Eh ciao bella! Vuoi imparare l’italiano? 🤌🏼🇮🇹
This week we will be looking at Italian and how to learn it. I have compiled together a list of 5 different resources that I have tried and tested in my personal language-learning journey. I even still use some of these things now to top up my Italian knowledge.
I have a summarised version of this video available on my [TikTok], which you can find [here] if you would like to watch that too.
1. Collins Easy Italian Grammar. Collins is perhaps the best guide for any beginner language learner. They produce grammar books for various languages and cover a wide range of grammar points. The books are written in English and have a great variety of examples, allowing you to practice the grammar you are learning in situations that you are likely to come across in real life; none of that “My pet zebra speaks Chinese” that you’ll find on Duolingo. (Don’t get me wrong, I love Duolingo, it’s great for vocabulary acquisition, but I would never use it on its own, let alone to study grammar.)
Below you can find a screenshot of some of the pages you can find in this book to give you a taste of how things are laid out and explained.
2. Learn Italian with Lucrezia YT Chanel.
Lucrezia has helped me to level up my Italian in recent years. Yes, I studied at university, but I didn’t specialise in Italian during my master’s degree, and so I went a whole year without much Italian. Watching Lucrezia enabled me to stay on top of my grammar, vocabulary, and general comprehension. She posts videos in Italian teaching grammar, useful phrases, words to know and so much more. Something else that I love about Lucrezia’s YouTube page is that she talks about Italian culture and shows you around Italian cities, which is a great way to get an insight into life in Italy. Her videos are aimed at learners of all levels and they are always subtitled to help you follow along.
3. Practice makes perfect: Complete Italian Grammar Book Similar to the Collins book already mentioned, Practice Makes Perfect is another Italian grammar book that I would highly recommend. This book teaches you grammar in a context, using a variety of explanations to help you not only understand it but also recognise and use it in a variety of different situations. If I had to compare the two grammar books mentioned in this blog post, I’d have to say that this book (linked here) scores higher than Collins as it covers a much wider range of grammar topics, ranging from nouns all the way to more advanced topics such as the passive voice and the use of the impersonal ‘si’.
4. Lingua.com exercises for reading, writing and grammar. Lingua is a website that offers learners the opportunity to practice the skills they have already learnt. I use this website a lot when I am teaching as the reading activities are separated nicely according to their level (i.e. A1-B2 or C1); you can choose a text to read and then answer some short questions on the text to see if you have understood it correctly. Additionally, there are some useful listening, dictation, and grammar practice features available on the website too. I would recommend this to learners of all levels as you can find interesting and engaging texts that are at the right level for you and your Italian. What’s more, lingua works in multiple languages.
Lingua currently works in all of these languages ⬇️
Italian
English
Spanish
German
French
Portuguese
Danish
Swedish
Russian
Turkish
Polish
Finnish
Norwegian
Czech
Dutch
5. Short stories in Italian In terms of reading books in Italian. There are two books that I would recommend for beginners and those wanting to top up their language skills. They are Penguin Classics: Racconti in Italiano and Short Stories in Italian by Olly Richards.
This book is fantastic for learners of a lower level. Each short story is accompanied by an English translation. On one page you will find the Italian text and then the next page will have that page's translation into English, very useful for lower-level learners who are just starting to read in Italian. The translation allows you to keep your attention in one place rather than going from reading the story to checking a grammar book if you don't understand something.
I hope that these resources are useful for you! They have certainly helped me and my Italian over the years. Definitely follow my social media for any tips and tricks to learn a language, as I post more regularly on there than this blog.
Until next time | hasta la próxima | alla prossima | bis zum nächsten Mal 👋🏻
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