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Beginner Week 1
Vocabolario | Vocabulary
To help you pronounce the words in this section, you might want to try these video links(also available on the HCLAW Italian blog):L’alfabeto Italiano | Italian AlphabetLa Pronuncia delle Parole Italiane | The Pronunciation of Italian Words
I: You say goodbye and I say hello
Ciao
| Hello, Goodbye (informal)
Pronto!
| Hello! (when answering the phone)
Buon Giorno
| Good Morning
Buon Pomeriggio
| Good Afternoon
 It is more common to say Buon Giorno than Buon Pomeriggio, even during the afternoon.
Buona Sera
| Good Evening
Buona Notte
| Good Night
II: Be nice
Per favore, Per piacere
| Please
 Per means “for,” so what you’re literally saying is something like “for [my] favor or for [my] pleasing”
Keeping this in mind, let’s look at
 piacere
, a verb which means “to please.”If someone does something “for [my] pleasing,” then it makes sensethat person is “pleasing to me.” This latter phrase is how Italians say, “I like.” Inother words:
Mi piace
| I like (Literally: It is pleasing to me)We’ll come back to this in depth in a later section.
Grazie
| Thanks
Prego
| Your Welcome
 Both grazie and prego are derivitives from the Catholic tradition in Italy. Grazie literallymeans “graces” as in “thanks/graces be to God” and prego literally means “I pray.”
 
Beginner Week 1
The next time you are at a supermarket, look at the tomato sauces. You’ll notice, or mightalready be familiar with, a brand called “Prego.” It’s telling you “You’re welcome.” Alittle presumptuous, no?
III: Since the last time I saw you...
 
Come sta?
| How are you? (formal)
Come stai? |
How are you? (informal)
We’ll explain the differences between formal and informal in a later section.
Sto bene.
| I am well.
Sto male.
| I am not doing well.
Così- così.
| So-so
Come va
? | What’s up? (Literally: How’s it going?)
Looking at Come sta? and Come va? you’re probably able to tell that come means “how.”
Come? |
How? Now let’s look at some more question words...think about how you would pronounce the following:
Che? |
What?If you thought “Ch” as in chair, you’ve fallen into your first English trap.In Italian, che is pronounced “K” and the “ch” in
chiunque
(anyone) issimilarly pronounced, like “key-un-quay.”
Chiunque? |
Anyone? (Anyone at All?)Leave
chiunque
lost by itself for a moment so you can better see someconnections between four of its relatives:
Chi? |
Who?
A chi? |
To whom?
Con chi? |
With whom?
Di chi? |
Whose? (Literally: Of who?)
In English, we use “whom” instead of “who” when it is the object of a preposition.
 
Beginner Week 1
Seeing this relationship in translation from Italian, you might have noticed that “a,”“con,” and “di” play the role of, and indeed are, prepositions.
A |
to
Con
| with
Di
| of 
Per
| for 
(You knew this one already from “Per favore.”)
Perché? | ?
You know per means “for” and you know “che” means what. When you ask 
 for what 
reason someone does something you ask 
why
. Why. Italian’s not sohard, eh?
Perché? |
Why, BecauseChe has some other relatives:
Che? |
What?
Che cosa? |
What? (think What thing?)
Cosa? |
What?
cosa
| thing
Quale? |
Which?
Quanto?/Quanta? |
How much?
Quanti?/Quante? |
How many?You’ll notice there are two variations of each of the two above. Perché? Youmight ask.We’ve been addressing these question words as people in the sense they haverelatives, but we also address words in Italian (as in other romancelanguages) as though they have gender. Nouns and adjectives in Italian are
masculine
or 
feminine
. Nouns hold their ground. Adjectives are crossdressers. You’ll see them change their ending based on what noun they want to hang out with.For example,
of 00

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