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Did you know you already speak Italian?

Did you know you already speak Italian?

That you speak it every day? That you read and write it every day? That you use it with your friends, with your family, at work, down the post-office – even in the shower when you read the label on the shampoo bottle?

Were you aware of that fact?

Well, even if you weren’t, it’s nevertheless true.

Of course, you might not have realised at the time that what you were reading / saying / writing was actually Italian but I can prove to you that it was. Just take a look at these Italian words below but, as you do so, use your thumb to cover the final letter at the end of each word:

As your thumb has hopefully helped you to realise, these are words that exist not only in Italian but also in English. And, in fact, these are by no means isolated examples of words that exist in both Italian and English but rather they are merely the tip of a truly enormous iceberg.

In fact, around half of all English words have close equivalents in Italian. Yes, that’s right, half!

If we begin using these words, together with an extremely subtle method that shows you how to put them into sentences in a way that’s almost effortless, then becoming a competent Italian speaker becomes really quite easy.

The only thing that you will need to do to make this happen is to follow the three simple rules printed on the following pages. These rules will explain to you how to use this book so that you can begin unlocking the Italian language for yourself in a matter of hours.

Well, what are you waiting for?

Turn the page!

Rule Number 1:

Don’t skip anything!

Using this book is extremely simple – and highly effective – if you follow its three simple rules.

If you don’t want to follow them, then I recommend that, instead of reading the book, you use it to prop up a wobbly coffee table, as it won’t work if you don’t follow the rules. Now get ready – because here’s the first one!

Each and every little thing in this book has been put where it is, in a very particular order, for a very particular reason. So, if the book asks you to read or do something, then do it! Who’s the teacher after all, you or me, eh?

Also, each part of the book builds on and reinforces what came before it. If you start skipping sections, you will end up confused and lost. Instead, you should just take your time and gently work your way through the book at your own pace – but without skipping anything!

Step by Step

Rule Number 2:

Don’t try to memorise anything!

Trying to jam things into your head is boring and it doesn’t work. People often cram for tests and then forget everything the moment they walk out of the exam. Clearly, we don’t want that happening here.

Instead, I have designed this book so that any word or idea taught in it will come up multiple times. You don’t need to worry about trying to remember or memorise anything because the necessary repetition is actually already built in. In fact, trying to memorise what you’re learning is likely to hinder rather than help your progress.

So, just work your way through the book in a relaxed way and, if you happen to forget something, don’t worry because, as I say, you will be reminded of it again, multiple times, later on.

Rule Number 3:

Cover up!

No, I’m not being a puritan grandmother and telling you to put on a long-sleeved cardigan. Instead, I’m asking you to take a bookmark or piece of paper and use it to cover up any green text that you come across as you work your way through the book.

These green bits are the answers to the various riddles, challenges and questions that I will pose as I lead you into the Italian language. If you read these answers without at least trying to work out the solutions first, then the book simply won’t work for you.

So, make sure to use something to cover up the bits of green text in the book while you have a go at trying to work out the answers. It doesn’t matter if you sometimes get them wrong because it is by trying to think out the answers that you will learn how to use the language.

Trust me on this, you will see that it works from the very first page!

Take a look at the page on the right to see how to use your bookmark or piece of paper to cover up correctly.

CHAPTER 1

I spent the weekend in Rome – and wow, the weather was fantastic.

“I spent the weekend in Rome – and wow, the weather was fantastic.” Not such a complicated sentence in English, is it? Or is it…?

I have taught many people over the years, ranging from those who know no Italian at all, through to those who may have studied Italian for several years at school. Yet whether they have studied the language before or not, almost none of them tend to be able to construct a basic sentence like this when I first meet them.

Admittedly, they might know how to say other far less useful things, like: “I’m 37 years old and have two sisters and a goldfish” – an unusual conversation opener from my perspective – but they can’t say what they did at the weekend.

Well, in just a few minutes’ time, you will be able to do this – even if you’ve never learnt any Italian before.

Just remember though: don’t skip anything, don’t waste your time trying to memorise anything but do use your bookmark to cover up anything green you find on each page.

Okay now, let’s begin!

