How difficult is Italian?

Question

I'm thinkin of taking up a beginners Italian course, but how difficult is it to learn the lingo??

Answer 1

i'm italian!if u need some help i can give u =]...and yes it's a difficult language...

Answer 2

do you speak Spanish, French of Portuguese?  They are all "Romance languages, primarily based on Latin, and about as easy to learn.

Answer 3

depends how fast you get it. ive been taking italian since the sixth grade. pay attention and really focus. it's pretty easy once you get the hang of it. :)

Answer 4

it is very easy but very fast

Answer 5

Must be very easy.

I was in Italy for my holidays and there were little kids there about 2 years old all speaking it easily. If they can learn it in 2 years (less in fact because you don't talk when your a babe in arms) it must be a real doddle

Answer 6

About the same as spanish, portuguese, and french.

Answer 7

No not really as it is really flowing and a lot of words are the same as english but with an o on the end!!!

Answer 8

La lingua Italiana può essere analizzata sotto vari aspetti: fonetico, morfologico, sintattico. Ebbene, se il primo può risultare semplice (lettura praticamente uguale alla scrittura), il secondo e il terzo sono estremamente vari, complessi, particolari. Inutile dire che l'italiano ha ereditato il patrimonio morfo-sintattico del latino, già corposo, unendolo ad influssi esterni quali invasioni barbariche o dominazioni che hanno frammentato l'aspetto geolinguistico del nostro paese.

Concludendo, la lingua italiana è difficile per diverse ragioni: 1) numerosissime regole grammaticali; 2) altissima presenza di verbi difettivi o particolari; 3) sintassi che prevede coniugazioni verbali nei vari "modi" della lingua. Naturalmente, se hai studiato una lingua romanza (spagnolo, francese, rumeno), il carico di lavoro sarà di molto inferiore.

Volere è potere. Buona fortuna!

The Italian Language can be analysed in three different ways: phonetics, morphology and syntax. Well, if phonetics is simple (you read as you write), morphology and syntax are extremely varied, complicated, particular. It's unnecessary to say that Italian inherited the latin morpho-syntactical difficulties, and that it met external influences- such as barbarian invasions or dominations that split Italy into different geo-linguistic realities.

Finally, the Italian language is difficult because: 1) there are many grammatical rules; 2) the 60% of the most used verbs are irregular or defective; 3) there is a really problematic syntax. Naturally, if you have already studied a Romance Language, your course will be less hard.

If you want it, you can do it! Good luck!

Answer 9

I hear that it's easier if you also know Spanish

Answer 10

Yeh its just like spanish or french, if you know english its very similar

Answer 11

It's very very hard. And I am Italian! Well, Italian verbs are difficult, some Italian people can't conjugate Conjunctive verbs! And there are a lot of words who are unknown even for me! You must work very hard if you want to learn Italian.

Answer 12

I don't speak it well, far from it, but I managed to learn the basics pretty quickly and didn't find it that difficult. I had studied Latin, maybe that helped.

Answer 13

Hello,

It is not as hard the only problem is it with every language you have to be motivated and dedicated.

Bye

Answer 14

Try saying "My nephew and my grandson are sitting together" in Italian. (Italian has the same word for both)

Chekazzo..OK then...

How would this differ from "my nephews are sitting together" and " my grandsons are sitting together".

How could you tell which of these sentences you mean?

Answer 15

my grandson and my nephew are sitting together?  miei nepoti sono seduti insieme?

hi, i'm a native italian speaker and i think it's as easy for an american to learn it as an italian to learn english.

of course knowing other similar languages will help. for ex, if you know spanish it can help you with the pronunciation. spanish and italian don't have the exact same pronunciations persè, although vowels are pronunced exactly the same but some consonent groupings (c + i or e, ch + i or e, qu + i o e, gh + i or e, sci, sce, gn) are pronounced COMPLETELY different. and if you know french, you will be able to decode more vocabulary. i speak all three, and even though italian has many vocab similarities with spanish, i think french and italian have more in common. words for head, more, cousin, table, together, to eat, cheese, to search, to find, to watch, too much, need, day, morning, evening, tomorrow, brother, sister, to want, again, butter, face, etc. in italian are similar to the french versions and COMPLETELY different in spanish.  italian and french share 89% lexical similarity and spanish and italian - 82%. so all are similar but french and italian a little more so.

Answer 16

Hi..Well, Italian language is a bit difficult, but not impossible to learn.

If you ever have learnt Latin or other similar languages, such as French and Spanish, it' easier to learn it. This helps you. The hardest part of Italian language is the grammar, sometimes too much complicated! Italians have problems, too! But Italian is easy when you read it, for example: you read the words as you write them.

In spite of difficulties, it's a so wonderful language!

Good luck!

Answer 17

I've been learning italian at school for like 3 years now.

The older you are the harder it is really.

Pronunciation is not much of a problem but the words are quite complex since you have to change the endings of nearly every other word if its masculine or feminine and so on. You could give a try and see if you like it i suppose.

Answer 18

I don't think there's any language that's really easy to learn. Each takes time and practice. I picked up some knowledge by listening to

Andrea Bocelli and then I took a course at school.  

Answer 19

well for starters women and men have to speak differently.

dont think you can pick it up straight away its not an easy language takes alot of practice. There are plently of CDs and tapes you can buy to help you too.

Answer 20

As i found the grammar quite structured and clear, it hasn't been too difficult to learn, after a couple of lessons one is able to make a little conversation. Once you get an ear for the language it becomes even much easier to understand (although it's seems that the italians don't breathe while speaking!!!)