Is Italian hard to learn? This is a big question! Actually this is a question that everyone makes before starting to learn Italian. I think that it is not hard to learn Italian and that on the contrary it is a great – interesting – challenge. There are many ways of learning Italian and today I would like to focus on the best way to learn Italian vocabulary. What I suggest is always reflecting over the language and proceeding with comparisons over the words. It makes the act to learn Italian vocabulary fun and pleasant. Consider some examples.
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Words that change only for a letter
PAZZO
“Crazy” |
PEZZO
“Piece” |
PIZZO
“Lace” |
POZZO
“Well” |
PUZZO
“Bad smell” |
The same works if the word ends with “A”.
PAZZA
“Crazy” |
PEZZA
“Swatch” |
PIZZA
“Pizza” |
POZZA
“Puddle” |
PUZZA
“Bad smell” |
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Words that change only the last letter
LAST LETTER “O” | LAST LETTER “A” |
VISTO
“Visa” |
VISTA
“View” |
GNOCCO
“A kind of pasta” |
GNOCCA
“Beautiful Girl” |
PORTO
“Port” |
PORTA
“Door” |
BANCO
“Desk” |
BANCA
“Bank” |
PRIMO
“First” |
PRIMA
“Before” |
CASO
“Case” |
CASA
“House” |
MOSTRO
“Monster” |
MOSTRA
“Exhibition” |
PUNTO
“Fullstop” |
PUNTA
“Tip” |
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Words that change the meaning only for an accent
ACCENT ON DIFFERENT SYLLABLE | ||
AN CO RA
“Anchor” |
AN CO RA
“Still” or “Yet” |
|
PRIN CI PI
“Princes” |
PRIN CI PI
“Principles” |
|
LEGGE RE
“To read” |
LEG GE RE
“Light things” |
|
PERO
“Pear Tree” |
PERO’
“But” |
|
IMPA RI
“Unequal” |
IM PA RI
“You learn” |
Here you find a complete list of Italian Homographs: words that are spelt in the same way but with different meaning.
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Words that change only for a consonant (double or not)
ONE CONSONANT | DOUBLE CONSONANTS |
SeTe
“Thirst” |
SeTTe
“Seven” |
CaMino
“Chimney” |
CaMMino
“Walk” |
PaPa
“Pope” |
PaPPa
“Baby food” |
RiSa
“Laugh” |
RiSSa
“Scuffle” |
PaLa
“Shovel” |
PaLLa
“Ball” |
To learn more about the Italian Double Consonants, check this post.
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Is Italian hard to learn? No, learn Italian vocabulary!
For finishing, make this little exercise for checking what you have learnt! 😉
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