# Italian Grammar --- ## General properties of Italian 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. ### gender One grammatical aspect of Italian that is unfamiliar to an English speaker is gender. In Italian, nouns are partitioned into 2 classes; sostantivi maschili and sostantivi femminili. maschile femminile 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 'types' of nounds. ### Parti del discorso (parts of speech) sostantivo (noun) articolo (article) verbo (verb) aggettivo (adjective) avverbio (adverb) pronomo (pronoun) congiunzione (conjunction) preposizione (preposition) interiezione (interjection) numerale (numeral) ### Word order - SVO word order It is possible for the position of pronouns can vary based on emphasis. The word order of adjectives can be tricky. #Basics ## Sostantivi (nouns) -gender -number gender of sostantivi plurality of sostantivi ### Articoli (articles) Articles are a separate part of speech to nouns, however their whole purpose is to supplement nouns with futher context. #### 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'. #### Articoli indefiniti (indefinite articles) un una uno un' ### relative pronouns che, cui, chi, il quale, dove, quando noun, relative pronoun, then relative clause 'uomo che ha azzuffato con dio' ### interrogative che cosa che cosa chi quale quando dove quanto ### Numerali (numerals) 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 mile /mila milione milion miliardo billion bilione trillion biliardo quadrillion trilione quintillion triliardo sextillion quadrilione septillion quadriliardo octillion quntilione nonillion quntiliardo decillion ### Pronomi possessivi possessive pronouns il mio tuo suo nostro vostro loro definite article dropped with family ### pronomi dimonstranti quello quella quelli quelle quel quello quella quei quelle quegli questo questa questi queste qui qua li la We will study pronouns futher within the context of verbs. ##Aggettivi quality size age quantity usually before noun in ambiguous cases, figurative meaning of adjective means adjective before noun gender of adjectives plurality of adjectives adverb inflection order of adjectives comparative; più _ di _ comparing adjective with other noun più _ che _ comparing two adjectives meno _ di _ comparing adjective with other noun meno _ che _ comparing two adjectives superlative; indicates il piu' il meno absolute superlative -issimo ##Avverbi Usually after verba Usually avverbi precede past particip ## Verbi -verb class -mood -tense -person -number ###verb class prima coinugazione are seconda coinugazione ere arre urre orre terza coinugazione ire ire2 ### Conjugation Conjugation inflects verbs to respect number, mood tense, and person simultaneously. ####Indicativo (indicative mood) Indicative mood is actions occuring in reality - presente - gerundio\* - imperativo - passato prossimo Used to describe actions in the near-past that have been definitively completed - Imperfetto Used to describe actions in the near-past that were habitual or otherwise of a continuous nature - trapassato prossimo - futuro semplice - futuro anteriore - passato remoto\* Used to describe actions in the far-past that have been definitively completed - trapassato remoto\* Used to describe actions in the far-past that were habitual or otherwise of a continuous nature. #### Condizionale (conditional mood) - presente - passato #### Congiuntivo (subjunctive mood) - presente - passato - imperfetto - trapassato ### Transitivity reflexive verbs; verbs where the subject is the dir transitive verbs; verbs that may take a direct object intransitive verbs; verbs that maytake an indirect object impersonal verbs; verbs that cannot take a direct object, but may take an indirect one also note, some verbs in italian have an intransitive flavour where english uses transitive verba giocare a parlare con/a (parlare al telefono) two more important intranaitives where indirect and subjectione object are switched with respect to english mancare piacere negation of verbs by 'non' modal verbs potere volere dovere 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. verbs affecting other verbs cominciare a stare per (about to) provare a 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. direct object pronouns indirect object pronouns reflexive pronouns possessive pronouns double pronoun impersonal pronouns si - inflected based on object rather than subject - Always uses essere as auxiliary verb - plural participle used for verbs that normally use essere as auxiliary verb relative pronouns ### D Eufonica (Euphonic D) Italians are stylish; they ensure their language matches their philosophy. There are 4 words in italian that are made up of only 1 letter; a, i, e, o. For aesthetic purposes, Italian imposes the rule of the euphonic D on these words. e becomes ed if the next word starts with e but not ed o becomes od if the next word starts with o but not od a becomes ad if the next word starts with a but not ad Note that due to the rules of the definite article, 'i' will never follow a word beginning with the letter i. # grammar words purché provided that; so long as poiché since perché why; because benché although; though che ancora anche neanche mica nemmeno pure o e appena just se cosa in di a con siccome since sebbene although anziché rather than piuttosto rather; quite; instead invece instead addirittura davvero poi troppo quasi quanto come quale fa (ago) allora qualora if; in case ## Interiezione sì no ciao salve arrivederci salute cin cin ## special adverbs insieme a vicenda a l'uno l'altro in raffica in apnea ## Set expressions per favore per cortesia prego/ti prego/la prego benvenuto bentornato a dopo ci vediamo come stai che ore sono avere fame avere sete avere ragione avere torto avere _ anni in ogni caso (either way) in entrabi i casi (either way) ___ di proposito (__ on purpose) a proposito (By the way, on the subject) non vedere l'ora di (to not be able to wait to) essere in grado di (to be capable of) essere capace di (to be capable of) d'ora in poi (from now on) d'ora innanzi (from now on) più simile a più come non importa quanto ci prov_ abituarsi a non poter fare meno di non poter fare altro che a meno che meno male che peccato che basta che anche se malgrado _ del genere tale _ almeno per quanto per quanto è giovane, non capirebbe; as young as he is, he wouldn't understand altro che other than è giunto il momento che trattarsi di far _ to make do smth come mai tanto ~ quanto ~ più ~ più ~ come mai ~ o ~ o ~ né~ né ~ ## Fundamentals Noun phrases (Interjections, nouns, articles, adjectives, and numerals) Basic pronouns and verbs Adverbs, prepositions, and conjuctions More pronouns and verbs Set expressions ## Advanced Even more pronouns and verbs More set expressions Subjunctive ## Fundamentals Noun phrases (Interjections, nouns, numerals, counters, suffixes, and prefixes) I-adjectives, na-adjectives, adjectivals Particles Pronouns and verbs Particles II Adverbs and conjuctions Set expressions ## Advanced Particles III Adverbs and conjuctions II Set expressions II