Want to share your Italian language skills?

[click]

I'm keen to learn a little bit of the language and this might be a simple way to get this board rocking a bit more! I know that it is probably not the best way to learn a language (i.e. without being able to hear the inflections when spoken etc) but it would be great if at the end of this thread we could be having some intelligent conversation in basic Italian, well it certainly would be great for me but perhaps ambitious. Interested!

How would I say:

1. my name is Adam
2. what is your name?
3. how are you today?
4. and you!
5. No
6. where are you from?
7. have you been here long?
8. Can I help you?

Hmmm or is there some better way to do this?

grazie

[Joy_Stone]

I hope you won't be too disappointed if I'm the one who replies to you, until others come and rock the place as oyu say.

I'm not fluent yet, but can always teach you the bits and pieces I know.

Come direi:

- Mi chiamo Adam (Adamo if you also want to translate your name in Italian)//or - Il mio nome è Adamo.

- Come ti chiami? or - Come si chiama? (if you have to be formal with the person)

- Come stai oggi? (informal) - Come sta oggi? (formal)

- E tu? (informal) - E Lei? (formal)

- No! ........universal word, lol!

- Di dove sei? (informal) - Di dov'è? (formal)

- Sei qui da lungo? // - Lei è qui da lungo? (I'm not sure about this one, I mean I'm not sure if it's very idiomatic, but at least they will understand)

- Posso aiutarti? (informal) // - Posso aiutarLa? (formal)

You're welcome is 'prego'.....I love this word, it sounds great, it's soft and you say in one word what we say in three!

Io sono = I am
ma = but
e = and
da = from
Inghilterra = England
Sto = (I) stay. The pronouns (I, you, she...) in italian aren't necessarily present in the sentence. And to say 'I am fine' they say 'I stay fine'. So 'Sto bene' means 'I'm fine'.

Io mi chiamo Joy e sono da Inghilterra. Oggi sto bene, grazie. Non sto in Italia da lungo, ma posso aiutarti un poco per parlare italiano.

[click]

Originally posted by Joy_Stone
I hope you won't be too disappointed if I'm the one who replies to you, until others come and rock the place as oyu say.

Oh don't be so silly why would I be disappointed!!!

Originally posted by Joy_Stone
I'm not fluent yet, but can always teach you the bits and pieces I know.

Come direi:

ty....now what's the "Come direi" bit?

OK now trying to follow your replies, as you didn't number them, I have tried to do this here have I done this correctly?

1. my name is Adam > Mi chiamo Adamo or mio nome è Adamo.

2. what is your name? > Come ti chiami? or - Come si chiama? (if you have to be formal with the person)

3. how are you today? > Come stai oggi? (informal) - Come sta oggi? (formal)

4. and you! > E tu? (informal) - E Lei? (formal)

5. No > No!

6. where are you from? > Di dove sei? (informal) - Di dov'è? (formal)

7. have you been here long? > Sei qui da lungo? // - Lei è qui da lungo? (I'm not sure about this one, I mean I'm not sure if it's very idiomatic, but at least they will understand)

8. Can I help you? > Posso aiutarti? (informal) // - Posso aiutarLa? (formal)

9. You're welcome > 'prego'.....I love this word, it sounds great, it's soft and you say in one word what we say in three!

Originally posted by Joy_Stone
Io mi chiamo Joy e sono da Inghilterra. Oggi sto bene, grazie. Non sto in Italia da lungo, ma posso aiutarti un poco per parlare italiano.

Hmmmmm! here goes: My name is Joy I live in England. Today I'm fine, thank you. Not sure atall about the rest but my guess is that you are saying that you speak only little bit of Italian..... perhaps we can disect this word at a time!

[Joy_Stone]

Oh don't be so silly why would I be disappointed!!!

Because I'm not a native Italian, and that's what you're looking for I guess *ü*

"come direi" is "How would I say"....I translated everything!

You got the rest alright

You got the beginning right, the rest was "I haven't been in italy for long, but I can help you a bit to learn italian"
WIch is not even what I meant to say lol.

PS: in Italian the pronoun is and the verb are put together and make one word, so when I say "I can help you" I say 'Io posso aiutarti' instead of "Io posso ti aiutare" which is wrong.

I hope you understadn what I mean, I realise now e-learning is not that convenient when it comes to linguistics.

[click]

Originally posted by Joy_Stone
Because I'm not a native Italian, and that's what you're looking for I guess *ü*

You've been a gr8 help!

Originally posted by Joy_Stone
"come direi" is "How would I say"....I translated everything!

You got the rest alright

You got the beginning right, the rest was "I haven't been in italy for long, but I can help you a bit to learn italian"
WIch is not even what I meant to say lol.

PS: in Italian the pronoun is and the verb are put together and make one word, so when I say "I can help you" I say 'Io posso aiutarti' instead of "Io posso ti aiutare" which is wrong.

I hope you understadn what I mean, I realise now e-learning is not that convenient when it comes to linguistics.

It is very hard to learn this way as you can't hear the words spoken. I guess will have to think about lessons. Thanks for all your help as it's given me a start.

[Joy_Stone]

You're most welcome! Or shall I say 'Prego Adamo'

I hope you do manage to learn it eventually, it took me 2 years to get down to it seriously (e.i: met an italian dude, and dated him for long, lol)but in the end I'm very happy I did it, I'm happy I can understand it and use it as well. I can't wait for the day I'll be fluent!!

Lessons would be pretty expensive and most of the time they teach you touristy crap which you'll be too ashamed to use, it happened to me in my Spanish lessons, I was so dissapointed I gave it up.
You seem to travel to Europe quite a bit, I'd really recommend you make some friends and keep in touch with them, that's the best way.

[click]

Yes have travelled quite a lot and will likely do lots more as my global team expands. I think your advice is good. Thanks for the dialog.

grazie

[massi]

ah ah Well done Ragazzi ....
excellent job

[Joy_Stone]

Thanks

If you speak Italian, feel free to teach us anything you know. We can start by exchanging the bits and pieces we know until a native (or more than one) comes to our rescue.

[Andrea13184]

Hi I would also like to learn some Italian. I can speak English, Afrikaans and a little Xhosa.