意大利语学习第一课

Lesson 1

　　This Week's New Words:

　　ciao - hello, goodbye (familiar)

　　salve - hello

　　addio - goodbye

　　bene - well

　　egli - he (literary)

　　lui - he (common speech), him

　　ella - she (literary)

　　lei - she (common speech), her

　　esso - it (masculine)

　　essa - it (feminine)

　　essi - they (persons or things)

　　loro - them (persons or things), they (common speech, persons)

　　grazie - thank you

　　spiacente - I'm sorry

　　noi - us, we (plural)

　　signore - sir, mister, mr.

　　signora - madame, mrs.

　　signorina - miss

　　tu - you (informal)

　　voi - you (plural, formal and informal)

　　io - I

　　Numbers 1-10

　　0 zero

　　1 uno

　　2 due

　　3 tre

　　4 quattro

　　5 cinque

　　6 sei

　　7 sette

　　8 otto

　　9 nove

　　10 dieci

　　Pronunciation

　　The Italian alphabet is fairly similar to our own (English, or depending on where you're from, American). The letters K,J,W,X,Y occur only in foreign origin words. Each lesson will explain a few more letters. This week, I'll explain the interesting letters (or combinations thereof) from this week's words (above).

　　gli

　　The gli (followed or not by another vowel) in Italian is pronounced more or less as ll in Spanish

　　However there are words like glicine (flower name), negligente, anglicano in which, for etymological reasons, g and l are pronounced as two separate sounds as in English.

　　Thus, the Italian word coniglio (rabbit) is pronounced like conihlyo. and the word conigli (rabbits) is pronounced like conihli