Stop Learning Boring Grammar: Master Italian (Zero to Intermediate)

Hello, this is me Ziba. You are going to learn Italian with me. You know that Italian is a very poetic and sweet language. So why don't we start learning it with the pronunciation. You know, each language has a different rule of pronunciation. So this applies to Italian as well. And sometimes the pronunciation can be very tricky. I mean, in each language and makes us confused. Now we are going to learn the name of each letter and the pronunciation and then an example. So a sounds always a in Italian. It's not like English that you can say e, e, a. It depends really on the word. Meanwhile, in Italian, a is always a, b, bene, sabato, b, b, c, c, come, c, c, cena. Yeah, this is different and we are going to get back to this later. Next, di, do, dove, andiamo. How about this? Did you say i? This is a. Sounds like a, like, estate, fede, espresso. Next, f, farfalla, effetto. And here is a tricky one, g, g, g, gatto, gelato. We're going to get back to this later. Acca. How about the sound? Did you say hotel? Acca is always silent in Italian. So we don't pronounce it. Hotel, Hawaii. So whenever you find h, acca in Italian, do not pronounce it. Especially if it's at the beginning of a word. Did you say i? This is i. I sounds like i. p, p, porta, appena, cu, cu, quale, quindi, re, re, rete, ramo. So re is not rolled as it is in English. It sounds like Spanish. S, s, salute, sempre, ti, te, testo, atto, u, u, uva, uno, vi, and also vu. It is called vu. And guess what? Vu is more common to hear rather than vi. Vino, vero, zeta, zaino, zio. So as you notice, z, z is pronounced as it is in German. Did you notice there were some missing letters? Like j, k, w, y, right? Because these are missing in Italian language. And these are called kind of foreign letters such as ilunga. And ilunga depends on the word really. Consider Jeep. Jeep is a brand and of course everybody would call it Jeep. The same, right? Jacopo. So it sounds like ye. It depends on the word. Kappa. It always sounds like k, like koala. Kiwi, doppia, vu, doppia, vu, windows. X, extra, xylophone, y, yogurt, maya. You will find these letters mainly in the words that are borrowed from English. Most of the times from English, let's say. So the pronunciation is the same as it is in English. So this is the end of the alphabet and letters. How about the pronunciation tricks? How about other rules? Let's get back to this. Chi. If there is h, like chi plus h, sounds like k, bruschetta, chiaro. And if there is c, i, o, c, i, o, c, i, o, cho, c plus e, che. So it sounds like che, c, i, o, cho, braccio, ghiaccio, ciotola. And this rule applies to g as well. G plus i, g, like giovanni, like Giulia. G plus e, gelato. Otherwise, it would sound like g. And let's wait. Hold on. If there is g, then the next letter is n. How about that? Here is a tricky one. So it sounds like the one in Spanish. This letter in here. And g plus l, gl. Here, we don't sound and we don't pronounce g as we are used to, like g or j. It's almost silent. Well, it's not even silent. G plus l has a very different pronunciation. How would you read this word? We will pronounce it as foio. How about this? And there is one more. Of course, there are some exceptions like glicine, like Anglicano. But guess what? Gl, like bottiglia, foio, is the one that you will hear the most. This is the common pronunciation that you would hear. Or sce, sounds like sh, scena, sciare. This part was about the combination of letters. In this part, we are more focused on the general pronunciation rules. So what are the general rules? The very first one is whatever letter you see, you have to follow the letters and read them. There is no surprise pronunciation in there. Once you know and you learn the rules, then you are good to go. It's not like as it is in English. It's different. Sometimes it's really surprising and you have to check it on the dictionary to make sure. In Italian, just follow the letters. Just follow the rules that you have learned. And what's more, double letters. Be careful. Whenever you see the double letters, make sure that you pronounce both letters. Such as lettere, caffè. Double F, so I have to pronounce both. Caffè, bella. Latte, not latte. Cappuccino, not cappuccino. Some words have different meanings. How