Italian is often thought to be one of the most beautiful languages in the world. And the melodic tones and expressive gestures only contribute to making it an appealing choice for many aspiring students and linguists. But the question is: is Italian easy to learn?
In this article, we’ll explore all the challenges and joys of learning Italian. We’ll cover many different aspects of the language trying to provide an answer.
Now, if you’re here you’ve probably decided to learn a new language. And Italian is your first choice, isn’t it? First, of all, that’s great; there are so many benefits to learning a new language that I don't even know where to start! And second, I bet that now you’re worried about the difficulty of learning Italian, or you wouldn’t be here, would you?
So, is Italian easy to learn? Or is it difficult? This question doesn’t have a straightforward answer. While anybody can learn Italian, the difficulty of a language depends on some variables that are going to impact how easily you’re going to learn. Let’s take a look at these factors!
Let’s consider a person that has not a particular knack for languages, that isn’t highly motivated and doesn’t speak a Romance language (not even as a second language) but is an English-speaker. Is Italian hard to learn for someone like that?
Well, if that’s you, you’ll be happy to know that the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) considers Italian to be one of the easiest languages for English-speakers to learn and has put it into the Category 1 languages. This category includes all languages that are closely related to English (e.g. Spanish, French, Italian) and that only require twenty-four to thirty weeks (or 600 to 750 hours) to acquire basic fluency.
For as much as we can speculate learning times, they are just numbers. Everybody has different learning pace and needs, and they can alter the learning times!
Like any language, Italian too comes with its own set of challenges and benefits.
On the bright side, pronunciation is straightforward, with words being pronounced exactly as they are written. Additionally, if you are familiar with other Romance languages, you'll find many similarities in vocabulary and grammar, making the learning process easier. What’s more, there are some simple tricks that can help you guess Italian words based on their English counterparts!
However, there are aspects of Italian that can be tricky, such as the need to remember words’ gender, ensure agreement between different parts of speech, differentiate between single and double consonants, and navigate the complexities of the subjunctive mood.
But no matter all the challenges, with practice and perseverance, you can master Italian!
Here are a few aspects of the Italian language you can rejoice about as a new learner.
Italian pronunciation is really easy! Unlike English, Italian is indeed written phonetically and that means that there are some very clear and basic rules to follow, making every letter’s pronunciation predictable.
The most important thing you have to remember is that every letter is spoken (except for “h”, which contributes on the other hand to the change in pronunciation of some other letters). This being established, the other thing to remember is that every Italian word (and not the foreign words that are used in everyday speaking) ends with a vowel that, again unlike English, must be pronounced. No more “grazi”: stress that “e” at the end and proudly say “grazie” the correct way!
The Italian language, like all other Romance languages, comes from Latin. That’s not it: Italian is also the language that’s closest to Latin! And since English has borrowed many words from Latin, French, and even Italian, to use them in everyday language, many of these words are actually very similar to the Italian counterpart.
What does this mean for you as a learner of Italian? Basically, you can reverse the process and, starting from the English word, you can guess the translation in Italian. Of course, this is only valid for Latin-derived words!
And the best part of this process is that it is super-easy because there are some simple tricks for translating the English suffixes (that is, the final part we attach to a word to slightly change its meaning) into Italian. Here are some examples:
If you’ve already studied another Romance language, such as Spanish, French, or Portuguese, learning Italian will be much easier for you. Just consider these factors:
If you can already speak any other Romance language (e.g. Spanish, French, or Portuguese), I’m sure you’ll find Italian much easier. After all, the alphabet is the same (but that’s also true for English), most words are similar to each other and even the use of tenses is similar. What’s more, they all have the concept of gender for every word and, since words all are feminine or masculine, they should all agree with verbs, articles, and adjectives.
Let’s make some examples for similarity with the only thing I can prove in an article: vocabulary!
As you can see, words are indeed very similar across all these languages. So, if you know any of them (or any other Romance language), you’re sure to be in for a much smoother learning journey!
As we said before, Italian, like every other language, has its fair share of difficulties for foreign learners (and sometimes even for native speakers too). But don’t worry too much: that’s what books and Italian classes are for!
Romance languages (and not only them, the same goes for German too) assign grammatical gender to every word. That means that everything is either masculine or feminine. And while it can make sense when you’re talking about people or even animals, when it comes to objects, feelings, and countries it really drives English-speakers crazy!
Let’s make an example: “la sedia” (the chair) is feminine while “il tavolo” (the table) is masculine. And if it might make sense to you that “i pantaloni” (the pants) are masculine while “la gonna” (the skirt) is feminine, why on earth is “il vestito” (the dress) masculine when “la giacca” (the blazer) is feminine?
The good news? Even if there are many exceptions, guessing the gender of a word can be easy enough when you learn the rules. Here the most basic one:
That means that “la casa” (the house), “la pizza” (the pizza), and “la gioia” (the joy) are feminine, while “il libro” (the book), “il caso” (the fate), and “il Belgio” (Belgium) are masculine. However, keep in mind the exceptions: “la mano” (the hand) is indeed feminine while “il problema” (the problem) is masculine!
As soon as you understand the gender of words, you’re in for another important part of Italian grammar: all the elements of a sentence need to agree with the word gender. Articles, adjectives, past participles, and anything else will change indeed according to the name they refer to!
This can be difficult at the very beginning, but no worries: after a while it’ll get automatic and you’ll start talking Italian like a pro. Most of the time, changing the ending vowel of everything will be just enough!
Let’s make some examples:
Easy enough, isn’t it?
Many Italian words use double consonants, one of the biggest difficulties of non-Italian speakers when it comes to pronunciation. For foreigners it is indeed always difficult to hear the difference between a single and a double consonant. Therefore they also find it particularly difficult to pronounce them correctly.
However, they really are frequent in the Italian language, and there are times where missing a double consonant can also change the meaning of the word itself. Here are some examples:
So, if you want to avoid talking nonsense, from the very beginning, try to listen for doubles and pay particular attention to their pronunciation!
Since the dawn of time, Italian students have always considered the subjunctive tense as a real nightmare. It’s the same for both foreign students, who suddenly find themselves learning a tense that is virtually nonexistent in English, and Italian people alike. The tense, which is used to express uncertainty, doubt, will, desire and much more, is indeed one of the most common mistakes made by people talking Italian.
It could be useful to know that it is often introduced by the conjunction “che” (that), however that alone is not enough. When learning Italian at a higher level (you won’t need the subjunctive if you’re just beginning), remember to dedicate your time to learning how and when to use this tense. Or, if that sounds better to you, you can just learn prefabricated sentences or try avoiding it as much as you can. No one will make a problem of it!
Well, it's a bit of both! On one hand, the pronunciation is straightforward, words are mostly phonetically spelled out, and if you know some English or other Romance languages, you'll spot plenty of familiar words. But then there's the whole gender thing, the need for every word to agree with the rest of the sentence, the double consonants, and subjunctive.
All in all, learning Italian is definitely a journey with its ups and downs, but it's one that's definitely worth taking!
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