Learn Italian with Me: First Lesson

Good day (or hello)!  This sounds like “bone-geor-no” to me.  Please remember to sound the letter R.  If you are English this may be difficult, as most of you skip over pronouncing “r” when it occurs in the middle of a word.  If you are American (like me) it should be easy, as Americans usually pronounce consonants.  That’s what my lovely tutor says, but I’m not finding it easy.

If you are a Scot you probably roll your “r’s” and are well on your way to speaking Italian like a native.

That sounds like “me-keeamo Pat-reetzia”.

Sorry, I don’t know how to ask your name. This may sound impolite, but it doesn’t really matter because I’m going to Italy to drink wine. I’m not planning to make new friends.

Learning Italian was Wonderful Husband’s idea; he said it would make the trip more fun.

So, back to the lesson: “Mi chiamo Patrizia”.

You might think that “chiamo” would be pronounced “chee-amo” but it’s not. This is because the role played by the letter ‘h’ in Italian is almost the opposite from its English function.

In Italian, when ‘h’ follows ‘c’ (as in chiamo) the ‘c’ makes a hard sound, rather like ‘ck’ in English. If there is not an ‘h’ after a ‘c’ and the vowel is an 'e' or an ‘i’ then the ‘c’ makes the English ‘ch’ sound. So when you hear Italians greeting each other with a word that sounds like “chow” the word they are using is spelled “ciao”.

The next part of the lessons consists of listening to recorded dialogue.  I enjoy listening to stories, having been brought up on talking books for the blind (I’m not blind, but it’s a long story and irrelevant to my Italian lesson).

Seriously, I find that listening to the language that I am trying to learn helps me to grasp the rhythem as well as the accent.  I live in the part of England with the worst radio reception; when the weather is bad my radio retunes itself to a French station.  This doesn’t help my temper, but it’s great for learning French pop songs.

When my tutor turns on the tape player I shut my eyes and imagine the scene.

Straight away, I picture the speakers in a cafe.  It sounds as if a woman is ordering a cappuccino and a pasty.  As far as I’m concerned, the coffee part is good, but I don’t plan on eating any pasties in Italy.  In England (where I live) a pasty is meat and potatoes cooked inside a pastry shell.  They are hugely calorific and frequently unpleasant (in my opinion).

My mind is drifting away from the Italian lesson and on to what I might like to eat.  At this rate I won’t get beyond saying my name.

Now the tutor is reading the dialogue, pausing after each line so that the pupils can repeat the words.

It turns out that the lady in the cafe is ordering a “pasta”, which is a cake.  That’s more like it – let me eat cake, as Maria Antoinette might have said.

There is a bewildering variety of coffee in Italy, rather like an average coffee shop anywhere in the western world these days. I decide to concentrate on these:

Un caffè – pronounced with the accent firmly on the latter syllable = expresso (very small and strong black coffee)

Un cappuccino – remember that “c followed by i” without an “h” is pronounced “ch” = an expresso with the addition of frothy milk. However, "c followed by a" without an "h" is prounounced as a hard c. Are you with me? The word should sound like "cap-poo-cheeno".

caffelatte – pronounced with a fairly short “a’ and sound both “t’s” = mild black coffee with hot milk.

Next we move onto vino bianco and vino rossi (sounding both “s’s” in rossi). Now we’re on to words that are relevant to my plans. The only difficulty is that is seems proper usage to request “un bicchiere di vino” which is a bit challenging even before imbibing.

Other items that one might want to order:

Un’aranciata.  If you remember or understood my explanation about “c” and “h” above, you’ll guess that this is pronounced arankeeata.  It means fizzy orange.  I don’t think that I’ll want a fizzy orange, but there’s always the possibility that I might be offered one. 

Un’acqua minerale = mineral water.  This could come in handy.  I don’t drink tap water in foreign countries.  It’s not that I don’t think it is safe, but my digestive system is tuned into my local tap water, which tastes like a swimming pool at times, but doesn’t bother me.

Anyway, I stick to bottled water when travelling, but I don’t like bubbles in my water, so I must remember the next words.

Gassata/ non gassata = fizzy or still

Una bottiglia.  This is pronounced bott-eel-ia and means a bottle.  This word should certainly be useful.

Una birra.  Remember to at least attempt to roll those “r’s”!  This rather obviously means beer.

Un tè.  Means tea but sounds like tay.

Al limone = with lemon

Al latte = with milk.

A note about tea in Europe:  The English drink tea with milk.  People in other European countries (at least those I have visited) usually drink tea with lemon.  If you ask for tea with milk, you will usually get it, but in my experience it never tastes very good.  My advice is to choose ‘un tè al limone’ or stick to un caffè.

Take a look at the picture and try to work out what Wonderful Husband and I have had to drink.

I have had un caffe e un’acqua minerale non gassata.

He has had un caffè, un’acqua minerale e un bicchiere di vino biano. ( He ordered that last item when I wasn’t paying attention.)

Buongiorno = friendly greeting which is sometimes your cue to order

Disidera = what would you like? Literally, this is ‘what do you desire?’  Can you imagine the response if you asked this in an English or American cafe?

Et lei?  (sounds like ay lay) – and for you?

Subito (draw out the first syllable, as in sooobitoh) = right away

Ecco (try saying “echo” and then make the first syllable more of an “a” sound) = here it is

You could print this hub, and use it for entertainment next time you are bored.  ( I know, you’d have to be very bored, but who knows when you might have a power cut?)

Here’s an example scene for two participants.  One of you can be the waiter, and the other the gorgeous Italian.

Action:  The gorgeous Italian enters the cafe and sits at a table, looking glamorous.

The very handsome waiter picks up pen and paper and hurries to the table.

Waiter (with enthusiasm): Buongiorno!

Gorgeous Italian: Una birra, per favoure.

Waiter: Subito.

Action: The waiter scurries away and returns with a glass of beer.

Waiter: Ecco

Gorgeous Italian: Grazie

Waiter: Prego

Admit it: this is fun.  I hope that very soon I will be fluent in Italian.  Maybe I’ll see you there on my wine drinking tour.