Learning Italian @MFC? Now you can!

I'd like to learn Italian, just to blow away my adopted sister in Rome.

I also have a few friends throughout Italy that I'd love to communicate with better. Unfortunately, I've been proven to be a horrible linguist. But who knows?

I'm SO excited about this thread-

A little history-I first began this Italian project when I began my Mika obsession. I decided it would be cool to follow some Mika fans, and I picked a whole bunch that Twitter recommended. Imagine my shock when I discovered that most of them were Tweeting in Italian. What to do? That very same day I was browsing through the app store on my tablet when I looked at the editor's picks for best apps. One of them was Duolingo. Italian was one of the languages you could learn, so I decided it was a sign. I began my lessons. Now, it's gone beyond Mika and it's just fun. It keeps my brain active and I feel really smart when I understand things. Especially Mika tweets!

My weaknesses-

Whoever said prepositions are a bitch is so right. They are impossible. Just when I think I have the pattern down, something comes along to wreck my theory. So as a rule, I tend to just stick in del and hope I'm right.

Adverbs-So many of them and too many sound the same ancora, allora, anche, niente, adesso. But it's just going to be a matter of memory work for that.

I'll start with an easy question-

ma and bensi-does it matter which one you use?

Ciao!

Grazie mille per questo thread, molto interessante per me!

Ho studiato italiano per qualche mesi 10 anni fa.. non mi ricordo molte cose.. ma mi piace imparare di più

Whoever said prepositions are a bitch is so right. They are impossible. Just when I think I have the pattern down, something comes along to wreck my theory. So as a rule, I tend to just stick in del and hope I'm right.

Adverbs-So many of them and too many sound the same ancora, allora, anche, niente, adesso. But it's just going to be a matter of memory work for that.

I'll start with an easy question-

ma and bensi-does it matter which one you use?

My opinion, aka how I deal with english.

I'm no longer at school and it's supposed to be for fun, right? So screw the rules. I spent months writing over here not having a clue about what tense was correct in "if.... would". I just wrote would... would... and I was fine with it.

Just try to make people understand you. No one really cares if you don't get the correct preposition. They are tiny details. Ideas and feelings are what really matters.

So, go on writing, meanwhile your brain will learn to know by instinct what's right and what's wrong. There will come a time when you will notice when a preposition is wrong because something will sounds funny in it.

I usually write in english, then check because at school they taught to me to never trust my instinct. And yes, I am mostly right with what I felt to be correct. (whenever I do mistakes, it's usually because I simply don't have any instict about it at all . But it shows up more and more while I'm improving. And no, I'm not implying I'm awesome in english, but hell, I had improved.) Of course typos don't count, I make plenty. Why do you say that S, btw, "she learnS". They all learn but no, he, she and it have to learnS. WTF.

Anyway, don't get to crazytown with prepositions. Adverbs, those can be helpful, but take it easy. Brain at work, just enjoy this italian thing and they will come.

When it comes to bitchy words, SHUT the hell UP. You and your freaking PHRASAL VERBS. Really. How many of them exist? I suppose hundreds. Prepositions are just nine.

PS Ma e bensì. If you use MA you are not going to fail. Go for it.

Bensì is used when you oppose two things: il concerto di mika non si terrà a Napoli, bensì ad Aosta. Yeah, spoiler alert. It will be moved to my place. It's quite closer to the rest of the Europe, you're welcome.

MA is more general, you can always use it:

Il concerto di Mika non si terrà a Napoli,MA ad Aosta.

Mi piacerebbe che Mika spostasse qui il concerto MA è solo un sogno

Mika always stretches MA, so much that I lately use it as a quote : MA (cit) - MA (quote)

My opinion, aka how I deal with english.

I'm no longer at school and it's supposed to be for fun, right? So screw the rules. I spent months writing over here not having a clue about what tense was correct in "if.... would". I just wrote would... would... and I was fine with it.

Just try to make people understand you. No one really cares if you don't get the correct preposition. They are tiny details. Ideas and feelings are what really matters.

So, go on writing, meanwhile your brain will learn to know by instinct what's right and what's wrong. There will come a time when you will notice when a preposition is wrong because something will sounds funny in it.

