Unlocking Italian with Paul Noble: Your key to language success with the bestselling language coach
blocks below. Just have a glance over them and then I’ll show you how you’re going to add these into the mix of what you’ve learnt so far.
Okay, first things first: please don’t to try to memorise them. No, no, no! Instead, I simply want you to play with your building blocks. After all, that’s what building blocks are for, isn’t it?
The way you’re going to play with them is like this: on the next page, they have been put into four piles and all I want you to do is to make sentences with them. You’ll do this by using one building block from the first pile, one from the second, one from the third and one from the fourth.
You will find that you can say a lot of different things using them in this way and it’s up to you what sentences you make. The only thing I want you to make sure you do is to use every building block at least once. Also, please don’t bother writing down the sentences you make. Instead, say them out loud. Or, if you’re not in a place where you can do this, say them in your head. Now, off you go; make as many sentences as you can!
* Remember, of course, that “ho passato” means “I have spent”, “I spent” and “I did spend”. And this means, of course, that “ha passato” means “you have spent”, “you spent” and “you did spend”. And therefore “abbiamo passato” means not only “we have spent” but also “we spent” and “we did spend”. Don’t forget, you get three English past tenses for the price of one in Italian and this applies whether you’re saying “I…”, “you…”, “we…” or whatever.
The Checklist
You have now reached the final part of Chapter 1. Once you have finished this short section you will not only have completed your first chapter but you will also understand how this book works. All the other chapters follow the same pattern, with your Italian becoming ever more sophisticated as you complete each chapter.
The section you are now on will be the final part of each chapter and is what I call “The Checklist”. It involves nothing more than a read-through of a selection of words or expressions you have so far encountered.
You will actually see The Checklist twice. The first time you will see that the Italian words are written in black (on the left-hand side) and that the English words are written in green (on the right-hand side) – and you know what green means… cover up!
So, what I want you to do here is to cover up the English words (which are written in green on the right-hand side) while you read through the list of Italian words on the left. Read through them all, from the top of the list to the bottom, and see if you can recall what they mean in English (uncover one green word at a time to check if you’ve remembered the meaning correctly). If you can go through the entire list, giving the correct English meaning for each of the Italian words / expressions without making more than three mistakes in total, then you’re done. If not, then go through the list again. Keep doing this, either working from the top of the list to the bottom or from the bottom to the top (it doesn’t matter which) until you can do it without making more than three mistakes.
Got it? Then let’s go!
| il weekend (eel weekend) | the weekend |
| romantico (roe-man-teek-oh) | romantic |
| fantastico (fan-tass-teek-oh) | fantastic |
| politico (pol-ee-teek-oh) | political |
| illogico (ee-lodge-eek-oh) | illogical |
| Ho (o) | I have |
| visitato (visit-art-oh) | visited |
| Ho visitato (o visit-art-oh) | I have visited / I visited / I did visit |
| Roma (roam-er) | Rome |
| Napoli (nap-oh-lee) | Naples |
| Ho visitato Napoli. (o visit-art-oh nap-oh-lee) | I have visited Naples / I visited Naples / I did visit Naples. |
| passato (pass-art-oh) | spent |
| Ho passato (o pass-art-oh) | I have spent / I spent / I did spend |
| Ha (a) | You have |
| Ha passato (a pass-art-oh) | You have spent / You spent / You did spend |
| Abbiamo (ab-ee-arm-oh) | We have |
| Abbiamo passato (ab-ee-arm-oh pass-art-oh) | We have spent / We spent / We did spend |
| settembre (se-tem-bray) | September |
| il Natale (eel nat-arl-ay) | Christmas |
| a Roma (a roam-er) | in Rome |
| in Italia (een eet-al-yer) | in Italy |
| in Svizzera (een zvee-tser-er) | in Switzerland |
| Abbiamo passato il Natale in Svizzera. (ab-ee-arm-oh pass-art-oh eel nat-arl-ay een zvee-tser-er) | We spent Christmas in Switzerland. |
| Ha passato settembre in Italia. (a pass-art-oh se-tem-bray een eet-al-yer) | You spent September in Italy. |
| e (ay) | and |
| Era (air-ah) | It was |
| Era fantastico. (air-ah fan-tass-teek-oh) | It was fantastic. |
| Il tempo era fantastico. (eel tem-poe air-ah fan-tass-teek-oh) | The weather was fantastic. |
| 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) | I spent the weekend in Rome – and wow, the weather was fantastic. |
Finished working through that checklist and made fewer than three mistakes?Yes? Wonderful!
As that’s the case, what I now want you to do is repeat exactly the same process with the checklist below, except that this time you’ll be reading through the English and trying to recall the Italian. You’ll be doing it the other way around. Just relax and work your way up and down the list until you can give the correct Italian translation for each of the English words / expressions again without making more than three mistakes in total. It’s not a competition – and I’m not asking you to memorise them. Just look at the English words (on the left-hand side) while you cover up the green Italian words on the right-hand side and see if you can remember how to say them in Italian. You’ll be surprised by how many you get right, even on the first try.
Okay, off you go!
| the weekend | il weekend (eel weekend) |
| romantic | romantico (roe-man-teek-oh) |
| fantastic | fantastico (fan-tass-teek-oh) |
| political | politico (pol-ee-teek-oh) |
| illogical | illogico (ee-lodge-eek-oh) |
| I have | Ho (o) |
| visited | visitato (visit-art-oh) |
| I have visited / I visited / I did visit | Ho visitato (o visit-art-oh) |
| Rome | Roma (roam-er) |
| Naples | Napoli (nap-oh-lee) |
| I have visited Naples / I visited Naples / I did visit Naples. | Ho visitato Napoli. (o visit-art-oh nap-oh-lee) |
| spent | passato (pass-art-oh) |
| I
|