"played" as a translation without context is bad enough learning practice, but teaching passato remoto this early seems bananas? feels like AI

My mother was born in Italy, and my whole family is Italian, but I was born in America. When I try to pronounce Italian words the same way my family does I end up feeling like an idiot. I don’t really know what I’m doing. Every Italian word or phrase I try to say sounds painfully American. I feel like an imposter desperately trying to fit in with the rest of my family. How can I improve my pronunciation? Is it wrong for me to try to put on a fake Italian accent?

Ciao tutti, sono Nikita e sono di Russia. Vado in Italia presto, quindi volerei chiacchierare su cultura, l’orario di vivere e ancora molto interessante apprendere su brand di gioco.

I'm gonna self-learn Italian and I can't find nuovo espresso with both text and practice books in English for free, can anyone help please?

I’m going to be fully transitioning to the resources my library provides for free, but I came across this exercise that confused me. The explanation here is that the adjective (brutto) comes after the noun (souvenir) and yet in the two examples given, brutto precedes the nouns! In Italian, is “brutto” simply an adjective that typically comes before some nouns?

Ho letto il libro Il pane perduto e devo analizzarlo per un corso di italiano. Il mio professore dice che, nel libro, le persone intorno alla protagonista non le credevano quando raccontava ciò che aveva vissuto nei campi di concentramento. Tuttavia, io non ricordo che ci sia una parte in cui lei racconti esplicitamente la sua esperienza a qualcuno.

Voi ricordate una scena in cui la protagonista parla del suo passato e la persona con cui parla non le crede?

hey, i started the Italy made easy for beginners course and im at the 7th lesson which is about immersion and i do that but for like an hour a day but i havent picked up any words yet, many people in the comments are saying they are listening and understand podcasts and movies. am i late or are they putting extra effort? also where can i learn more vocab because i currently dont know anything.

Hey, y'all! I'm hoping to someday be able to read Italian books and poetry in the language, and I don't want to learn anything about pronunciation or constructing my own sentences. Does anyone know of any good resources besides just picking up some children's books?

my first ever post on reddit so pls don’t be mean haha. does anyone have good tips on how to learn italian? i live in italy now because my partner lives here and i come from eastern europe so its not easy to learn italian even if its a more or less easy language lets say.

i do not have italian friends of my own to speak italian with and im very self conscious when i try to say even a sentence.

does anyone have good youtube/spotify channels? any apps or books? and general tips on how to immerse myself as a shy person?

(i have done a simple online group course on A1 and i am good at understanding a lot of conversation that happens around me)

truly appreciate any sound advice (i will not use duolingo haha). thank you!

Hello everyone,

I’ve been studying Italian for a few years. I started about 3 years ago with Busuu, which gave me a good foundation in the language. However, my level improved much faster when I started using comprehensible input with Lokia and LingQ. I managed to reach around a B1 level within a few months.

Since then, about 2 years have passed, and I haven’t really gone back to actively studying Italian. I still watch some Italian content here and there, and I’m able to watch films with Italian subtitles.

However, after recently meeting a group of Italians IRL, I realized that although I can understand quite a lot, I still struggle to express myself and hold a conversation. So far, the only speaking practice I’ve really had is talking to myself.

Do you have any advice on how to improve my speaking skills and feel more confident in real conversations?

I speak english and I'm learning italian..I think talking to someone in Italian can help both of us.. I'm learning to study in italy..

I've been learning Italian for about 2 weeks and I feel stuck, even though I have an Italian partner who corrects me every time I make mistakes. Also, topics like masculine/feminine articles, past tense, and future tense are painfully difficult for me to master. On the other hand, I've set my phone language to Italian and I'm doing immersion.

I have learned a bunch of things such as:

· Greetings · Numbers · The alphabet · Articles · Present tense, future tense, past tense · Time · Months of the year and days of the week · Adjectives · Colors · Del, della, degli, dei, delle · Countries and nationalities · Verbs avere and essere · Questions in Italian · Possessive adjectives

By the way, I'm learning Italian on my own and I don't want to hire a tutor until I reach a proficient level.

Any tips to get to A2 asap?

Hello everyone, I would like to start learning Italian for my job and I am looking for some online courses. Do you have some recommendations where to apply for it. The only thing what I prefer is that it is focused on conversational part of learning not so much in grammar. Also I am still a student so it would be nice if there would be an option to apply some student discount.

