Unlocking Italian with Paul Noble: Your key to language success with the bestselling language coach. Paul Noble

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       Ho passato il weekend a Roma.

       (o pass-art-oh eel weekend a roam-er)

       Time to steal some words!

       Word Robbery Number 1

      Let’s forget our weekend in Rome for just one moment now and start stealing some words. Around half the words in modern English have come into our language via Latin languages, such as Italian. Once you can identify them, you will have a large, instant, usable vocabulary in Italian. After all, why bother learning Italian vocabulary when you can simply steal it?

      The first group of words we are going to steal are words that end in “ic” and “ical” in English.

      Words like “romantic”, “fantastic”, “political”, “illogical” and so on.

      There are around 750 of these in English and they are largely similar in Italian, except that in Italian they end in “ico” (pronounced “eek-oh”), becoming “romantico”, “fantastico”, “politico”, “illogico” and so on.

      Let’s now see how we can use these to begin expanding our range of expressions in Italian!

      Words stolen so far 750

      Bearing in mind what we’ve just learnt in the Word Robbery above, let’s change the “ic” on the end of the English word “romantic” into “ico”.

      Doing this, what will “romantic” be in Italian?

       romantico

       (roe-man-teek-oh)

      And so what would “fantastic” be in Italian?

       fantastico

       (fan-tass-teek-oh)

      Let’s now try doing the same with “ical” and change the “ical” on the end of “political” into “ico”.

      Doing this, what will “political” be in Italian?

       politico

       (pol-ee-teek-oh)

      And what will “illogical” be?

       illogico

       (ee-lodge-eek-oh)

      Let’s now try using these “ico” words to expand our range of expressions and to make some more complex sentences in Italian.

      “It was” in Italian is:

       Era

       (air-ah)

      So, how would you say “it was illogical”?

       Era illogico.

       (air-ah ee-lodge-eek-oh)

      And how would you say “it was political”?

       Era politico.

       (air-ah pol-ee-teek-oh)

      How about “it was romantic”?

       Era romantico.

       (air-ah roe-man-teek-oh)

      Finally, how would you say “it was fantastic”?

       Era fantastico.

       (air-ah fan-tass-teek-oh)

      Now, do you remember how to say “I have visited” in Italian?

       Ho visitato

       (o visit-art-oh)

      And what about “I visited”?

       Ho visitato

       (o visit-art-oh)

      And “I did visit”?

       Ho visitato

       (o visit-art-oh)

      Do you remember how to say “I have spent”, “I did spend”, “I spent” (literally “I have passed”)?

       Ho passato

       (o pass-art-oh)

      And so how would you say “I spent the weekend”?

       Ho passato il weekend

       (o pass-art-oh eel weekend)

      What is “in Rome” in Italian?

       a Roma

       (a roam-er)

      So how would you say “I spent the weekend in Rome”?

       Ho passato il weekend a Roma.

       СКАЧАТЬ