The Italian Language

The Italian language is closest to a branch of Romance language known as Vulgar Latin. It is the third most widely spoken first language in the European Union. Italian has a total of about 64.8 million native speakers and about 3 million speakers who speak Italian as a second language. Italian is an official language in Italy, Croatia, San Marino, Slovenia, Switzerland, and the Vatican City. Italian is also widely spoken in Albania, Greece, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, some parts of France, as well as in the former Italian East Africa and Italian North Africa regions where it plays a significant role in various sectors.

Today, Italian is a major European language. It is one of the official languages of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe and also one of the working languages of the Council of Europe. It serves as the lingua franca in the Roman Catholic hierarchy and the official language of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. In addition, Italian has a widespread influence in the arts and musical industry where the language is mostly used in opera and music terminology. Italian was reported to be the fifth most frequently taught foreign language in the world.

History of the Italian Language

The standard Italian language has a poetic and literary origin in the writings of Tuscan writers of the 12th century. During the 13th century, writers such as Dante Alighieri (AD 1265 – 1321), Petrarch and Boccaccio were influential in popularising their own Italian dialect as a standard literary language, which was known as the Tuscan of Florence (la lingua fiorentina). Due to the political and cultural significance of Florence at the time, the Florentine dialect quickly gained prestige and by the 14th century, it was used throughout Italy. As the Tuscan-derived Italian came to be used throughout Italy, features of local speech were naturally adopted, producing various versions of regional Italian dialect. Today the Tuscan dialect is known as Italian, which is now the official language of Italy, also known as the language of the arts and the media.

Dialects

There are many distinctive dialects for each city throughout Italy. The most characteristic differences, for example, between Roman Italian and Milanese Italian are the gemination of initial consonants and the pronunciation of stressed "e", and of "s" in some cases.

 

For instance:

va bene (all right) is pronounced

[va ˈbːɛne] by a Roman and a standard Italian speaker,

[va ˈbene] by a Milanese (and by any speaker whose native dialect lies to the north of the La Spezia–Rimini Line);

a casa (at home) is pronounced

[a ˈkːasa] for Roman and a standard Italian speaker,

[a ˈkaza] for Milanese and generally northern Italians.

 

Alphabets and Pronunciations

Italian alphabets are kind of similar to the ones in English because Roman letters are used due to the Roman influence since the early part of the 1st Century AD. For this, if you are an English speaker, learning Italian may not be as difficult as you think it is. However, you need to pay attention to some of the more unique pronunciations in Italian because one letter can be read in only one way, but there are also other letters which can be read in two ways. Once the rules of the Italian pronunciation are understood, it becomes fairly easier for you to read Italian and pronounce Italian words correctly.

 

Italian vowels may appear confusing to foreign speakers, but the good news is, Italian vowels are always articulated in a sharp and clear manner, without any stresses unlike the ones you encounter in English words. Italians pronounce their words the way it is according to the rules, just like the way it is written.

 

Italian Grammar

Gender Nouns

Nouns in Italian come in two different forms. They are either masculine, or feminine nouns.

Masculine Noun	Feminine Noun
ends in ‘-o’	ends in ‘-a’
ends in ‘-ma’ (most)	ends in ‘-o’ (some)
from ‘-o’ to ‘-i’ (plural)	from ‘-a’ to ‘-e’ (plural)

Either Masculine or Feminine Noun

ends in ‘-e’

ends in ‘-ta’

from ‘-e’ to ‘-i’ (plural)

Adjectives

Adjectives usually follows the noun they modify.
Masculine Adjectives	Singular: end in ‘-o’ Plural: end in ‘-i’	cappello cappelli
Feminine Adjectives	Singular: end in ‘-a’ Plural: end in ‘-e’	bella belle
Masculine & Feminine Adjectives	Singular: end in ‘-e’ Plural: end in ‘-i’	classe classi
Some common adjectives precede the nouns they modify.
Eg. bello, piccolo, grande, buono

 

Possessive Adjectives

	Singular	Plural
Masculine	il mio (my) il tuo (your) il suo (his, her, its) il nostro (our) il vostro (your) il loro (their)	i miei i tuoi i suoi i nostri i vostri i loro
Feminine	la mia (my) la tua (your) la sua (his, her, its) la nostra (our) la vostra (your) la loro (their)	le mie le tue le sue le nostre le vostre le loro

 

Prepositions

a	to, at	su	on
in	in, into	con	with
di	by, of	senza	without
per	for	tra	between
da	from	fra	among

 

Articles

Articles must agree in gender and number if they are written or spoken with the nouns.