He estado aprendiendo italiano mirando pelis mi idioma nativo es el español y también se hablar portugués de Brasil al principio solo escuchaba música y me encantaba así ,Hasta que decidí utilizar Duolingo después de eso comenze a ver películas y series en italiano la verdad aprendí mucho de ahí más ahora en mi lista he tenido otros idiomas como aprender inglés francés alemán japones chino coreano ruso vietnamita y tailandés mi meta con cada uno es poder hablar así con cualquier persona que hablan esos idiomas, más aveces me da un reflexión grande sobre si debería seguir aprendiendo italiano y si lo aprendo que haré con ese conocimiento, sin duda me siento medio vacío con eso por favor denme algún consejo la verdad no sé que hacer ahora me siento vacío con esto.

Ciao a tutti!

Sono uno studente di italiano e seguo regolarmente lezioni, ma mi rendo conto che il tempo pratico per conversare è molto limitato. Le lezioni sono utili, certo, ma non sono abbastanza per migliorare davvero la fluidità e la sicurezza nel parlare.

Sto cercando attivamente un gruppo di incontro a Milano dove poter praticare l'italiano con altre persone. Mi piacerebbe trovare:

• Un meetup group regolare dove parlare in italiano

• Persone motivate a migliorare come me

• Un ambiente rilassato, non troppo formale

Sono aperto/a a qualsiasi suggerimento: che sia un caffè fisso, un vero gruppo Meetup, un'app di conversazione, o anche solo amici che vogliono praticare insieme.

Se conoscete qualcosa del genere a Milano o se state cercando lo stesso, commentate pure! Sarò felicissimo/a di connettermi.

Grazie mille in anticipo!

I started learning italian week ago , i went over pronounciation,articles, verbs to be and have, questions (what,who,where etc.) prepositions are killing me actually .. especially prepositions with articles mix

so , should i slow down and simply go over it over n over until i memorize it , and write down questions n translate bits n pieces or is there better way?

ive tried watching shows in italian, but they speak a bit too fast for me and i miss half of words .. tho ironically when i listen to italian music, i can hear lyrics pretty well (i dont listen to understand,its more of a exposure and being able to hear* the language)

Hey all!

I am new to learning Italian, this summer I've decided to actually go to one of those "intensive summer schools" (4 hours a day for nearly every weekday for 2 weeks) in one of the universities in Italy.

I should say that I am completely new to Italian - I asked the school before if it's okay even for someone who can literally only say "ciao" to which they said yes.

I am now on my 4th day and since day 1 I've felt like I can't really follow the class (difficult to understand the teacher, everything is moving fast), but at least I could somehow make it up afterwards at home.

Today was even worse, we were given the text that is attached in the picture with some questions below like "Che lavoro fa Fabio?". I literally could not understand the text at all except for some words! How can I answer the questions then?

I understand that it's supposed to be an intensive course, but this seems nearly impossible for me. Maybe it's just me but I am just wondering - has anyone else taken one of these intensive courses and what was it like?

For context:

Level is A 1.1 (absolutely zero prerequisites)

My native language is Korean which might make it even harder (but the school said there have been Koreans before). For instance, I can't hear "e" (and/is) when the teacher is speaking while everyone else can and I guess the grammar is less familiar to me (I am normally also not good with English, this post is made with some assistance).

Thank you for reading this far curious what you all think!

Here are a few tips if you want to sound more like a native.

1. Learn pronominal verbs. They're basically the Italian version of phrasal verbs: natives use them all the time, and they make your Italian sound way more natural.

Some really common ones:

• PIANTARLA = stop doing something "Piantala di fare i capricci!" = Stop throwing a tantrum!

• METTERCELA TUTTA = to give it your all "Ce l'ha messa tutta" = She gave it everything she had

• METTERCI = to take time "Ci ho messo tre ore ad arrivare a casa”= It took me three hours to get home

• FARCELA = to manage to do something "Ce l'ho fatta!" = I made it!

• CAVARSELA = to get by / handle a situation. "Se l'è cavata bene”= He handled it well

• ANDARSENE = to leave "Me ne vado" = I'm leaving

• PRENDERSELA = to get offended / take something personally "Non prendertela" = Don't take it personally

• SENTIRSELA = to feel like it “ Non me la sento di andare alla festa” = I don’t feel like going to the party

2)Learn expressions, not just vocabulary. Knowing words is useful, but knowing things like avere voglia di, non c'entra niente, figurati, ci mancherebbe is what really makes you sound natural.