I usually write in english, then check because at school they taught to me to never trust my instinct. And yes, I am mostly right with what I felt to be correct. (whenever I do mistakes, it's usually because I simply don't have any instict about it at all . But it shows up more and more while I'm improving. And no, I'm not implying I'm awesome in english, but hell, I had improved.) Of course typos don't count, I make plenty. Why do you say that S, btw, "she learnS". They all learn but no, he, she and it have to learnS. WTF.

Anyway, don't get to crazytown with prepositions. Adverbs, those can be helpful, but take it easy. Brain at work, just enjoy this italian thing and they will come.

When it comes to bitchy words, SHUT the hell UP. You and your freaking PHRASAL VERBS. Really. How many of them exist? I suppose hundreds. Prepositions are just nine.

 

PS Ma e bensì. If you use MA you are not going to fail. Go for it.

Bensì is used when you oppose two things: il concerto di mika non si terrà a Napoli, bensì ad Aosta. Yeah, spoiler alert. It will be moved to my place. It's quite closer to the rest of the Europe, you're welcome.

MA is more general, you can always use it:

Il concerto di Mika non si terrà a Napoli,MA ad Aosta.

Mi piacerebbe che Mika spostasse qui il concerto MA è solo un sogno

 

Mika always stretches MA, so much that I lately use it as a quote : MA (cit) - MA (quote)

Most of native speakers don't know how grammar rules work, but they are still able to speak and to write: the best thing to do is simply practice, and you'll learn something new time by time.

Then ofc if someone has a specific question I'm here, and I'm sure I'm not alone!

My weaknesses-

Whoever said prepositions are a bitch is so right. They are impossible. Just when I think I have the pattern down, something comes along to wreck my theory. So as a rule, I tend to just stick in del and hope I'm right.

Adverbs-So many of them and too many sound the same ancora, allora, anche, niente, adesso. But it's just going to be a matter of memory work for that.

I'll start with an easy question-

ma and bensi-does it matter which one you use?

I tried to explain the difference when you asked in another thread, but I'm not a good teacher, sorry. Elwendin explained it clearly

Don't worry too much about it, just dare to use your Italian and it will become more and more natural and easier with time and practice. That's what I do with English and even though I know I might sound funny, for me it's very useful

Edit: Giovanna, I saw your comment after posting mine, I basically repeated the same things, oops

During my moderating activities I've come across some hints here and there, from people who are learning or would like to learn Italian.

 

I don't think this has got anything to do with Mika . On the contrary, with our supreme poet DANTE.

 

here he is:

 

nice chap, isn't he?

 

So here you can find careful teachers at your full disposal, the Italian community has grown huuuuge....cominciamo!

Is this Dante the one who wrote about being on fire?

Is this Dante the one who wrote about being on fire?

He's Dante Alighieri (usually referred to as "Dante" only).

Good choice Robertina: Mika wants to read the Divina Commedia, his fans must be well prepared!

His masterpiece is the "Divina Commedia" (when I was at achool my English teacher used to say that "Divina Commedia" was the model of Milton's "Paradise lost"): it's the journey of a man who gets lost in a wild wood, but finally finds his way home getting to see Hell (lead by the latin poet Virgilio), Purgatory (lead by the latin poet Stazio) and Paradise (lead by his ideal woman, Beatrice).

The poem dates back to the beginning of the 14th century, so it all has to read has highly symbolic.

I don't know what do you mean exactly with being on fire, I studied Dante a loooong time ago and forgot almost everything, I should ask to my husband. In the Hell part ther's a lot of fire for sure (and lots of sinners burning), but it may be something related to passion and love as well.

I don't know what do you mean exactly with being on fire, I studied Dante a loooong time ago and forgot almost everything, I should ask to my husband. In the Hell part ther's a lot of fire for sure (and lots of sinners burning), but it may be something related to passion and love as well.

Even in English we refer to Dante's Hell as Dante's Inferno. But outside the context of Dante, "inferno" means fire (in English) so maybe that is the association Rose is making between Dante and fire(s of Hell)? I don't know but I would assume that's how we came to adopt inferno to mean fire...?

This thread is a great idea!

 

 

This is the same mistake Mika is always making. He speaks very well and then fails in this everytime! I think you should be proud, you know what they say, great minds think alike!

 

 

I think you're ready to become the next judge on XF

Finally a solid reason to watch XF

Finalmente una valida ragione per guardare XF

I can't wait

I'd like to learn Italian, just to blow away my adopted sister in Rome.

