Italian Simplified Grammar

De Sérgio Domingues

Italian is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family. Italian descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire and, together with Sardinian, is by most measures the Romance language closest to it. Italian is an official language in Italy, Switzerland, San Marino and Vatican City, besides having an official minority status in western Istria (Croatia and Slovenia). Italian is also spoken by large expatriate communities in the Americas and Australia. Many speakers of Italian are native bilinguals of both Italian (either in its standard form or regional varieties) and other regional languages.

In this work we try to condense the essential points of Italian grammar, in a simplified and practical manner, for quick and easy reference. Instead of long theoretical explanations, we use examples to illustrate most grammar points.

• Idioma: Português
• Editora: Sérgio Domingues
• Data de lançamento: 12 de mar. de 2022
• ISBN: 9781005705718

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Introduction

Italian is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family. Italian descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire and, together with Sardinian, is by most measures the Romance language closest to it. Italian is an official language in Italy, Switzerland, San Marino and Vatican City, besides having an official minority status in western Istria (Croatia and Slovenia). Italian is also spoken by large expatriate communities in the Americas and Australia. Many speakers of Italian are native bilinguals of both Italian (either in its standard form or regional varieties) and other regional languages.

Italian is a major European language, being one of the official languages of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and one of the working languages of the Council of Europe. It is the second most widely spoken native language in the European Union with 67 million speakers (15% of the EU population) and it is spoken as a second language by 13.4 million EU citizens (3%). Worldwide, the total number of speakers of Italian is approximately 85 million. Italian is the main working language of the Holy See, serving as the lingua franca (common language) in the Roman Catholic hierarchy as well as the official language of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Italian is known as the language of music because of its use in musical terminology and opera. Its influence is also widespread in the arts and in the food and luxury goods markets.

Standard Italian was adopted by the state after the Unification of Italy, having previously been a literary language based on Tuscan as spoken mostly by the upper class of Florentine society.

Unlike most other Romance languages, Italian retains Latin's contrast between short and long consonants. Its vowels are the second-closest to Latin after Sardinian. As in most Romance languages, stress is distinctive. Almost all native Italian words end with vowels, a factor that makes Italian words extremely easy to use in rhyming. Italian has a 7 vowel sound system ('e' and 'o' have mid-low and mid-high sounds); Classical Latin had 10, 5 with short and 5 with long sounds.

In this work we try to condense the essential points of Italian grammar, in a simplified and practical manner, for quick and easy reference. Instead of long theoretical explanations, we use examples to illustrate most grammar points.

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Alphabet & Pronunciation

Italian is written with the Latin alphabet, i.e., the exact set of letters that you are reading right now. Italian spelling is almost completely phonetic, having been radically simplified, abandoning historical spellings in favour of a simple relation between letters and sounds.

Letter Name Pronunciation

A, a a [ˈa] /a/

B, b bi [ˈbi] /b/

C, c ci [ˈtʃi] /k/ or /tʃ/

D, d di [ˈdi] /d/

E, e e [ˈe] /e/ or /ɛ/

F, f effe [ˈɛffe] /f/

G, g gi [ˈdʒi] /ɡ/ or /dʒ/

H, h acca [ˈakka] ∅ silent

I, i i [ˈi] /i/ or /j/

L, l elle [ˈɛlle] /l/

M, m emme [ˈɛmme] /m/

N, n enne [ˈɛnne] /n/

O, o o [ˈɔ] /o/ or /ɔ/

P, p pi [ˈpi] /p/

Q, q cu (qu) [ˈku] /k/

R, r erre [ˈɛrre] /r/

S, s esse [ˈɛsse] /s/ or /z/

T, t ti [ˈti] /t/

U, u u [ˈu] /u/ or /w/

V, v vi [ˈvi], vu [ˈvu] /v/

Z, z zeta [ˈdzɛːta] /ts/ or /dz/

Besides the simple letters, Italian uses also digraphs, i.e., combinations of two or more letters representing a single sound.

CH ch /k/

GH gh /g/

GN gn /ɲ/

GL gl /ʎ/

SCI sci /ʃ/

Notes:

Italian vowels are always oral, not nasal. Even when in contact with a nasal consonant (m, n), Italian vowels are never nasal. Ex.: mamma is pronounced má-m-ma, without nasalisation of any of the vowels. A slight nasalisation may occur, naturally, but it is never distinctive.

When unstressed, the vowels E and O are always closed (i.e., /e/ as in English day, /o/ as in American English low); ex.: alto (ál-tô), padre (pá-drê). When stressed, these vowels can be either open or closed, depending on the word. E.g.: noi (nô-i), ora (ô-ra); posta (pós-ta), roba (ró-ba); essi (ês-si), verde (vêr-de); lei (lé-i), prego (pré-go). There are no rules to determine the exact pronunciation of stressed E and O; you should always use a dictionary or audio recording to