The Italian language has no shortage of loving words and terms of endearment. Of course, the basis of it all is “amore” (love), but here are some other useful loving expressions:
- Ti amo = I love you
- Tesoro mio = My treasure
- Caro = Dear (said to a man)
- Cara = Dear (said to a woman)
- Sei l’uomo dei miei sogni = You’re the man of my dreams
- Sei la donna dei miei sogni = You’re the woman of my dreams
- Sei tutto per me = You’re everything to me
- Mi vuoi sposare? = Will you marry me?
- Per sempre tua = Forever yours
- Amore mio = My beloved
Having a reason to begin learning Italian—like wanting dozens of ways to express your love—can help jumpstart your study of the language. Plus, if you already speak another Latin-derived language, like French or Spanish, Italian is unlikely to be a major challenge. You probably already know more Italian words than you’d imagine, too—and not just the ones related to food. Even English, while it’s technically a Germanic language, is heavily influenced by the same Latin roots that formed Italian. Basically, if you speak one of these other major EU languages, you’re definitely on your way to speaking Italian.
Learn Italian Words and Phrases
Are you a bit concerned about the commitment required to learn Italian? Don’t be. Rosetta Stone breaks up the journey to learn a new language into digestible, manageable 10-minute lessons. That means you can fit language lessons into your life, and not fit your life around lessons. So whether you’re taking a short break from watching the kids, or commuting to work, or even walking across campus between classes, Rosetta Stone language lessons can fit into your daily life. Rosetta Stone language lessons teach you to comfortably understand and confidently speak in Italian.
If you’re a beginning learner of Italian , one of the first features you’ll notice is the frequent use of double consonants . You will encounter this again and again in popular words, including the words anno and pizza and the name Alessandra. But even though every Italian word is enunciated a bit differently, there is a general rule of thumb when it comes to pronouncing words with double consonants. And that general rule is to deemphasize the vowel that precedes the double consonants.
Another notable characteristic of Italian pronunciation relates to the letter c. You may be familiar with the Spanish pronunciation of the letter c which is often spoken as an s sound. (In Spanish this is called el ceceo and differs markedly in Iberian Spanish.) In contrast with the Spanish pronunciation of the letter c, in Italian the letter c can have a hard ch sound, like you hear in the English word “change.”
That said, the Italian letter c is pronounced differently in other contexts. The Italian letter c can sound like an English c and very similar to the k sound, as you hear in English words like car, can, cat, call, company, Carol, campus, California, and code. You’ll hear this same k sound in Italian words. Of note, the words will include one of these vowels; a, o, or u. Examples of these Italian words with a c that sound like a k include capra, Capri, Campari, cannoli, and campione.
Have you ever ordered the Italian dish known as gnocchi? This delicious, dumpling-style dish can help us learn how to correctly pronounce the gn sound in Italian. The Italian gn sound is pronounced very nasally and is comparable to the sound of the Spanish ñ. Let’s take a look at the Spanish translation of gnocchi:
- Italian = gnocchi
- Spanish = ñoqui
Improving and refining your Italian pronunciation requires that you receive real-time and accurate feedback. Such feedback will allow you to make any needed corrections to your Italian pronunciation. From there, you will want to practice until you get a feel for how to shape the sounds of the Italian language. Rosetta Stone embeds our proven and patented TruAccent™ speech-recognition engine into every Italian language lesson. TruAccent provides precise and instant feedback to help you match your pronunciation and accent with that of fluent Italian speakers. It was developed by carefully scanning and closely analyzing the speech of fluent native and non-native Italian speakers. It can be of great help in learning to understand and be understood in Italian.
After you have learned basic Italian words and phrases , you can move on to learning the longer phrases. Rosetta Stone’s brief and digestible,10-minute lessons are built to help you learn in exactly this way—structuring vocabulary acquisition in context with everyday, real-world situations. Rosetta Stone’s proven and practical approach to language learning can help you to learn to comfortably understand and confidently speak in Italian.
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Surround yourself with Italian whenever, wherever with the Rosetta Stone app .
Download a unit and knock it out on the train or a flight. Select a 5-10 minute lesson and sneak it in while you wait in line or for your ride to show up. And explore dynamic features, like Seek and Speak, where you can point at an object in the real world and get a translation .
The best part? You don’t have to choose between app or desktop. Both come with your subscription and sync, so you can switch between devices seamlessly.