 

I also have a few friends throughout Italy that I'd love to communicate with better. Unfortunately, I've been proven to be a horrible linguist. But who knows?

With MFC yes we can

I love languages , for some reason italian vocab doesn' t seem to stay in my head lack of practice or I'm getting

My opinion, aka how I deal with english.

I'm no longer at school and it's supposed to be for fun, right? So screw the rules. I spent months writing over here not having a clue about what tense was correct in "if.... would". I just wrote would... would... and I was fine with it.

Just try to make people understand you. No one really cares if you don't get the correct preposition. They are tiny details. Ideas and feelings are what really matters.

So, go on writing, meanwhile your brain will learn to know by instinct what's right and what's wrong. There will come a time when you will notice when a preposition is wrong because something will sounds funny in it.

I usually write in english, then check because at school they taught to me to never trust my instinct. And yes, I am mostly right with what I felt to be correct. (whenever I do mistakes, it's usually because I simply don't have any instict about it at all . But it shows up more and more while I'm improving. And no, I'm not implying I'm awesome in english, but hell, I had improved.) Of course typos don't count, I make plenty. Why do you say that S, btw, "she learnS". They all learn but no, he, she and it have to learnS. WTF.

Anyway, don't get to crazytown with prepositions. Adverbs, those can be helpful, but take it easy. Brain at work, just enjoy this italian thing and they will come.

When it comes to bitchy words, SHUT the hell UP. You and your freaking PHRASAL VERBS. Really. How many of them exist? I suppose hundreds. Prepositions are just nine.

 

PS Ma e bensì. If you use MA you are not going to fail. Go for it.

Bensì is used when you oppose two things: il concerto di mika non si terrà a Napoli, bensì ad Aosta. Yeah, spoiler alert. It will be moved to my place. It's quite closer to the rest of the Europe, you're welcome.

MA is more general, you can always use it:

Il concerto di Mika non si terrà a Napoli,MA ad Aosta.

Mi piacerebbe che Mika spostasse qui il concerto MA è solo un sogno

 

Mika always stretches MA, so much that I lately use it as a quote : MA (cit) - MA (quote)

Yes, that's how languages should be learned, as if you were a new born and with a real need to communicate, I so agree with you Sylvie

When I joined MFC I never thought I would find myself laughing in front of my PC screen that shows a giant pic of Dante XD let's not forget that for Mika Dante was a woman with a terrible nose nice thread though!!

We say:

 

Ho studiato italiano per un mese in settembre/ottobre l'anno scorso a Roma ma l'ho dimenticato

 

the article "uno" in its entire form is used in a very few cases, it generally looses the final "o" when the next word begins by consonant, except "S", or when the next word begins by vocal (in this case NO apostrophe!!!, we are speaking about masculine article)

 

- un conto

- un mese

- un esempio

- un amico

- un orso

- un uovo

- un inizio

- uno sconto

 

a Roma: the place you are mentioning is a town, in this case the right preposition is "A"

- Ho studiato A Roma (a Venezia, a Londra...)

when you speak about a nation or a continent you should use "IN"

- Ho studiato IN Italia (in Francia, in Europa...)

 

And then we add "lo" in front of the verb (in this case l+apostrophe, because the verb begins with "H"): it's a pronoun and it means what you forgot (in this case, your Italian).

The verb "dimenticare" always requires an object: it may be a pronoun as in this case

- l'ho dimenticato

a word:

- ho dimenticato l'italiano

or a whole sentence

- ho dimenticato di studiare (italiano, or maths...)

I shall try to remember this!

I KNEW THAT!

I had many problems with lo, la, gli etc when at the school just couldn't get it into my head

Thank you!

Thanks for the advice and encouragement, everyone. I need to stop focusing so much on the details and just have fun. I'm actually very impressed with how much I have picked up. Having a background in Spanish sort of helps with sentence construction.

I wish I had someone I could really talk with, though. I wish Italian speakers were as numerous as Spanish ones. My poor family. First they have to put up with my Mika obsession, and now I'm speaking Italian to them all the time. Which they really don't appreciate. So mostly I speak it to the dog. I take her for walks and try to speak nothing but Italian, and I tell her all the things I see. It sounds goofy, but it's practice and she listens to me.

Lei è mio cane bravo.