“the”	Masculine: Il, Io, I’, I, gli	Singular Majority of the masculine nouns will be preceded by Il Masculine nouns that begin with ‘-z’ or ‘-s’ followed by a consonant, will be preceded by Io Nouns beginning with a vowel are preceded by I’ Plural Il → I Io / I’ → gli
	Feminine: la, l’, le	Singular la or l’ as in l’amica (the “female” friend) Plural le at all times
“a”/“an”	Masculine: un, uno	Un → used most of the time Uno → precedes masculine nouns beginning with ‘z-’ or ‘s-’ followed by a consonant.
	Feminine: una, un’	Una → used most of the time Un’ → precedes feminine nouns beginning with a vowel.

 

Pronouns

Personal Pronouns

Subjects

io (I)

tu (you)

lui (he), lei (she)

Lei (you - formal)

noi (we)

voi (you, plural)

loro (they)

Loro (you - formal    plural)

Direct Object

mi (me)

ti (you)

lo (him, it, mas.)

la (her, it, fem.)

La (you - formal)

ci (us)

vi (you)

li (them, mas.)

le (them, fem.)

Li (you - formal mas. plural)

Le (you - formal fem. plural)

Indirect Object

mi (to me, for me)

ti (to you, for you)

gli (to him, for him)

le (to her, for her)

Le (to you, for you - formal)

ci (to us, for us)

vi (to you, for you)

loro (to them, for them)

Loro (to you, for you - formal, plural)

Stressed Forms after a Verb or Preposition

me (me)

te (you)

lui (him)

lei (her)

sè (himself, herself, itself, oneself, themselves)

Lei (you - formal)

noi (us)

voi (you)

Loro (you - formal, plural), loro (them)

 

Possessive Pronouns

Masculine Singular	Masculine Plural
il mio (mine) il tuo (yours) il suo (his, hers, its) il nostro (ours) il vostro (yours, plural) il loro (theirs)	i miei i tuoi i suoi i nostri i vostri i loro
Feminine Singular	Feminine Plural
la mia (mine) la tua (yours) la sua (his, hers, its) la nostra (ours) la vostra (yours) la loro (theirs)	le mie le tue le sue le nostre le vostre le loro

Italian Verbs

One challenging task in learning Italian Grammar is to understand the structure of how verbs are formed. We will just focus on regular verbs on this page.

 

Formation of Regular Verbs

 

The following table is for both indicative and subjunctive moods in simple tenses ending with -are or lavorare (to work)

	Singular
Present	lavoro	lavori	lavora
Imperfect	lavoravo	lavoravi	lavorava
Past	lavorai	lavorasti	lavorò
Future	lavorerò	lavorerài	lavorerà
Conditional	lavorerei	lavoreresti	lavorerebbe
Pres. Subject	lavori	lavori	lavori
Imp. Subject	lavorassi	lavorassi	lavorasse

 

	Plural
Present	lavoriamo	lavoriate	lavorano
Imperfect	lavoramo	lavoravate	lavoravano
Past	lavorammo	lavoraste	lavorarono
Future	lavoremo	lavorete	lavoranno
Conditional	lavoremmo	lavoreste	lavorebbero
Pres. Subject	lavoriamo	lavoriate	lavorino
Imp. Subject	lavorassimo	lavoraste	lavorassero

 

The following table is for both indicative and subjunctive moods in simple tenses ending with -ere or vendere (to sell)

	Singular
Present	vendo	venderi	vendere
Imperfect	vendevo	vendevi	vendeva
Past	vendetti	vendesti	vendette
Future	venderò	venderai	venderà
Conditional	venderei	venderesti	venderebbe
Pres. Subject	vendera	vendera	vendera
Imp. Subject	vendessi	vendessi	vendesse

 

	Plural
Present	vendiamo	vendete	vendono
Imperfect	venevamo	vendevate	vendevano
Past	vendemmo	vendeste	venderono
Future	venderemo	venderete	venderanno
Conditional	venderemmo	vendereste	venderebbero
Pres.  Subject	vendiamo	vendiate	vendano
Imp.    Subject	vendessimo	vendeste	vendessero

 

The following table is for both indicative and subjunctive moods in simple tenses ending with -ire or servire (to serve)

	Singular
Present	servo	servi	serve
Imperfect	servivo	servivi	serviva
Past	servii	servisti	servi
Future	servirò	servirai	servirà
Conditional	servirei	serviresti	servirebbe
Pres. Subject	serva	serva	serva
Imp. Subject	servissi	servissi	servisse

 

	Plural
Present	serviamo	servite	servono
Imperfect	servivamo	servivate	servivano
Past	servimmo	serviste	servirono
Future	serviremo	servirete	serviranno
Conditional	serviremmo	servireste	servirebbero
Pres. Subject	serviamo	serviate	servano
Imp. Subject	servissimo	serviste	servissero