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Italian sentence structure | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| bobby1413 Newbie United Kingdom Joined 4199 days ago 32 posts - 32 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian | Message 1 of 9 03 June 2013 at 6:36pm | IP Logged |
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Hello everyone,
I've been learning Italian for the last two weeks so really just beginning. I am using the following methods: 1) Rosetta Stone 2) Michel Thomas audio CD's for the car 3) Italian Grammar book, and a phrase book 4) I'm also looking at Italian newspapers a lot and also Italian Twitter feeds and will try to learn new words I'm struggling to understand the sentence structure in Italian. For example, in English you would say "How many bowls does she have?", BUT In Italian it is "Lei quante ciotole ha" which seems backwards. Can anyone simply explain why this is like that? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5208 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes  Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 2 of 9 03 June 2013 at 7:21pm | IP Logged |
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The word order can be quite flexible. I'm fairly sure that "Lei quante ciotole ha?", "Quante ciotole ha?", and "Quante ciotole ha lei?" are all correct; the position (or lack) of the pronoun changes the emphasis. To me, "lei" at the start is like saying "as for her, how many does she have?", and at the end, it's similarly highlighting that you're talking about her as opposed to someone else, that we'd indicate using intonation in English as in "how many bowls does SHE have?". Without the pronoun it's just the "normal" question; the pronoun is generally just used for emphasis or to identify a particular person. It's a bit strange at first but with exposure you get used to it.
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| bobby1413 Newbie United Kingdom Joined 4199 days ago 32 posts - 32 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian | Message 3 of 9 03 June 2013 at 7:38pm | IP Logged |
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Thanks garyb - do you have any advice on how else I can learn Italian?
At present I'm writting down lots of words and sentences. I'm learning a lot, but also forgetting some and struggling to make sentences up. I know I'm new but I just want to learn as best I can. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sarnek Diglot Senior Member Italy Joined 4216 days ago 308 posts - 414 votes Speaks: Italian*, English Studies: German, Swedish | Message 4 of 9 03 June 2013 at 10:09pm | IP Logged |
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I´d suggest give up on Rosetta Stone, you won´t learn much out of it.
Instead grab a Teach yourself, or an Assimil coursebook (the latter would be preferable, imo) and get down with it. Don´t spend too much time on grammar, at first approach Italian grammar might seem complex and put you off your goals, but if you take a more natural approach to the language you´ll learn much better and will remember what you learn for a much longer period of time (still my opinion, eh). Once you get to an A2 level (That is, having a good understanding of how grammar works and know the basic vocabulary) move onto reading more and of higher level (no kid stuff) books. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| bobby1413 Newbie United Kingdom Joined 4199 days ago 32 posts - 32 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian | Message 5 of 9 03 June 2013 at 11:05pm | IP Logged |
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I think Rosetta Stone has helped personally.
However, I do actually have an Assimil book and the Audio too, so I can use that too. I did a bit tonight, quite nice that its really in the deep end, proper conversations and sentences. Will keep using this, thanks! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Crush Tetraglot Senior Member ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5866 days ago 1622 posts - 2299 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Esperanto Studies: Basque | Message 6 of 9 04 June 2013 at 3:36am | IP Logged |
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I think it's nice just to follow one course all the way through. Spreading yourself too thin through a bunch of different courses can make you feel like you're not progressing through any of them. If you like Rosetta Stone, stick it through. It's not going to make your Italian worse. The Michel Thomas course is pretty short, too, so you should be able to finish it within a couple weeks. Besides, it's during time you'd otherwise be doing nothing (in the car).
If you like it, you can add Assimil to the mix, i'd just be wary of spreading myself thin through too many courses. Do whatever feels best for you, but like Assimil says, just be sure to do a little every day! I think you'll find Italian will quickly start to make sense, in a few months time you'll wonder how these "basic" things ever confused you in the first place! Good luck and have fun :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5208 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 7 of 9 04 June 2013 at 2:03pm | IP Logged |
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I worked Michel Thomas then Assimil, and these two got me to a level where I could understand pretty well and manage a conversation, although slowly and with plenty mistakes. Assimil is great - I stuck quite rigidly to doing a daily lesson, and it paid off. Since finishing Assimil I've watched a lot of films, had a lot of conversations, and done some reading, and my knowledge and conversational ability are slowly but surely improving.
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| Aquila123 Tetraglot Senior Member Norway mydeltapi.com Joined 5307 days ago 201 posts - 262 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Italian, Spanish Studies: Finnish, Russian | Message 8 of 9 10 June 2013 at 10:51am | IP Logged |
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When you search for some topic in Wikipedia, use the Italian verson and read the Italian explanations for it. It is a good natural way of learning better Italian. When i am searching for something on Google too, I more often use Italian and Spanish than EEnglish. Edited by Aquila123 on 10 June 2013 at 10:02pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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