Heather Broster
Even though Italian and English share many similarities, there are plenty of words that trip up Italian students repeatedly – and not all of them are false friends! One of the biggest headaches for learners is the double consonant, which is pronounced differently to a single consonant in that the sound is lengthened and more …
There are many reasons you might vaguely recognise someone but fail to remember their name or how you happen to know them. Perhaps you haven’t seen that person for many years, or you’ve spotted them out of context and can’t put a name to a face. No matter the situation, a useful phrase you can …
Even the most talented of poets may find themselves at a loss when writing traditional rhyming poetry, especially if one of the lines ends with an uncooperative word such as “Italian”! The good news is that there are a handful of words that rhyme, or partially rhyme, with Italian. (But let’s be honest, the real …
If you want to ask someone if they are ready in Italian, you can use the phrases Sei pronto? for a man or Sei pronta? for a woman. Sei pronto? Sei pronta? Are you ready? The respective plurals are Siete pronti? (for men or mixed groups) and Siete pronte? (for women). As you’ve probably surmised, …
While Italian is supposedly an easy language to learn for English speakers, most learners face pronunciation challenges at some point, in part because there are so many Italian loanwords in English whose pronunciation has changed to suit the cadence of the English language. To speak with confidence and be understood in Italy, it is a …
When words sound similar in a language, it is extremely easy to confuse them, especially if you are a learner of that language! Three terms that learners (and sometimes even native speakers) struggle to distinguish in Italian are a posto, apposto and apposta. In this article, our aim is to explain the difference between them! …