\part{Fundamentals}


\chapter{Linguistic typology of Italian}

This chapter seeks to determine the \emph{linguistic typology} of Italian; determine the fundamental structure of Italian that may differ between other languages. Those familiar with linguistics understand that languages often differ on a fundamental level, making direct word-for-word translations unnatural and even impossible.

Fusional synthetic language.

Though Italian has many parallels with English, the best approach to learning any language is to start with strong foundations; fundamental grammar points and frequent vocabulary rather than set phrases.

This part will discuss the fundamental grammatical points that are essential to commune in Italian; advanced grammatical points categorized by being less frequently employed or more complicated to form (or both) will be discussed in the next part. Advanced grammar points are often facilitated or reliant upon fundamental grammar points, so it is of interest to master this section.


This part will begin with understanding the fundamental inflections concerning various Italian parts of speech, and then explore fundamental grammar constructs.

\section{Parts of speech (parti del discorso)}

Being a language of the Indo-European family, Italian parts of speech are essentially identical to those found in English.
\begin{itemize}
	\item sostantivo (noun)
	\item aggettivo (adjective)
	\item verbo (verb)
	\item avverbio (adverb)
	\item pronomo (pronoun)
	\item articolo (article)
	\item congiunzione (conjunction)
	\item preposizione (preposition)
	\item interiezione (interjection)
	%\item numerale (numeral)
\end{itemize}



\section{Generic word order}


The standard word order for Italian is SVO word order.

Since Italian conjugates for person, the subject of the verb is often dropped.

It is important to note that when using indirect, indirect, and double object pronouns (in most cases), SVO word order is violated for SOV.
-Te lo mando
-L'ho visto

Additionally, it is possible for the position of pronouns can vary based on emphasis.
- L'ha fatto Giacomo.
- Risponde solo a me


Italian word order on a smaller scale is generally straightforward, however the word order of adjectives can be quite complex and adverbs have some exceptions.





\chapter{Nouns}

Italian inflects nouns based on the following grammatical features.
\begin{itemize}
	\item Gender
	\item number
\end{itemize}

\section{Determining gender of a noun}
Usually words ending in a are feminine and o are masculine.
\subsection{Exceptions}
-a'
greek words
-zione
-u'

gender of sostantivi
plurality of sostantivi
Nouns are classified by their \emph{gender}. Each word is assigned to be either male or female.
Though there is sometimes correlation between the gender of nouns and the actual biological gender of what they represent, it is not true in general; it is best to think of it as just two 'classes' of nouns.


\section{Articles}
\begin{itemize}
	\item Definiteness
	\item Gender
	\item number
\end{itemize}
Articles are a separate part of speech to nouns, however their whole purpose is to supplement nouns with futher context.
\subsection{Articoli definiti (definite articles)}
Definite articles are used to represent a specific, unique (possibly the only) instance of a noun. For example if I have some books on a table, one particular book being in both the speaker and listener's minds, one can use the definite article to conveniently request a specific book that the context surrounds. This essentially is just the word 'the'.

Articles in italian are formed by gender, number and euphonics

il la lo l' i le gli

It's interesting to note that Italian employs articles when talking about an abstract concept as an object, so 'Love is blind' is 'L'amore e' cieco'.

\subsection{Articoli indefiniti (indefinite articles)}
un una uno un'




\chapter{Adjectives}

\section{Word order for adjectives}
In Italian, order of adjectives is relatively free, however emphasis changes depending on whether the adjective
quality, size, age, quantity usually before noun 
in ambiguous cases, figurative meaning of adjective means adjective before noun

\section{Gender agreement}
\section{Plurality agreement}

\section{Absolute superlative}
absolute superlative
-issimo
\section{Adjectival adverbs}
Some adjectives can be inflected to become adverbs 
-amente
-emente
veloce -> velocemente
perfetto -> perferttamente
giusto -> giustamente
\section{Numeral adjectives}

In Italian, one can consider numerals as adjectives. Numeral adjectives aren't gendered.
Numerals can denote how many of some noun there are, or when the noun is obvious by context, the numeral can stand on its own (acting syntactically like pronouns).

Note that the indefinite article is used in place of 'uno'.
uno
due
tre
quattro
cinque
sei
sette
otto
nove
dieci
undici
dodici
tredici
quattordici
quindici
sedici
diciassette
diciotto
diciannove
venti
trenta
quaranta
cinquanta
sessanta
settanta
ottanta
novanta
cento
mille /mila
milione	milion
miliardo	billion
bilione	trillion
biliardo	quadrillion
trilione	quintillion
triliardo	sextillion
quadrilione	septillion
quadriliardo	octillion
quntilione	nonillion
quntiliardo	decillion


quattordici (14)
sessantasette (67)
ventisei (26)
centuno (101)
quarantatre (43)
milenovecentoottantacinque (1985)
duecentonovantacinquemilacentosessantotto (295168)


For euphonics, we merge 1 and 8 with its tens (venti, trenta, quaranta etc.), cento, miliardo, billiardo,trilliardo, quadrilionardo etc.
sessantuno (61)
sessantotto (68)
\subsection{Ordinal numbers}
primo
secondo
terzo
quarto
quinto
sesto
settimo
ottavo
nono
dicesimo
-esimo





