Intermediate Italian for Dummies (ISBN - 0470247940)

338 Pages·2021·5.43 MB·English

by Daniela Gobetti
Cristiana Mora Thielmann
Chiara Marchelli

Intermediate
Italian

FOR

DUMmIES

‰

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by Daniela Gobetti
Cristiana Mora Thielmann
Chiara Marchelli

Intermediate
Italian

FOR

DUMmIES

‰

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Intermediate Italian For Dummies®

Published by
Wiley Publishing, Inc.
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Copyright © 2008 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

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About the Author

Daniela Gobetti is a native of Italy who has lived in the United States for the last 30 years. She
holds a Laurea in Lettere e Filosofia from the University of Turin, Italy, and a PhD in Political
Science from Columbia University. She has taught political theory for several years and has
helped build the European Union Center at the University of Michigan. She’s one of the founders
of PROXIMA — Global Education Consulting Training (www.proxima-gect.com), a consulting
firm in the field of the internationalization of higher education and of cultural training.

Since coming to the United States, one of Daniela’s goals has been to become as proficient as
possible in English without losing her own mother tongue. To this end, she has taught Italian,
translated books from Italian into English and from English into Italian, published peer-reviewed
articles in both languages, and authored several books on learning Italian. She has revised 2001
Italian and English Idioms and Italian Idioms, and she has published Dictionary of Italian Slang
with Barron’s Educational Series, Better Reading Italian, Italian Pronouns and Prepositions,
Must-Know Italian, and Italian Vocabulary with McGraw-Hill.

Author’s Acknowledgments

Thanks to my agent, Grace Freedson, who has trusted and helped me over many years. And
thanks to my editors, Kristin DeMint and Elizabeth Rea, who have helped me work with the
For Dummies approach to writing books.

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Publisher’s Acknowledgments

We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our Dummies online registration form located at
www.dummies.com/register/.

Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:

Acquisitions, Editorial, and Media Development

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Senior Copy Editor: Elizabeth Rea

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Technical Editor: Cristiana Mora Thielmann

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Composition Services

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Indexer: Potomac Indexing, LLC

Special Help

Danielle Voirol, Alicia B. South

Publishing and Editorial for Consumer Dummies

Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher, Consumer Dummies

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Kelly Regan, Editorial Director, Travel

Publishing for Technology Dummies

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Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services

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Contents at a Glance

Introduction.................................................................................1

Part I: Getting Your Bearings: Reviewing the Basics.......................7

Chapter 1: What Do You Know? Parts of Speech and Then Some .........................................................9
Chapter 2: Noun and Article Basics: Gender and Number....................................................................25
Chapter 3: Numbers, Dates, and Time.....................................................................................................41

Part II: A Close Look at Parts of Speech.......................................51

Chapter 4: All About Pronouns.................................................................................................................53
Chapter 5: Adjectives, Adverbs, and Comparisons ...............................................................................73
Chapter 6: Prepositions: The Big Challenge ...........................................................................................91
Chapter 7: Demonstrative, Indefinite, and Possessive Qualifiers ......................................................105
Chapter 8: Linking Sentences with Conjunctions and Relative Pronouns ........................................119

Part III: What Would You Do without Verbs and Tenses? .............133

Chapter 9: Writing in the Present...........................................................................................................135
Chapter 10: Glancing Back at the Past: The Present Perfect and Preterit ........................................153
Chapter 11: When Things Lasted (In the Past): The Imperfect..........................................................171
Chapter 12: The Future Tense.................................................................................................................185

Part IV: Adding Nuances to Moods and Tenses............................197

Chapter 13: The Imperative ....................................................................................................................199
Chapter 14: Forming Conditional and Subjunctive Verbs ...................................................................209
Chapter 15: The Conditional and the Subjunctive in Action ..............................................................223
Chapter 16: Satisfying Your Curiosity with Questions and Answers.................................................237
Chapter 17: The Reflexive, Passive, and Impersonal Constructions .................................................249

Part V: The Part of Tens............................................................263

Chapter 18: Ten Facts to Remember about Italian Grammar .............................................................265
Chapter 19: Ten Subtle Verb Distinctions .............................................................................................273

Part VI: Appendixes..................................................................277

Appendix A: Verb Charts.........................................................................................................................279
Appendix B: English-Italian Dictionary..................................................................................................295
Appendix C: Italian-English Dictionary..................................................................................................299

Index.......................................................................................303

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Table of Contents

Introduction .................................................................................1

