italki Review for Italian: The best way to practise speaking?

Very few serious language learners will argue with me when I say that speaking – and I mean speaking a lot – is the key to learning a language to high degree of fluency. Indeed, the reason many learners never move beyond the beginner or intermediate stage is because they spend too much time studying …

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18 Italian Quotes about Strength

Today we will look at some of the most famous Italian quotes about strength, which is forza in Italian. In Italian, the word forza has several meanings. It can refer to physical strength, which sometimes leads to brutality and violence, or inner strength and the will of the mind, which makes people capable of brave …

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A Brief History of the Italian Language

The Standard Italian Language, or more simply Italian, is the official language of Italy. It is spoken by approximately 70 million people who mostly reside on the Mediterranean Peninsula or its islands such as Sicily and Sardinia. However, it is also used in the southern areas of Switzerland – specifically in the Ticino and Graubünden …

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The Top 100 Most Common Words in Italian

As in all languages, some words appear more frequently than others in Italian. This happens because in everyday life we tend to repeat the same words over and over again, simplifying our speech and making it more accessible to the listener. This also facilitates the study of a new language, as even a small vocabulary …

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40 Important Italian Words to Use at Thanksgiving

When I first moved to Turin many years ago, I was surprised to discover that not only is Thanksgiving not celebrated in Italy, but also that many Italians have never even heard of the national American holiday. (Looking back, I probably shouldn’t have been so shocked since the celebration is based on the 1621 harvest …

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Italian Pronunciation Challenge: C / CH / CC

Although Italian has gained the reputation of being a “phonetic language” – meaning that there is a direct relationship between the spelling and sounds – there are a few pesky letters that aren’t always pronounced in the same way. One such letter is C. In today’s article, we’re going to discover the different ways in …

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