My poor family. First they have to put up with my Mika obsession, and now I'm speaking Italian to them all the time. Which they really don't appreciate. So mostly I speak it to the dog. I take her for walks and try to speak nothing but Italian, and I tell her all the things I see. It sounds goofy, but it's practice and she listens to me.

Lei è mio cane bravo.

awesome, Chris! Now that's dedication!

I know the feeling, nobody among my friends nor my family understands my Mika obsession

Remember before the noun it goes the article: "è il mio cane bravo"

I wish I had someone I could really talk with, though.

Same issue here. I really suck at speaking and I can't find anyone to talk with.

Skype would make it right for us both, I once talked to a retired fireman from New York but I'm so shy that I almost freaked out.....

awesome, Chris! Now that's dedication!

 

I know the feeling, nobody among my friends nor my family understands my Mika obsession

Remember before the noun it goes the article: "è il mio cane bravo"

Gaaaahhhh!

Thanks! I ALWAYS forget that!

Same issue here. I really suck at speaking and I can't find anyone to talk with.

Skype would make it right for us both, I once talked to a retired fireman from New York but I'm so shy that I almost freaked out.....

I'm shy too. That would have freaked me out as well.

Same issue here. I really suck at speaking and I can't find anyone to talk with.

Skype would make it right for us both, I once talked to a retired fireman from New York but I'm so shy that I almost freaked out.....

A supplier suggested me to take Skype conversation classes a few months ago, but I never did because I haven't Skype at home.

I had no idea she was speaking about conversations with random people, I thought it was going to be with a teacher: I'm not used anymore to have conversations in a foreign tongue with unknown people since I've left my old job and now I'd be probably scared, but maybe we could arrange Mika conversations via MFC, this would help us being at ease

I had no idea she was speaking about conversations with random people, I thought it was going to be with a teacher:

I'm sure there must be professional teachers out there too. There is an MFCer who offers paid French lessons via Skype.

I'm sure there must be professional teachers out there too. There is an MFCer who offers paid French lessons via Skype.

Thanks! Good to know for my English and for my French as well (not immediately for my French but still good to know)

Ti amo le farfalle delle Mika.

Is that right? I'm trying to take control of my prepositions.

just for fun....look what I've found!

 

http://www.mikafanclub.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2411&highlight=italian

non conoscevo questo thread, siete state delle veggenti

e ho trovato questo nuovo thread....stiamo italianizzando MFC

ragazze io non so tradurre in inglese quello che ho scritto però...

Ti amo le farfalle delle Mika.

Is that right? I'm trying to take control of my prepositions.

Maybe do you mean: "Amo le farfalle di Mika"? Or maybe "Amo delle farfalle di Mika" if you want to say that you love only some of his butterflies :thumb_yello:

Ti amo le farfalle delle Mika.

Is that right? I'm trying to take control of my prepositions.

"Amo le farfalle di Mika"

The pronoun agrees with the noun that follows, in general (e.g. "Amo le farfalle della giacca di Mika", "Mika ama le farfalle sulle giacche"). Before a proper name, however, any preposition is used as it is (e.g. "Amo la giacca di Mika", "Voglio andare al concerto di febbraio a Montreal"). Also before some swear words: "Ma questa è una scelta di me**a!"

non conoscevo questo thread, siete state delle veggenti

 

 

e ho trovato questo nuovo thread....stiamo italianizzando MFC

 

ragazze io non so tradurre in inglese quello che ho scritto però...

I will try to translate

"I didn't know this thread, you were the visionaries

and I have found this new thread..we are italianising

Girls I can't translate in English what I have written "

Maybe do you mean: "Amo le farfalle di Mika"? Or maybe "Amo delle farfalle di Mika" if you want to say that you love only some of his butterflies :thumb_yello:

Amo tutti le farfalle di Mika

The pronoun agrees with the noun that follows, in general (e.g. "Amo le farfalle della giacca di Mika", "Mika ama le farfalle sulle giacche"). Before a proper name, however, any preposition is used as it is (e.g. "Amo la giacca di Mika", "Voglio andare al concerto di febbraio a Montreal"). Also before some swear words: "Ma questa è una scelta di me**a!"

Voglio andare al concerto di maggio a Napoli e di febbraio a Montreal ma non è possibile

Voglio essere una farfalla cosi posso volare a Montreal