Italian vocabulary

223 Pages·2008·1.328 MB·English

by  Gobetti, Daniela

PRACTICE
MAKES
PERFECT
Italian
Vocabulary
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PRACTICE
MAKES
PERFECT
Italian
Vocabulary
Daniela Gobetti
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DOI: 10.1036/0071482865
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Contents
Introduction vii
1 Family 1
2 People 13
3 The body and the senses 25
4 Emotions and the mind 35
5 Body care, health, and life 47
6 Consumer society 64
7 Housing 76
8 Domestic life 86
9 Transportation, traffi c, and travel 102
10 Tourism 117
11 Education and technology 128
12 Culture, the arts, and leisure time 141
13 Work and business 156
14 Government, politics, and society 169
15 Nature and the environment 184
16 Measurements, time, and dates 198
Answer key 205
v
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Introduction
Th is book provides readers with basic Italian words in a variety of fi elds, and with
exercises to practice how those words are used. It is divided into sixteen units cor-
responding to as many themes. In each unit words are clustered according to sub-
themes, but within each sub-theme I have chosen to list nouns separate from
verbs, pronouns, and so forth, rather than list them thematically.
Italian is a rule-based, rather than a pattern-based language. Familiarity
with grammar rules is therefore indispensable even at the elementary level. While
doing the exercises, users are encouraged to keep a grammar book, a verb book,
and a dictionary at hand to clarify their doubts. Here I wish to provide just a few
reminders.
◆ I have clustered together adjectives, adverbs, and phrases that are used to
qualify nouns or verbs, because it oft en happens that a qualifi er conveyed
by an adjective in English is conveyed by an adverb or phrase in Italian,
and vice versa. Adjectives and phrases composed of an adjective and a
preposition, such as bello (beautiful), grande (large, great), piccolo (small,
little), solo (alone) and da solo (alone), da piccolo (as a kid/young boy), da
grande (as an adult), etc., must be coordinated in gender and number
with the noun to which they refer. Adverbs such as bene (well), veloce-
mente (fast), etc., are unchangeable, as are the complements a disagio (not
at ease, uneasy) and di corsa (in a hurry), which are formed of a noun and
a preposition.
◆ Italian is rich in compound nouns, which can be formed by an adjective
and a noun or a noun followed by a phrase (called a “complement” in Ital-
ian) that changes its basic meaning: la malattia tropicale (tropical dis-
ease), la barca a vela (sailing boat), la tazza da tè (teacup). Only when
compound nouns are formed by adding an adjective do the rules of coor-
dination apply: la guida turistica (tourist guide), le guide turistiche (tour-
ist guides).
When the context is clear, the adjective or complement used as a
qualifi er can be dropped. I have listed in square brackets the word that can
be omitted: i [pomodori] pelati (peeled tomatoes); le patatine [fritte] (po-
tato chips).
In general, square brackets are used to indicate that the word or
words in question can be omitted.
◆ I have listed nouns in the masculine, unless the noun happens to be femi-
nine: la guida (guide), la persona (person). Th e notation (m. and f. / f. and
m.) (masculine and feminine / feminine and masculine) means that the
vii
Copyright © 2008 by Daniela Gobetti. Click here for terms of use.
word in question can refer to either gender, even if the gender of the word is only mascu-
line or feminine.
Since the masculine is the default gender in Italian, the masculine plural of nouns
ending in -a can be used for women as well: l(o)’alpinista (male mountain climber),
l(a)’alpinista (female mountain climber) → gli alpinisti (male, female, or male and female
mountain climbers). But nowadays you can assume that, in everyday language, when the
singular takes the feminine article, the plural will do so as well: la pediatra → le pediatre
(female pediatricians), la fi sioterapista → le fi sioterapiste (female physical therapists).
I have not given the plural of nouns, but for exceptions such as l’uovo → le uova
(egg → eggs), some compound nouns (il lavapiatti, le lavapiatti), and nouns ending in
-o in the singular and -a in the plural (il dito, le dita).
I have added the notations (sing.) or (pl.) to some nouns to indicate that the noun
only has the singular or the plural, or that in the context in which it is introduced it is used
mostly in the singular or in the plural.
◆ Italian verbs in compound tenses can take as auxiliary either avere (to have) or essere (to
be). Th e refl exive and passive forms require the auxiliary essere. When verbs are in the
active form, transitive verbs always take avere. We call transitive those verbs whose action
falls directly on an object. Intransitive verbs, which only take an indirect object intro-
duced by a preposition, usually take essere. Since there are, however, a good number of
intransitive verbs that take avere, and some verbs that can take either avere or essere, I
have given the auxiliary or auxiliaries aft er these verbs.
As readers know, Italian has many irregular verbs. I have not dwelled on this point
in the text. Consult a book listing all conjugations if you are in doubt.
◆ I have given only basic information about how to use pronouns and prepositions. For de-
tails, I wish to refer readers to Practice Makes Perfect: Italian Pronouns and Prepositions.
◆ I have not devoted specifi c sections of this book to coordinating and subordinating con-
junctions, but I have listed “question words,” and used some conjunctions in exercises: e
(and), ma (but), o (or); quando (when), perché (because), se (if/whether), etc.
◆ Italian is rich in words taken from other languages: Latin, French, Arabic, German, etc.,
and now English above all. Pronunciation of these words is oft en “Italianized.” And non-
Italian words will always follow the rules of Italian grammar when it comes to placement
in a sentence.
Words taken from other languages used to be considered all masculine and un-
changeable, but that rule is oft en disregarded. When a noun refers to a human being, the
masculine form can be used to refer to a man or a woman, il leader, il partner, but you
will also fi nd the feminine used: la leader, la partner. Nouns that refer to objects take the
article of the corresponding Italian words, when there is one: la star del cinema (f. and
m.) (movie star), because in Italian we can say la stella del cinema. In the plural, you may
fi nd the English plural used: il fi lm, i fi lms.
To conclude, I have chosen words that are widely used, and I have given their idiomatic
equivalents in Italian: the literal translation of the English word projects is i progetti, but used in
reference to housing it corresponds to le case popolari / l’edilizia agevolata. You will fi nd project
translated as il progetto in another part of the book.
Buon lavoro!
viii practice makes perfect Italian Vocabulary