“I have” in Italian is:

Ho

(pronounced “o”¹)

And the word for “visited” in Italian is:

visitato

With this in mind, how would you say “I have visited”?

Ho visitato(o visit-art-oh)

Did you remember to cover up the green words while you worked out the answer?

“Naples” in Italian is:

Napoli

(nap-oh-lee)

So, with this in mind, how would you say “I have visited Naples”?

Ho visitato Napoli.

(o visit-art-oh nap-oh-lee)

The word for “Rome” in Italian is:

Roma

(roam-er)

So how would you say “I have visited Rome”?

Ho visitato Roma.

(o visit-art-oh roam-er)

Now, if I were to ask you how you would say simply “I visited Rome” rather than “I have visited Rome” you might not think you knew how to say that yet. However, you will be glad to hear that I would disagree with you because, in Italian, talking about what has happened in the past is far easier than it is in English. This is because “I visited Rome” and “I have visited Rome” are said in exactly the same way in Italian. I’ll show you what I mean.

Again, how would you say “I have visited Rome”?

Ho visitato Roma.

(o visit-art-oh roam-er)

I want you to now try to say “I visited Rome” bearing in mind that what you’re going to say is exactly the same as what you just said for “I have visited Rome”. So, “I visited Rome” will be:

Ho visitato Roma.

(o visit-art-oh roam-er)

As you can see, it is exactly the same. Italians do not make a distinction between the two. Effectively, you have got two English past tenses for the price of one. And actually it is even better than that.

You can now already correctly say “I have visited Rome” and “I visited Rome” because they are exactly the same in Italian. With this in mind, do you think you can make a lucky guess about how you might say “I did visit Rome”? Just take a wild guess!

Ho visitato Roma.

(o visit-art-oh roam-er)

Once again, it is exactly the same in Italian. “I have visited Rome”, “I visited Rome” and “I did visit Rome” are all said in precisely the same way. In fact this is one of the many wonderful things about Italian: you get three English tenses for the price of one Italian one! “I have visited Rome”, “I visited Rome” and “I did visit Rome” are all simply:

Ho visitato Roma.

(o visit-art-oh roam-er)

Let’s try this 3 For the Price of 1 Special Offer again now but this time with a different example.

To say “I have spent” in Italian, you will literally say “I have passed”, which in Italian is:

Ho passato

(o pass-art-oh)

“The weekend” in Italian is:

il weekend

(eel weekend)

So how would you say “I have spent the weekend” (literally “I have passed the weekend”)?

Ho passato il weekend

(o pass-art-oh eel weekend)

And how would you say simply “I spent the weekend” / “I passed the weekend”?

Ho passato il weekend

(o pass-art-oh eel weekend)

Just as “I visited Rome” and “I have visited Rome” are no different from one another in Italian, so “I spent the weekend” and “I have spent the weekend” are also no different from one another.

How do you think you would you say “I did spend the weekend”?

Ho passato il weekend

(o pass-art-oh eel weekend)

Again, you have three English past tenses for the price of one in Italian.

“I spent the weekend”, “I have spent the weekend”, “I did spend the weekend” – it’s all the same in Italian: “Ho passato il weekend”.

“In Rome” in Italian is:

a Roma

(a roam-er)

So how would you say “I have spent the weekend in Rome”?

Ho passato il weekend a Roma.

(o pass-art-oh eel weekend a roam-er)

And how would you say “I spent the weekend in Rome”?

Ho passato il weekend a Roma.

(o pass-art-oh eel weekend a roam-er)

And “I did spend the weekend in Rome”?

Ho passato il weekend a Roma.

(o pass-art-oh eel weekend a roam-er)

Time to steal some words!

Word Robbery Number 1

Let’s forget our weekend in Rome for just one moment now and start stealing some words. Around half the words in modern English have come into our language via Latin languages, such as Italian. Once you can identify them, you will have a large, instant, usable vocabulary in Italian. After all, why bother learning Italian vocabulary when you can simply steal it?

The first group of words we are going to steal are words that end in “ic” and “ical” in English.

Words like “romantic”, “fantastic”, “political”, “illogical” and so on.