can we understand? The stress of the letters can change the meaning sometimes. Like ancora, ancora. We never link the words as we do in English. They should be pronounced. They have to be pronounced separately. We never link them. This is very important. If you do it so, they will get confused. Whenever you see double S, then the sound of S is very soft. Like S. And completely different meaning. Now you know all the rules about pronunciation. Of course, it takes exercises and practicing to master this pronunciation. Once you learn the general rules, you can read Italian easily. But of course, sometimes you need to make sure that you have got the right to stress on words. So, see you next lesson. Hi, welcome to the new lesson. The second lesson of Italian course. In this lesson, we are going to learn how to ask someone's name and how to ask how they are. Plus, we are going to learn a bit of grammar today. So, let's get ready. Sì, sto bene, grazie. Easy peasy, right? Now it's your turn. Why don't we have a conversation together, right? So, I start first. Now let's have a little bite of grammar. Let's start with pronouns io, tu, lei, lui, noi, voi, loro. And as you notice, in the conversation you heard two verbs. Io sto bene, sono, sto. Right, and the both sentences. Sono, sto means am, I am. I am Ziva, I am good. What's the difference? We are going to find it out later. Now let's just conjugate them. The first verb is essere. Essere is the most important verb in Italian grammar. Why? Because it's one of the auxiliaries in the grammar. Io sono, tu sei. Lei, lui, noi siamo. Voi siete, loro sono. Right, io sono, loro sono. It's exactly the same verb. And the second verb sto bene drives from the verb stare. Now let's conjugate it. Io sto, tu stai. Lui, lei sta. Noi stiamo. Voi state. Loro stanno. So let's get back to the meaning. Because I know that this is a bit confusing. Because what's the difference? Io sono bene or io sto bene. What's the difference? The difference is essere, to be and stare. The same verb to be. Stare goes with the adverbs like sto bene, sto male. Male is an adverb in Italian grammar. Meanwhile if I want to say something like I'm happy, I'm sad. Which are adjectives. I would say io sono felice, tu sei felice. But not io sto felice. And yes this is the end of the lesson. You just learned how to ask someone's name and how they are in Italian. Plus two verbs in Italian. But have you noticed you just learned how to ask questions in Italian grammar. Yeah that's very easy. Just check this. Sara sta bene. Sara sta bene? Lui è magro. Lui è magro? Right, just change your intonation and you are good to go. This is how you make questions in Italian. Here we are at the end of the lesson. Make sure you download the pdf for the additional info. See you next lesson. Ciao. In this lesson you are going to learn the negation of the verbs in Italian and ask someone's age and plus a new verb. Let's learn numbers. So I'm going to say the numbers from zero to twenty. And now from twenty to one hundred. How to say thirty-six? How to say fifty-two? How to say ninety-three? And now the hundreds. Cento, duecento, trecento, quattrocento, cinquecento, seicento, settecento, ottocento, and novecento. Ok, let's have a conversation. Ciao, tu sei Marco? No, io non sono Marco. Sono Luca. Oh, scusa. Quanti anni hai? Io ho ventisei anni. E tu? Quanti anni hai? Come te? Io ho ventisei anni. Ho. The verb is o. H o. It derives from the verb avere. Avere means to have. Have, avere, is one of the most important verbs in Italian after essere. Let's say both of them are equally important. Because the both verbs are auxiliary verbs in Italian language. Now let's learn how to conjugate it. And yes, H H is silent. Io ho, tu hai, lui lei ha, noi abbiamo, voi avete, loro hanno. So how to say she is thirty-six? Lei ha trentasei anni. How to say Sarah is fifty-two? Sarah ha cinquantadue anni. Yeah, in English you simply can delete, get rid of years old. However, in Italian doesn't work like that. So always anni. And as you noticed, in Italian we say she has thirty-six years old. They have fifty years old. Loro hanno cinquanta anni. So what was the question again? Quanti anni hai? Quanti is not just how old. It's something like how many, quanti. And this was one of the question words that you just learned