About This Book.........................................................................................................................1
Conventions Used in This Book ...............................................................................................2
Foolish Assumptions .................................................................................................................2
How This Book Is Organized.....................................................................................................3
Part I: Getting Your Bearings: Reviewing the Basics....................................................3
Part II: A Close Look at Parts of Speech ........................................................................3
Part III: What Would You Do without Verbs and Tenses?............................................3
Part IV: Adding Nuances to Moods and Tenses............................................................4
Part V: The Part of Tens...................................................................................................4
Part VI: Appendixes..........................................................................................................4
Icons Used in This Book............................................................................................................4
Where to Go from Here..............................................................................................................5

Part I: Getting Your Bearings: Reviewing the Basics........................7

Chapter 1: What Do You Know? Parts of Speech and Then Some.................................9

Getting a Grip on Italian Grammar Terms and Nuances .......................................................9
Phonology: Saying and spelling words correctly .......................................................10
Morphology: Word structure and variations in word forms.....................................11
Syntax: Putting words in order.....................................................................................17
Getting the Most Out of Dictionaries.....................................................................................19
Navigating a monolingual Italian dictionary...............................................................20
Navigating a bilingual Italian-English/English-Italian dictionary..............................20
Answer Key ...............................................................................................................................23

Chapter 2: Noun and Article Basics: Gender and Number ...........................................25

A Primer on Articles ................................................................................................................25
Dealing with the definite article “the” .........................................................................26
Saying “a” or “an” in Italian: Indefinite articles ..........................................................27
Distinguishing between Masculine and Feminine Nouns....................................................27
Recognizing common noun endings............................................................................28
Sorting nouns into three classes..................................................................................29
Moving from Singular to Plural: Basic Rules.........................................................................31
Exceptions to the Basic Rules on Number............................................................................32
Changing more than just the ending............................................................................32
Changing only the article ..............................................................................................34
Using nouns only in the singular or the plural...........................................................34
Deciding When to Include an Article ....................................................................................35
When (and when not) to use a definite article...........................................................35
When (and when not) to use an indefinite article .....................................................36
Answer Key ...............................................................................................................................38

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Chapter 3: Numbers, Dates, and Time...............................................................................41

Counting Items with Cardinal Numbers................................................................................41
Putting Items in Order with Ordinal Numbers .....................................................................44
Managing Your Calendar and Your Time...............................................................................45
Il calendario: The calendar ...........................................................................................45
L’ora: The time................................................................................................................46
Answer Key ...............................................................................................................................49

Part II: A Close Look at Parts of Speech .......................................51

Chapter 4: All About Pronouns...........................................................................................53

Reader, Meet the Subject Pronouns.......................................................................................54
Knowing when to use them...........................................................................................55
Adapting subject pronouns for formal and informal usage......................................55
Stressed Pronouns ...................................................................................................................56
Direct Object Pronouns...........................................................................................................57
Indirect Object Pronouns........................................................................................................60
Combining Direct and Indirect Object Pronouns to Form Double Pronouns...................62
But Wait — There’s More! Special Italian Pronouns ............................................................64
The adverbial pronoun ci..............................................................................................64
The pronoun ne ..............................................................................................................66
When the Subject Is Also the Object: Reflexive Pronouns .................................................67
Answer Key ...............................................................................................................................69

Chapter 5: Adjectives, Adverbs, and Comparisons ........................................................73

Matching Adjectives to Nouns in Gender and Number.......................................................74
Regular adjectives..........................................................................................................75
Irregular adjectives ........................................................................................................75
Invariable adjectives......................................................................................................76
When You Need to Match One Adjective to More than One Noun....................................77
Putting Adjectives in Their Place...........................................................................................78
Recognizing the adjectives that come before nouns.................................................78
Using placement to change an adjective’s meaning ..................................................78
Forming Adverbs the Italian Way...........................................................................................80
Original adverbs.............................................................................................................80
Derived adverbs .............................................................................................................81
Finding a Place for Adverbs in a Sentence............................................................................82
Making Comparisons...............................................................................................................84
Designating the best and the worst: The superlatives..............................................85
Migliore and peggiore, meglio and peggio: Better and worse ..................................86
Answer Key ...............................................................................................................................88

Chapter 6: Prepositions: The Big Challenge....................................................................91

Combining Prepositions with Articles...................................................................................91
Forming Complements (Preposition + Noun, Name, or Pronoun).....................................92
Possession and specification........................................................................................93
Qualities and functions..................................................................................................93
Place.................................................................................................................................94
Place and function..........................................................................................................96
Time .................................................................................................................................96

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Intermediate Italian For Dummies

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