There are around 750 of these in English and they are largely similar in Italian, except that in Italian they end in “ico” (pronounced “eek-oh”), becoming “romantico”, “fantastico”, “politico”, “illogico” and so on.

Let’s now see how we can use these to begin expanding our range of expressions in Italian!

Words stolen so far 750

Bearing in mind what we’ve just learnt in the Word Robbery above, let’s change the “ic” on the end of the English word “romantic” into “ico”.

Doing this, what will “romantic” be in Italian?

romantico

(roe-man-teek-oh)

And so what would “fantastic” be in Italian?

fantastico

(fan-tass-teek-oh)

Let’s now try doing the same with “ical” and change the “ical” on the end of “political” into “ico”.

Doing this, what will “political” be in Italian?

politico

(pol-ee-teek-oh)

And what will “illogical” be?

illogico

(ee-lodge-eek-oh)

Let’s now try using these “ico” words to expand our range of expressions and to make some more complex sentences in Italian.

“It was” in Italian is:

Era

(air-ah)

So, how would you say “it was illogical”?

Era illogico.

(air-ah ee-lodge-eek-oh)

And how would you say “it was political”?

Era politico.

(air-ah pol-ee-teek-oh)

How about “it was romantic”?

Era romantico.

(air-ah roe-man-teek-oh)

Finally, how would you say “it was fantastic”?

Era fantastico.

(air-ah fan-tass-teek-oh)

Now, do you remember how to say “I have visited” in Italian?

Ho visitato

(o visit-art-oh)

And what about “I visited”?

Ho visitato

(o visit-art-oh)

And “I did visit”?

Ho visitato

(o visit-art-oh)

Do you remember how to say “I have spent”, “I did spend”, “I spent” (literally “I have passed”)?

Ho passato

(o pass-art-oh)

And so how would you say “I spent the weekend”?

Ho passato il weekend

(o pass-art-oh eel weekend)

What is “in Rome” in Italian?

a Roma

(a roam-er)

So how would you say “I spent the weekend in Rome”?

Ho passato il weekend a Roma.

(o pass-art-oh eel weekend a roam-er)

And once more, what is “it was” in Italian?

Era

(air-ah)

Now, “era” can be used in Italian to mean both “it was” and also just “was”. “The weather” in Italian is:

il tempo

(eel tem-poe)

So how would you say “the weather was…”?

il tempo era…

(eel tem-poe air-ah)

Now again, what was “fantastic” in Italian?

fantastico

(fan-tass-teek-oh)

And so how would you say “the weather was fantastic”?

Il tempo era fantastico.

(eel tem-poe air-ah fan-tass-teek-oh)

And how would you say “I spent the weekend in Rome. The weather was fantastic.”?

Ho passato il weekend a Roma. Il tempo era fantastico.

(o pass-art-oh eel weekend a roam-er. eel tem-poe air-ah fan-tass-teek-oh)

If you want to show that you’re amazed or impressed by something in Italian, you can, just as in English, say “wow”.

So, just to make this clear, what is “wow” in Italian?

wow

(wow)

Good.

The word for “and” in Italian is:

e

(ay)

So, how would you say “…and wow…”?

…e wow…

(ay wow)

Putting what you’ve learnt together, say “I spent the weekend in Rome – and wow, it was fantastic.” Take your time to work this out, bit by bit, there’s no rush.

Ho passato il weekend a Roma – e wow, il tempo era fantastico.

(o pass-art-oh eel weekend a roam – er ay wow, eel tem-poe air-ah fan-tass-teek-oh)

You can now construct the sentence with which we started the chapter – and, as you will soon discover, this is just the very beginning of your journey into Italian!

Building Blocks

You just learnt how to say (amongst other things) “I spent the weekend in Rome – and wow, the weather was fantastic”.

Now that you can do this, you are going to move on to expand what you can say through the use of additional “building blocks”.

The new building blocks you are going to learn will allow you to begin instantly expanding your range of expressions in the Italian language.

So far, some of the building blocks you have already learnt include:

You already know how to use these building blocks to construct a sentence. Once again, how would you say “I have spent the weekend in Rome”?