Italian for Pre-U

A few basics for the summer

These notes and sound files should help you to acquire a few useful basics before we start the
course in September

A. PRONUNCIATION
VOWELS 1
There are only 7 vowel sounds in the language and no dipthongs. The sounds are
A as in casa (house)
Closed e mele (apples)
Open e sette (seven)
I vino (wine)
Closed o colore (colour)
Open o otto (eight)
U uva (grapes)


CONSONANTS (1) C AND G 2
Cs are HARD before a, o and u: casa (home) come (how) cuoco (cook) bocca
(mouth)
Cs are SOFT before e and i : cena (dinner) cibo (food) cielo (sky) faccio (I make)
To make a hard c sound when the next sound is an i or an e, simply add H:
che (what) barche (boats) chi (who) chiesa (church) chiacchiera (she
chatters)
The same rules apply for Gs: gatto (cat) gola (throat or gluttony) gufo
(owl) gelato (ice-cream) Gino maggio (May) targhe (number
plates) pagher (Ill pay!) ghiaccio (ice) laghi (lakes)

Notes: It helps to remember that CH in Italian is always hard as in the English Chemistry
It makes no difference whether the Cs or Gs are double or not

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CONSONANTS (2) LIQUID SOUNDS 3
These sounds are very liquid and need practice:
GL: luglio (July) figlio (son) bottiglia (bottle) biglietto (ticket) moglie (wife)
GN: bagno (bathroom) giugno (June) spugna (sponge) sogno (dream)
CONSONANTS (3) R 4
These should have a clear roll as in:
Roma mare (sea) erba (grass) arte (art) metro (metre) treno (train)
presto (soon) frutta (fruit) terra (earth)
CONSONANTS (3) S 5
An s (or double s) can be either hard (when at the start of a word, double or before a
consonant as in :
se (if) sole (sun) basso (low) sono (I am) estate (summer)
or soft when before a vowel as in:
rosa (pink) mese (month) Tommaso (Thomas) cosa (thing)
CONSONANTS (4) SC 6
SC when followed by an i or an e is pronounced like and English SH eg:
Scendere (to go down) sciopero (a strike) pesce (fish) sciare (to ski)
scemo (stupid)
But when followed by an H it is like English SK eg:
pesche (peaches) che schifo! (oh yuk!)
CONSONANTS (5) Z 7
Z can be either voiced (like DZ) eg: zio (uncle) zona (area) zanzara (mosquito)
mezzo (half)
or unvoiced like (TS) eg: pizza cozze (mussels) stazione (station)
pazzo (mad)


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CONSONANTS (6) DOUBLE VERSUS SINGLE 8
Be very careful to distinguish between double and single consonants as the words can have
radically different meanings as:
Base (base) basse (low)
Casa (home) cassa (a box or case)
Rosa (rose) rossa (red)
Note (notes) notte (night)
Bruto (Brutus) brutto (ugly)
Papa (Pope) pappa (bread mush for babies)

Practise the following double sounds:
birra (beer) mamma (mother) babbo (dad) faccia (face) viaggio (journey)
occhio (eye) orecchio (ear) sabbia (sand) sotto (under) cotto (cooked)
tetto (roof) buffo (funny) succo (juice) bello (good looking) mucca (cow)

STRESSES WHEN PRONOUNCING WORDS 9
In the vast majority of cases the stress in a word falls on the penultimate syllable or vowel
of a word:
Fratello (brother) sorella (sister) cugino (cousin) vedere (to see) guardare (to watch)
colazione (breakfast) buonanotte (goodnight) Giovanni (John) continente
(continent) oggetto (object) libreria (bookshop) azione (action)
There are two sorts of exceptions
Those occasional ones which have the stress on the last syllable but two eg:
albero (tree) esito (outcome) abile (skilled) allestero (abroad) utile (useful)
desiderio (desire) in anticipo (in advance) Venezia (Venice)
Those which have accents on the final vowel:
citt (city) tass (taxi) unit (unity) pi (more) pu (s/he can) perch (because)
Note re accents: accents in Italian are only there to in indicate a stress on the vowel, they
do not change pronunciation. They are always like the French accent grave (, , , )
except on perch.

