Unlocking Italian with Paul Noble: Your key to language success with the bestselling language coach
fantastico
(fan-tass-teek-oh)
Let’s now try doing the same with “ical” and change the “ical” on the end of “political” into “ico”.
Doing this, what will “political” be in Italian?
politico
(pol-ee-teek-oh)
And what will “illogical” be?
illogico
(ee-lodge-eek-oh)
Let’s now try using these “ico” words to expand our range of expressions and to make some more complex sentences in Italian.
“It was” in Italian is:
Era
(air-ah)
So, how would you say “it was illogical”?
Era illogico.
(air-ah ee-lodge-eek-oh)
And how would you say “it was political”?
Era politico.
(air-ah pol-ee-teek-oh)
How about “it was romantic”?
Era romantico.
(air-ah roe-man-teek-oh)
Finally, how would you say “it was fantastic”?
Era fantastico.
(air-ah fan-tass-teek-oh)
Now, do you remember how to say “I have visited” in Italian?
Ho visitato
(o visit-art-oh)
And what about “I visited”?
Ho visitato
(o visit-art-oh)
And “I did visit”?
Ho visitato
(o visit-art-oh)
Do you remember how to say “I have spent”, “I did spend”, “I spent” (literally “I have passed”)?
Ho passato
(o pass-art-oh)
And so how would you say “I spent the weekend”?
Ho passato il weekend
(o pass-art-oh eel weekend)
What is “in Rome” in Italian?
a Roma
(a roam-er)
So how would you say “I spent the weekend in Rome”?
Ho passato il weekend a Roma.
(o pass-art-oh eel weekend a roam-er)
And once more, what is “it was” in Italian?
Era
(air-ah)
Now, “era” can be used in Italian to mean both “it was” and also just “was”. “The weather” in Italian is:
il tempo
(eel tem-poe)
So how would you say “the weather was…”?
il tempo era…
(eel tem-poe air-ah)
Now again, what was “fantastic” in Italian?
fantastico
(fan-tass-teek-oh)
And so how would you say “the weather was fantastic”?
Il tempo era fantastico.
(eel tem-poe air-ah fan-tass-teek-oh)
And how would you say “I spent the weekend in Rome. The weather was fantastic.”?
Ho passato il weekend a Roma. Il tempo era fantastico.
(o pass-art-oh eel weekend a roam-er. eel tem-poe air-ah fan-tass-teek-oh)
If you want to show that you’re amazed or impressed by something in Italian, you can, just as in English, say “wow”.
So, just to make this clear, what is “wow” in Italian?
wow
(wow)
Good.
The word for “and” in Italian is:
e
(ay)
So, how would you say “…and wow…”?
…e wow…
(ay wow)
Putting what you’ve learnt together, say “I spent the weekend in Rome – and wow, it was fantastic.” Take your time to work this out, bit by bit, there’s no rush.
Ho passato il weekend a Roma – e wow, il tempo era fantastico.
(o pass-art-oh eel weekend a roam – er ay wow, eel tem-poe air-ah fan-tass-teek-oh)
You can now construct the sentence with which we started the chapter – and, as you will soon discover, this is just the very beginning of your journey into Italian!
Building Blocks
You just learnt how to say (amongst other things) “I spent the weekend in Rome – and wow, the weather was fantastic”.
Now that you can do this, you are going to move on to expand what you can say through the use of additional “building blocks”.
The new building blocks you are going to learn will allow you to begin instantly expanding your range of expressions in the Italian language.
So far, some of the building blocks you have already learnt include:
You already know how to use these building blocks to construct a sentence. Once again, how would you say “I have spent the weekend in Rome”?
As