\chapter{Pronouns I}
Used to represent , however they grammatically differ from nouns to the extent that they merit their own part of speech.
\section{interrogative pronouns}
pronoun to represent an unknown direct object used in questioning.
che (for things; when category is unknown; what)
cosa 
che cosa
chi (for people; who)
quale (for selection of things; when category is known; which; which one)
\section{Possessive pronouns}
il mio tuo suo nostro vostro loro
mine yours his hers its ours yours theirs
\section{Demonstrative pronouns}
pronoun to represent generic object based on distance from speaker
\subsection{Proximal}
questo questa questi queste
\subsection{Distal}
quello quella quelli quelle
\section{Demonstrative adjectives}
\subsection{Proximal}
questo questa questi queste
\subsection{Distal}
quel quello quella quei quelle quegli





\chapter{Prepositions}
\section{Basic prepositions}
in
su
a
con
di
da
tra
fra
\subsection{Articulated prepositions}

\section{Other prepositions}
per
sotto
sopra

dopo di
prima di
oltre

piuttosto che







\chapter{Verbs I}

Verbs and the ways they relate with pronouns are a strong candidate for the most complex set of grammar points in Italian. Because verbs are so intimately related to certain types of pronouns, we develop both in the same section.

Verbs are conjugated with respect to the following grammatical categories.

-verb class
-mood
-tense
-aspect
-person
-number

\section{Verb class}

Italian verbs fall into one of three possible groups of verbs called \emph{verb classes}. Verb clases arise for euphonic reasons (so that Italian is easy for the human tongue to pronounce and pleasing to listen to), and therefore each verb class has slightly different rules for conjugation.

The verb classes of italian are the following.

prima coinugazione
are

seconda coinugazione
ere arre urre orre

terza coinugazione
ire ire2

\section{Mood and tense}

Moods provide information about the general nature of the verb, whether it is happening in reality, whether it is an expectation, a possibility, occuring given some hypothesis etc.

Italian has the following moods.

\begin{itemize}
	\item Indicativo (Indicative)
	\item Imperativo (Imperative)
	\item Condizionale (Conditional)
	\item Congiuntivo (Subjunctive)
\end{itemize}

Within each mood, one then inflects for tense (chronological information about when event is occuring) and aspect (nature of how the verb is occuring, habitually, continuously etc.).

This chapter will only discuss the fundamental inflections of the indicative and imperative mood.

\section{Indicativo (Indicative)}
The indicative mood is a \emph{realis mood}; that is it is used for factual statements (or at least statements that the speaker is presenting to be factual). Every language has this mood, and .
Indicative mood is actions occuring in reality

There are 5 tenses of the indicative mood from which all other indicative tenses are build upon, however one of them is not as frequent as the rest so we defer it to the next part.
We will study the 4 following tenses of the indicative mood.
\begin{itemize}
	\item Presente (Present)
	\item Passato prossimo (Near past)
	\item Imperfetto (Imperfect)
	\item Futuro semplice (Simple future)
\end{itemize}

\subsection{Presente (Present)}
\subsection{Passato prossimo (Near past)}
Used to describe actions in the near-past that have been definitively completed.
Aspects: perfective, perfect
\subsection{Imperfetto (imperfect)}
near past that were in a continuous state or habitually repeated.
Aspects: habitual, progressive
\subsection{Futuro semplice (Simple future)}
\subsection{Passive voice}
passive voice; forming a verb so that the verb acts on the subject, rather than the verb being enacted by the subject.
passato prossimo, but always with essere as auxiliary verb.

\section{Imperativo (Imperative)}
The imperative mood has simply one tense; 
\subsection{Presente (Present)}
Since the imperative mood is about giving orders specifically for the listener, it is only conjugated for the 2nd-person or the 1st-person when meant in the inclusive sense.

\section{Negating a verb}
negation of verbs by 'non'
non precedes the vowel directly
\subsection{Negating with imperative}
When forming negative for the 2nd-person singular in the imperative, we use the infinitive for euphonic reasons.

\section{Modal verbs}
Potere
volere
dovere
\subsection{Quasi-modal verbs}
Although not modal verbs, we can see verbs affecting other verbs
cominciare a
stare per (about to)
provare a
\section{Impersonal verbs}
verbs that take no subject
piovere
nevicare




\chapter{Personal pronouns I}


We have studied some pronouns, however pronouns that reflect person are intimately linked with verbs and often have unique rules.

\section{Subjective pronouns}
Subjective pronouns are used in general to reference different persons without the need of a verb, an indeed the following pronouns all supplement verbs.
\section{Reflexive pronouns}
reflexive verbs; verbs where the subject is the direct object
intransitive verbs; verbs that maytake an indirect object


\section{Direct pronouns}
transitive verbs; verbs that may take a direct object
\section{Indirect pronouns}
Some verbs in italian are intransitive where english uses transitive verb
giocare a calcio
parlare al telefono

these are indirect objects, linked by some preposition. Italian has pronouns to represent indirect object

parlo a lei
le parlo
mando a te
ti mando



2more important intranaitives where indirect object and subject ione object are switched with respect to english

It is worth mentioning the two verbs 'piacere' and 'mancare'; they are commonly translated as 'to like' and 'to miss', however they function in quite a different way to English. A more grammatically faithful translation is as given below.

mancare a qualcuno means To be missing to someone
piacere a qualcuno means to be pleasing to someone


If you do interpret piacere as 'to like', you swap the subject and direct object to become the indirect object and subject respectively; this trick can be used to mechanically translate, however as always, it is best to learn Italian by getting used to the language.

\section{Impersonal pronoun}