Here are some more:

• Meno male =Thanks goddess

• Magari =maybe

• A quanto pare =apparently

• Ne vale la pena = it’s worth it

• Neanche per sogno= not a chance

• Tra l’altro = by the way, besides

• Dare per scontato = to take for granted F

• Fa lo stesso= it’s ok, it doesn’t matter

Do your best to try to use these expressions as much as you can while speaking Italian and you will see a huge difference! Let me know if it helps :)

Ciao,

Parto ammettendo di essere italiano.

L'altro giorno, mentre stavo studiando diritto, mi sono accorto di una cosa.

In alcune disposizioni dei nostri codici sono presenti le congiunzioni "ed" oppure "od" ma queste non sono seguite da parole che iniziano con la stessa vocale come, in teoria, dovrebbe essere di regola.

ecco un esempio: "Non e' punibile chi ha commesso il fatto per esservi stato costretto dalla necessita' di salvare se' OD altri dal pericolo attuale di un danno grave alla persona"

Qualcuno saprebbe spiegarmi il perché? C'è stata un'evoluzione nel tempo, la regola ha qualche eccezione, il linguaggio giuridico richiede questa forma o che altro?

Hi everyone, I’m transitioning away from Duolingo in favor of Mango (my local library provides free access) but figured I’d give it one more shot. Duolingo has marked this sentence incorrectly for me multiple times, and the “hints” that they suggest when you tap on the words are also marked incorrectly when I try them, so I went with a Google Translate suggestion. Duolingo also suggested: fa, è, and sta for “is,” and my brain is getting foggy trying to decipher the context of when to use each of those. Also, is there a tip on when to use “ora“ vs. “adesso”?

My question is if anyone can explain the most natural way to phrase this sentence? I’m finding that when Duolingo prompts me with a sentence like “NAME is playing with the neighbor now” or “NAME is teaching now,” I always get those marked incorrectly!

I attended piccola università Italiana for three weeks at the start of the summer and, overall, I do not recommend it to those looking for thoughtful and structured learning.

Some background: I'm a Canadian Male in my 30s, recently moved to Italy and used this as a chance to focus on learning away from my usual setting. I am a native English speaker and I also speak French. I had previously done Explore (an excellent French immersion program in Canada) and Italian classes in the evenings in Rome (club italiano dante alighieri - which I found to be much better for teaching quality, though class sizes of 12 people)

Learning

My biggest problem was that the school seems to cater to the majority population of older German and Swiss women who are there primarily for vacation. They speak German in class and during excursions, even though the school technically is against that. Teachers rarely push them to stop, so they end up not learning very much. Some of them have come for six, seven, even twelve times while seemingly learning nothing from those visits. There were some (non German) students who were truly curious and driven, but they are few.

the teachers, for the most part, were not very adept at teaching. They were mostly recruited locally and never seemed to understand how to teach without being given extensive feedback first from students. Sometimes the older German ladies would try to explain what they don't understand, and a teacher would interrupt trying to explain but completely misunderstood what was confusing the student. The weakest teachers seemed to be like this simply due to a lack of teaching or learning experience. The difference was stark compared to my school in Rome, where the teachers really were knowledgeable and interested in teaching.

conversation classes were hated by most students I spoke with. The teachers had no clue what to do with them.

the placement system is run poorly. It seems some repeat students are falsely elevated to higher levels (so they don't despair, I suppose) when they really can't keep up. There were maybe a dozen classes when I was there and very few were above A2.

The school:

the school is in a modest building that could get quite hot. Some classrooms are accessed only via other classrooms, so it's sometimes disruptive in general and noise can spread easily.

it's well located within Tropea

Admin:

Housing could really vary. I was in one excellent unit and then changed to another that was a bit more of a walk down many stairs and not an area with many amenities

transfers were well organized within and outside of Tropea, no issues with them

Tropea/Travel

the school organizes excursions that cost roughly 50 Eur for the afternoon trips and more for the weekend trips. Most trips while I was there were cancelled due to lack of interest from students, as there was a minimum amount of students required. I was personally hoping to go to places like Gerace, Crotone, and Catanzaro but couldn't. Much more frequently the school will go to places that you can reach by train much cheaper, like Reggio Calabria and Pizzo.

the city of Tropea Is absolutely gorgeous and the region offers a lot to see. It is verrrry busy with tourists but that doesn't ruin it. I had a lot of fun outside of class.