and how to negate the verbs. Yeah, just simply add non before the verb and you're good to go. So avere, the verb to have in Italian, does it work just to ask for someone's age? No, it's not. It's exactly like the verb to have in English. Like I have a dog. Ho un cane. Here is a tricky one, a tricky sentence for you. Io ho un cane ho un gatto. Probably you have heard to ho. Io ho un cane. Yeah, I have a dog. But what about the second one? Ho un gatto. The second ho means or. I have a dog or a cat. Now that you just started learning Italian, it sounds very tricky. But when it's written, o, h, o, a, k, o, it's very easy to recognize. And when people are speaking in Italian, of course, you will recognize that which o they're talking about. It's not that much tricky. Just as a little reminder that you can make a question like asking, do you have any cats? Do you have a cat? Hai un gatto? No, I don't have a cat. No, non ho un gatto. See you next lesson. Ciao. Ciao, io sono Ziva and welcome to the new lesson. In this lesson, we are going to learn some words plus how to say this is and that is. Let's start. Now you are going to hear some random words like pianta, macchina, bottiglia, viaggio, tempo, libro. Did you notice to the last letter, the final letter? I'm going to repeat. What does it mean? O means the word is masculine in Italian. And if you see the final letter is an A or better to say A, it means it's feminine. So let's have some more examples. What was the final letter? It was an A. So it means they were all feminine. So the words are either masculine or feminine. So they have a gender. It is not like English or any other languages that are gender neutral. In Italian, each word has a gender. Is that all Ziva? Are we done with this lesson? Of course not. There are some exceptions. There are some words that the final letter is not an O or A. It's E and it can be masculine or feminine. Is there any way to recognize that? Yes, there are. But before that, we need to memorize those words. Take coffee, for example. Caffè, guess what? It's a masculine one. Or chiave, which means key. Chiave, is it a masculine? No, this is a feminine one. Chiave, caffè. Before getting to those crazy exceptions, let's have some fun learning this and that. This, questo. That, quello. How to say this book? Book, libro. Questo, libro. How to say this apple? Questa, mela. Did you notice? Questa, mela. Questo, libro. So, the final letters agree. Questo, libro. Questa, mela. But not questo, mela. It's a no. Easy, right? Just make sure that they agree. Now, let's get back to those crazy exceptions, which kind of make a problem for us. Speaking of which, problem. Problema. Problema, which ends with an a. It's a maschile. It's a masculine one. So, it's questo problema. Funny, right? Take this, radio. Ends with an o. Maschile? Femminile. Questa, radio. And hand, right? Mano. Questa, mano. Just to complete the lesson, let's get back to that. Quello. How to say that car? Quella, macchina. And for the masculine ones, for the maschile, one thing to remember is that when a word is maschile, such as caffè, make sure that you drop o when it's that coffee, like quel caffè. And when the initial letter is a vowel, then quel, apostrophe, and then the word, like quel ascensore, quel orologio. This is it. Remember, 90% of the times you can guess the gender of the words by the final letter. However, this is not all. We should always check the dictionary and look it up to make sure that we have got the right gender. See you next lesson. Ciao. Hello, everybody. This is me, Ziba, with a new lesson. Let's learn more and broaden our knowledge in Italiano. Numero uno. La finestra è aperta. Numero due. Il caffè è caldo. Numero tre. Lo zaino è carino. L'autobus è giallo. L'amica di Noemi ha quattordici anni. So far, you have learned that the words in Italian have gender, either masculine or feminine. In this lesson, you learned the articles. Let's review very quickly. La finestra. You remember, finestra, a, it's femminile. La finestra, the window, la, femminile. Il caffè è caldo. Caldo. Il caffè, il caffè, maschile. Lo zaino, lo zaino, maschile. And then, l'autobus. L'autobus è giallo. And the last one was l'amica. L'amica, a, femminile. So the articles in Italian are il, la, lo, l', apostrofi. What are the plural forms of these