Last week, I started learning Italian from a native of Rome. The approach to learning is quite, quite different! Instead of "Hello, my name is..." we learned about the sounds 'c' and 'ci' make. The sounds are different depending on the vowel that comes next. If 'c' is followed by an 'a', 'o' or 'u', then it makes a hard 'c'. The way to remember is 'cat, cot, cut'. With 'ci', there's a softer sound, like the start of 'church'. There's similar rules for 'g'.
Next, we learned of Italian genders, everything is either masculine or feminine. Usually, masculine words end in 'o' and feminine in 'a'. But, 'usually' don't mean the same things as 'all the time'. 'Problema' is masculine singular, but ends in 'a'. 'Foto' is femiinine singular - it's a contraction of 'fotographia', which is feminine and ends in 'a'.
In English, a huge number of words can be pluralised by adding an 's'. In Italian, the general rule is words ending in 'a' are pluralised by changing it to an 'e' (if the word if feminine'. If it's masculine, it becomes 'i', along with the word ending in 'e' or 'o'. There's also a rule for when a word ends in a stressed vowel.
It was all feeling to be rather like decryption algorithms. In addition, I've started learning an Italian alphabet song. It starts "Cari bambini come sieta la lettra A". I've been listening and singing along morning and evening. When out walking the dog, I go through the alphabet and try to find a word for each letter. I'm trying hard not to use the same words over and over, but as I learn new vocabulary to include these new words in my alphabetic walk. As might be anticipated, I am desperately in need for new X-words and J ones too!
It's great fun to be out meeting some new people, and learning something fresh!
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