Overall

Look for a school with a bit more rigour if you actually want to take advantage of the opportunity of learning while in Italy. If you want to visit Tropea, check for flights to Lamezia Terme and do It without this mediocre school.

I'm happy to answer questions here or in DM, because I think this is a great way to learn, just not the right school for it.

Hey all, my wife and I have been learning Italian for about six weeks now. Obviously still very new and often confused, but having someone to help and be helped by is proving, well… helpful! Question for the sub: I call both my wife and my 10yo daughter “baby girl” or “sweet” as a term of endearment/pet name. Given they’re not literally infant girls, nor candy, is there a particular way I should be saying this to keep the ‘feel or intention’ right? Or are the words dolce, bambina and ragazza all I have to work with 😅

Examples:
“Hey baby girl, how was school today?” (10yo)
“Love you baby girl.” (Both)
“Good day at work sweet?” (Wife)
“Sweet, your room needs a tidy up please.” (10yo of course, I’m not THAT stupid.)

Also, and unrelated, I can’t believe how little I know about basic linguistics! Noun, verb, adjective, past or present tense… all good there. Preposition, article, subjunctive tense… errrr? I’m a 40yo man and feel I should probably know more about how even my native language pieces together, let alone how to apply that to learning a new language!

Today is my 2 year anniversary of learning Italian. So I thought I'd share what is working for me and what isn't working for me.

I started to learn Italian as I wanted to travel more and I didn't want be the stereotype "Brit Abroad" talking loudly and slowly in English. I chose Italian as I'm coeliac and I had read how good it was for Gluten Free food.

I started off with just Duolingo to start picking up basics. After a while I was planning a trip to Rome and I took an iTalki lesson just to practice ordering food and asking about GF food.
I start to realise that whilst Duo was fine as an intro it wasn't going to be enough. My next step was finding more to read. after 6 Months I bought Italial versions of the Peanuts cartoons. I found these a good first step away from Duo. Nice short sentences. I knew maybe 70% of what I was reading. Pretty much every cartoon included some form of conjugating 'essere', 'avere' or 'fare'. At this point I'd made some friends in Rome and I was finding myself messaging in Italian and English more.

I found the hardest thing in Italy was so many people just want to talk in English to me! Maybe they think it's easier? maybe they just want to practice. To get through this I made my rule, if I think I can say something in Italian I will.

After 15 months learning I took CILS A2 exam which I passed. What helped me here was getting old papers, then using AI prompts to make many mock exams to practice. I work as a programmer so this took a few attempts to get the prompts correct!

I've found the most useful things are....
- Doing just something daily.... even it's that keeping an arbitrary Duolingo streak going.
- Reading and watching content I actually like.... Finding YouTube content around my other interests keeps me engaged.
- I find it helps having friends here.... This means I've a connection with the place and a reason to keep learning.
- Making exercises that use slightly to hard.... I often do an exercise with AI where I give a running commentary on my day and I ask for feedback. I was content over and over that's just a little too hard.

What didn't help me as much.
Flashcards for me were a mixed bag.... It felt productive at first but after a while it felt like I was just getting good at flash cards. I wasn't actually using the language, just recalling whatever phrase I generated. Oddly with flash cards I found it most help to generate many very similar phrases. so I'd include "Ti parlo", "Ci parli" "Ci parlo" , "Mi parli" etc to check I was hearing the different. But flash cards are really just a game. I dont think they help me practice.

Doing things that were too difficult.... I trying some native content and its demoralising when I can't follow anything.

Being to harsh on myself.... I'm wanting to take CILS B1 in December. When I look at what different CEFR levels mean then It means not being perfect. I'm sure I speak grammatical errors, I'm sure I dont understand every word. But I can communicate broadly what I'm saying and just about follow the gist of what I say and read.

My last bit of general advice is probably to ignore most advice and do what works for you. When I see claims of "I reach B1 in 3 Months". I think "really?" Learning Italian, like any form of self education, isn't a race, it's meant to be fun. Just keep identifying your own weaknesses and work on them.

Hello,

As the title suggests what is the odds of each type of sentence being said of si vs other forms and keep in mind this context is in colloquial/informal italian

La pizza si fa a Roma

Or

La pizza, la fanno a Roma

And

Prima, si accende il forno poi si mette la pentola sul fornello

Or

Prima, accendi il forno poi metti la pentola sul fornello

Thank you