articles? La, le, la finestra, le finestre, il gatto, i gatti, il, i, lo zaino, gli zaini, l'autobus, there is a vowel in there, and it's a maschile. So the plural form would be gli, l'autobus. And the last one, l'amica, l'amica. And the initial letter is a vowel, so l'amica. Le amiche, easy, le amiche. So to sum up, if the word is femminile, la, le, if it's a maschile, il, i, lo, l', apostrofi, gli. So what is this lo? The article lo. Are we supposed to use it everywhere, every time that we see a maschile, that we can get confused because there is il and lo? Well, whenever you see that there are two consonants in a row, the initial letters are two consonants. The list is very limited. For example, take studente, s, t, zaino. There aren't any two consonants in a row. However, the pronunciation of the are a combination of t, s. That's why it's lo. Yeah, good question. If a word is a feminine, like zampa, are we supposed to add or change la? No, la is perfect, la zampa. It's just the maschile that makes things complicated, you know what I mean? So let's make the list complete about lo. So s, t, studente, o, lo yogurt, g, n, gnocco, lo gnocco, p, s, lo psicologo, and p, n, pneumatico. You know, the last words aren't the words that you will hear in everyday life, so chill. So are we done? Of course not. Don't leave the lesson without learning the exceptions. Take the words città, la città. How to make it plural? Le città doesn't change. Or take caffè, il caffè. What's the plural form? I caffi, i caffè. So when there is an accent on the final letter, we do not change them when it's a plural form. Or some words are not very clear. For example, l'uomo, man. And how to make it plural? Gli uomini, and dito, il dito, le dita. Crazy, right? L'uovo, egg, the egg, and the eggs, plural form. Why? I don't know. I have no idea. Either the native speakers, and guess what? Sometimes the native speakers make mistakes as well. So don't worry. Do you remember questo, questa, the plural form? For example, mela, the plural form would be mele. So queste mele, they should agree, always. Or those cats, cat, il gatto, questo gatto, questi gatti. Now let's broaden our knowledge by learning some possessive adjectives. Like my, your, her, his, these words. Now you will hear the basic form. Which is, the basic form is always singular masculine. Mio, tuo, suo, nostro, vostro, loro. Yeah, they're the same, loro, loro. Il caffè, I'd like to say my coffee. How to say my coffee? Where to place the possessive adjective? Il caffè, il mio caffè, this is my coffee. Questo è il mio caffè, questo il mio caffè. Parola, la parola, her word, her word, la sua parola. Lavoro, lavoro, il lavoro, the job, occupation. Your job, plural form, il vostro lavoro. Our time, il nostro tempo. Now let's see together different forms of possessives. Mio, mia, miei, tuo, tua, tue, tuoi, suo, sua, sue, suoi, nostro, nostra, nostre, nostri. Yeah, that's right, vostro, vostra, vostre, vostri, loro, loro, loro, doesn't change. Okay, let's practice together. No, no, no, wait a minute, this is a quiz for you. I tell you the possessive form, I'm not going to change the form, you are going to. I tell you an example. Take i cani, i cani. You should guess the right possessive adjective for this. I'd like to say my dogs, so the possessive form is mio, but I cannot place mio here. Why? Because it's plural, i cani, so it's maschile, mio, mia, mie, miei. Which one? Right, i miei cani. This was an example, now number two. The possessive adjective is vostro. The question is il viaggio, il vostro viaggio. Numero tre, loro, le macchine, le loro macchine, tuo, la sedia, la tua sedia. And the last one is suo, i fiori, i suoi fiori. Questa è la mia amica, questo è il mio caffè, queste sono le mie borse, questo è il mio genitore. Genitore, il genitore means parent and parents, i genitori. And fun fact about genitori. Well, this word, i genitori, you won't hear it so often. You will hear it maybe in a formal occasion and situation. When someone asks how your parents are, so it will be, the question will be come stanno your parents, i tuoi genitori, right? Come stanno i tuoi genitori? The fun fact is come stanno i tuoi. When it's about speaking about your parents or about someone's parents, you need to say i miei, i tuoi, i suoi. See you next lesson, ciao!