difficult categories can take hundreds of hours. These tips will help set you up to communicate in Italian successfully as long as you’re motivated and willing to learn.
1. Find Basic Italian Cognates (And Thank The French And The Romans)
We’ve already noted that Italian is easier with some knowledge of French, but all English speakers have more French knowledge than they may realize. Yes, you might already know that English is a Germanic language (sharing linguistic ties to German, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian and Danish), but over 30 percent of English words have French origins. Three centuries of Norman presence on British soil didn’t fade away unnoticed, especially regarding language. For this reason, even at an absolute beginner level, you shouldn’t have problems understanding Italian words like castello, architettura, caramello, autore and others.
But it’s not only this French influence that helps you decode Italian. Let’s not forget the presence of Latin in Britain, which the Romans first introduced when they arrived on the isle in the first century BCE and again with the cultural influences of the Renaissance. Because of this historical precedent, you’ll be able to understand words like centro, memoria and energia before you even start your first Italian lesson!
Make a list of words that sound similar in English and Italian. Before you know it, you’ll realize that you know more of the Italian language than you thought you did.
2. Start Loving Irregular Verbs as a Beginner
This is something no language learner wants to hear: The most common Italian verbs are almost all irregular. The auxiliary essere (“to be”) and avere (“to have”), the modal potere (“can”), volere (“want”) and dovere (“must”), as well as the common andare (“to go”), dire (“to say”) and fare (“to make/do”) are all irregular.
But is it all bad news? Not at all! Memorize these conjugations as you would any new words — with consistent daily practice. Even 15 minutes a day can be enough. Find a rhythm that you can apply to the conjugation, repeat it aloud as if it were a mantra, and then commit. There’s also some good news for those who accept this meditative challenge: Italians rarely use subject pronouns (I, you, she, he, we…).
3. Understand The Patterns of Pronunciation To Start Speaking Early
Italian is spoken like it’s written. If your first language is English, it’s possible you’re not aware of what a blessing this is, so let’s explain it the other way around: How would an Italian know that “daughter” and “laughter,” which only differ in one letter, are pronounced so differently? Or what about “through,” “cough,” and “though”?
With Italian that’s a different story — any single letter has a specific pronunciation, and it’s not up for interpretation. For example, the letter A is always pronounced like the A in “bar.” The only exception is that some letters change their pronunciation according to the letter following them. G has two different pronunciations depending on its nearby vowels: It sounds like the G in “goat” when it’s followed by A, O or U — words like gatto (“cat”), gorilla and gufo (“owl”) — or it can be pronounced in a softer way, like in “gentle,” if it’s followed by an E or an I. Examples include genio (“genius”) or giro (“tour”).
The R is always clearly pronounced, but doesn’t always have to be rolled. There are many ways of pronouncing the Italian R (more than 10!), so don’t feel weird if you can’t do it at the beginning. Too easy for you? Try to say this: trentatré trentini entrarono a Trento tutti e trentatré trotterellando (“33 people from Trento entered Trento, trotting along, all 33”). Got it? Listen to Italian podcasts, audiobooks, movies, and TV shows to get a feel for how the beautiful language sounds, and you’ll start speaking Italian in no time.
4. Prepare For Grammar That Doesn’t Exist In English
Before you crack open a grammar book, you should know that part of learning a language is grammar that doesn’t work the same as it does in your native language. It might seem scary learning topics that don’t appear in your native language, but take it slow — Italian grammar is easier than it looks. Let’s start with gender. Many Italian words end with -a or -o, which means that they’re feminine or masculine, respectively (with some small exceptions). Words ending in -e can be feminine or masculine, so here comes the next trick: the ending -zione is always feminine. The final piece of advice we can give on Italian grammatical gender is that adjectives use exactly the same endings as the words they describe! Isn’t it easy?
Now let’s look at some articles. In the grammatical standoff of definite articles, Italian wins 7-1 against English (which could only play a pitiful “the”). “The” translated 7 different ways may sound frightening, but there’s nothing difficult about the rules that guide their usage. For example, la is the feminine (singular) article for all nouns except those starting with a vowel. Those words just use l’. Meanwhile, le is used for feminine plural nouns. Masculine definite articles have similar rules, but we’ll let you figure out the other half.
5. Don’t Forget Your Motivation
Italian is a beautiful language, but learning will still feel hard sometimes. Many second language learners lose their motivation before they reach the intermediate level. To stay motivated and learn Italian quickly, it’s important to remember why you started your Italian learning journey. This is obviously a very general tip, valid for any language learning. Whether your dream is to live in Italy long-term or you just want to take a trip to Italy, focus on your goal. You may think you’ll never feel ready when there’s so much you don’t understand, one day you’ll be surprised by the progress that you’ve made.
After learning the basics, start learning and memorizing vocabulary that will help you discuss topics that are important to you. If you’re serious about learning Italian, start speaking from the very beginning, maybe with a native speaker as a language partner to work on your conversational Italian skills. As your comprehension grows, read Italian books, watch Italian television and Italian movies, and never stop building your language skills until you reach your goal. The best way to learn Italian, or any language for that matter, is immersion, so find ways to use it in your everyday life. You’ll be able to not only speak but also think in Italian sooner than you think.