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B. THE ALPHABET 10
The Italian alphabet has 22 letters (J, K, W and Y are only occasionally seen in imported words
such as weekend, yogurt and rugby). The recording includes all 26.

C. NUMBERS 11
uno 1
due 2
tre 3
quattro 4
cinque 5
sei 6
sette 7
otto 8
nove 9
dieci 10
undici 11
dodici 12
tredici 13
quattordici 14
quindici 15
sedici 16
diciassette 17
diciotto 18
diciannove 19

venti 20
ventuno 21
ventidue 22
ventitr 23
ventiquattro 24
venticinque 25
ventisei 26
ventisette 27
ventotto 28
ventinove 29

trenta 30
quaranta 40
cinquanta 50
sessanta 60
settanta 70
ottanta 80
novanta 90


cento 100
duecento 200
quattro cent 400
cinquecento 500
novecento 900
mille 1000
duemila 2000
diecimila 10000
centomila 100000
un milione
due milioni

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D. USEFUL PHRASES
A Pupils (le allieve) 12

Buongiorno Professore.
Che cosa vuol dire (parlare) ? What does (parlare) mean?
Come si dice (cheese) in italiano? How do you say (cheese) in Italian?
Mi dispiace, non capisco Sorry, I dont understand
Non ho capito I didnt understand
Non lo so I dont know
Ho dimenticato la mia penna Ive forgotten my pen
Mi pu prestare una penna per favore? Can you lend me a pen please?
Posso
avere un foglio di carta
fare una domanda
andare in bagno
aprire la porta
chiudere la finestra
Per favore? May I
Have piece of paper
Ask a question
Go to the loo
Open the door
Close the window
Please?
ArrivederLa Goodbye (formal)



B The teacher (il professore) 13

Buongiorno ragazze Good morning, girls
Basta! Thats enough!
Aprite il libro alla pagina 20 Open the book at page 20
Chiudete il libro Close the book
Ascoltate Listen
Rispondete Reply
Ripetete Repeat
Leggete (larticolo) Read (the article)
Imparate (a memoria) Learn (by heart)
Scrivete (una lettera) Write (a letter)
Arriverderci Goodbye (informal)
a presto/domani/luned See you soon / tomorrow / on Monday


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E. PRONUNCIATION PRACTICE

1. AL BAR 14

Aranciata Orange drink
Patatine Crisps
Gelato Ice-cream
Birra Beer
Vino Wine
Coca cola
Martini
Succo di frutta Fruit juice
T Tea
Acqua minerale Mineral water
caff Coffee

2. DAYS OF THE WEEK (I GIORNI DELLA SETTTIMANA) 15

Che giorno oggi? What day is it today?
Oggi . Today its

luned Monday
marted Tuesday
mercoled Wednesday
gioved Thursday
venerd Friday
sabato Saturday
domenica Sunday

3. MONTHS OF THE YEAR (I MESI DELLANNO) 16

gennaio
febbraio
marzo
aprile
maggio
giugno
luglio
agosto
settembre
ottobre
novembre
dicembre

4. OTHER SENTENCES 17

Read each of the following sentences, then check on the recording and repeat

i. Gianni e Giovanni vanno a Genova G and G go to Genoa
ii. Carlo di Cervo Carlo comes from cervo
iii. Guglielmo gioca a calcio William plays football
iv. Ha gli occhi azzurri He has blue eyes
v. Il mio compleanno il sedici maggio My birthday is the 16th May
vi. Mi piace questa citt I like this city/town
vii. Questa citt si chiama Chianciano This town is called Chianciano
viii. Davanti allalbergo c un albero In front of the hotel theres a tree
ix. Che cosa vuoi fare stasera? What do you want to do tonight?
x. Quella ragazza bella e intelligente That girl is beautiful and clever
xi. Voglio scendere dal treno I want to get off the train
xii. Mi piacciono gli spaghetti e le tagliatelle I like spaghetti and tagliatelle

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ADDITIONAL PRACTICE
Listen to the tracks entitled Vocab 1 18 and Vocab 219
In each case transcribe the words you hear, then check the spelling and meaning in a dictionary. I
have given you below the first 2 from each track as examples:

Vocab 1
Turista a tourist
Turismo tourism



Vocab 2
Finire to finish
Appartamento a flat