Synopses & Reviews
Make more of your Italian skills
50 Ways to Improve Your Italian gives you the power to improve your working knowledge of Italian and eliminate basic speaking and writing errors. Each one of 50 top tips for improving spoken and written Italian has comprehensive explanations as to where and why you might go wrong. The tips are grouped into grammar, spelling, false friends, pronunciation and cultural faux pas sections. There's even free downloadable audio content available to help you with your pronunciation.
Features: Short, snappy sections focusing on simple tips Accessible, easy-to-follow explanations Free audio download to help with pronunciation
About the Author
Valeria Malandra is a native speaker with extensive experience of teaching, translating and interpreting Italian. She currently teaches at the University of Surrey.
Table of Contents
How to use this book / Saying it right: pronunciation and spelling / Get your pronunciation right / Capello or cappello? / Double those consonants! / Cane vs Carne, get it wrong and you might end up eating the wrong thing! / Is it an E or an I? / H: Dont get too aspirational / Is it a Pub or a “Poob”? / Soft and hard sounds / Qu sounds: say them like a duck! / Do you watch Tee Vee or Tee Voo / Più and Poi: get them right / Numbers / 21 / 28 / 100 / 1000 / 2000 / Good stress and bad stress / Medici: where does the stress fall? / Leggere or Leggere? / Citta or Città? / Lunedì or lunedì? / Abitare / The imperfect tense / Accent / Accent deficit disorder: the facts / Capitalisation: / Monday / January / English: no capitals please! / Grammar / Pronouns / Use and abuse of the subject pronoun / Reflect on your reflexives / Possessives / When your house becomes a house of yours / Articles / The definite article. One in English, six in Italian / Dont tell the time without the article / Verbs / Piacere. If you like it, say it the other way round / Dont mix up Cè with È / Unlock the secret of auxiliary verbs / When the present is enough / Vivo in Italia da 2 mesi / Vado a casa domani / Careful with what you enjoy! / Prendere il pranzo o pranzare? / Prepositions / Is it ON a Monday? / Adverbs / How to say Me Too and live happily ever after / Plural of words / Are People singular or plural? / Make the best use of Qualche and Ogni / Advise and Information / The gender of the problem / Demonstrative adjectives and pronouns / When does Quel become Quello? / Untangle your Direct and Indirect pronouns / Lo vs Gli / La vs Le / Weed out unnecessary words / Mio marito – thats all you need! / In Italian nobody owns their homework / Say the time, not the hours! / In French you say DE. In Italian dont say DI! / Choosing the right Italian word / When does a visit become a visitation? / Whether you are an owl or a lark, dont mix up night and evening / How to say “a little”: poco vs un po / Do you prefer or do you favour? / Was the meal very well or very good? / Che or chi? / Ill see you “between” two hours / How many years have you? / On the perils of being cold / Tread carefully when you say: I enjoy / Have you had lunch or lunched? Had dinner or dined? / Do you have a shower or make a shower? / False friends / Dont fail when you say: I succeed / Impressive / Eventually / How to say what you can do / Parents and children / Translating Italian words which dont need a translation! / Bar is not a Barra! / Word order and agreements / Getting the word order right / Is it a red jumper or a jumper red? / Italian is an “agreeable” language / Make sure that your green beans agree with each other / The importance of gender and number in the past / Molto / Poco / Vicino: when do they agree? / Cultural awareness / Please: use it sparingly please / Signor, Signora o Signorina? Overuse of titles / ”Miscellaneous” / Glossary of grammatical terms / Transcript of audio download