I’m studying Italian and I can say: no language has made me laugh so much

I’m Spanish and some time ago I started to learn Italian. I must admit that all the languages ​​I have studied so far have surprised me in some way. At school, I was delighted that the words “sandwich” and “toast” were German in origin. Later in college I learned that “ham” (Ham), “taller” (workshop) and “chance” (opportunity) are actually French words. But I didn’t imagine that the Italian could surprise me so much. It’s not like other languages.

I am the author of awesome.club and decided to share my own fun experience with you learning the language of Andrea Bocelli and Dolce & Gabbana.

I was very impressed by some words that sound practically the same in other languages, but in Italian they are completely different. For example, a word that is very familiar all over the world: “football”. In Italian, it’s CALCIO.

In other languages, “soccer” is “soccer”, or something very similar — but not in Italian.

“Bus” in Italian is pullmanalthough the word is also used l’autobus🇧🇷

From school music lessons, we know that the word “piano” is Italian. But for those who speak the native language, the musical instrument is called pianoforte🇧🇷

pianoforte… Strong piano. This makes me want to put an emoji here.

Continuing: “Angry!” can only be said to men. If we want to compliment a woman, we should say “brave!”, since the word refers to the feminine gender, and it is necessary to change the ending (in the same way as in Portuguese!).

When Italians answer the phone, the first word they say is “pronto”. In this case, for some reason, the rule to change the last letter according to gender does not apply.

In Italian, the characters Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck lose their names and become just a little mouse and a funny duck. And they are called Topolino and Paperino, respectively.

“hotel” is hostel🇧🇷 There is also the word l’hotelbut hostel, in my opinion, is more interesting. And, by the way, would it be a hotel called hostel different from one l’hotel🇧🇷 No, they are absolutely identical. Only the words are different.

“Room” is camera🇧🇷 Interestingly, in Spanish “cámara” is used for a slightly different room. They are somewhat similar languages, but different at the same time.

When I first heard a conversation in Italian, the only question that came to mind was: why do they stretch the words out like that? Then I heard an Italian speaking on TV and I realized that they just spoke like this, as if they were singing: “mangiaaare🇧🇷 falfaaaaaala🇧🇷 cucinaaare🇧🇷

I learned to pronounce the word “chuchara” (Spoon): cucchiaiowhich sounds like , with an emphasis on the second syllable, but is not similar to the word “garlic”: aglio🇧🇷 In the Spanish alphabet there is not a letter that can describe this sound that occurs when the letters G and L come together in Italian. It is not , it is as if it disappeared to become .

As with gli, one of the articles. No matter what variations of transcription I use, the environment I’m in keeps correcting me, and I sometimes break out in fits of laughter. Because I don’t see the difference between your impeccable phonetics and mine.

Surprises in the study of Italian grammar began with the plural. In Italian, quantity is expressed by changing the ending of the word. And, in turn, the termination depends on the genre. For example, “girl” is la ragazza“many girls” is le ragaze“boy”, the boy“many boys”, i ragazzi🇧🇷 So, you have to memorize all these endings, how they change, know the gender of the noun, which obviously complicates the life of a beginner Italian student. It’s much easier to just add the letter S to the end of a word.

In Italian sentences, the subject is omitted. Drink milk. We had dinner at a restaurant. Read the newspaper. You need to guess who exactly performs the action from the verb ending and its conjugation.

At first glance, everything is simple. But when a sentence is complex, that is, it consists of two or more simple sentences, supplemented abundantly with the circumstances of place and time, we really need to solve a riddle before we can make a translation.

“Italian gestures course for foreigners. The teacher is a native speaker”.

The only way to make any progress in learning Italian gestures is to spend enough time in the country and communicate with native speakers. Locals can replace a complete sentence with a gesture. It is curious to observe from the outside: one speaks, the other makes gestures in response.

“I’m Italian and I can’t stay calm”.

So far I managed to learn a few. The first is a hand gesture in the sense of “what are you talking about?”. The second is indecent.

“Italian dialects”.

The Italian language, among other things, is famous for the presence of many dialects. Personally, I am only able to distinguish them when the same person utters the same sentence, commenting that in Sicily it is said like this, in Naples in another way and in Milan, in a different way. So I can’t say it’s a problem for a beginner Italian student. The only thing that can confuse is the accent. In different regions of Italy, people speak with different accents.

When talking about Italians and Italy, it is impossible not to mention its gastronomy. There is no greater sin in the world than overcooking pasta, which, by the way, is your first dish. First the pasta, then the salad, then everything else. In addition to overcooked pasta, there is the crime of cooking pasta carbonara and cream, which is also very serious. Real carbonara doesn’t have cream.

Also, natives don’t eat spaghetti with a spoon. Italians always joke: “If you see a person eating spaghetti with a spoon, you can be sure that he is a tourist”.

Italians have an exceptional sense of humor. They know how to laugh at themselves.

Are you learning Italian or already know how to speak the language? Tell us which features of the language caught your attention the most!