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Grammar guides
Italian grammar
Short explanations of how Italian works, from sounds to the small words, each with plenty of examples.
Sounds
How the letters sound, before you say a word.
- The Italian alphabet Italian uses 21 letters, plus five foreign ones for borrowed words. Learn the letter names, the silent h, and how Italians spell words aloud with city names.
- Italian letter sounds Italian is spelled the way it sounds. Learn the few letter combinations that work differently from English, such as ci, che, gli, gn and sc.
- Double letter sounds Double consonants are held longer in Italian, and they can change a word's meaning. Learn how to say them, plus how to read two vowels in a row.
The basics
Gender, nouns, articles, adjectives and verbs.
- Italian word order Italian word order is close to English, with a few key differences. Learn where subjects, adjectives, adverbs, object pronouns and question words go.
- Gender Every Italian noun is masculine or feminine, and the articles and adjectives around it change to match. Learn how to spot a noun's gender and how agreement works.
- Nouns Italian nouns are masculine or feminine and usually change their last vowel in the plural. Learn the regular plural endings, the spelling changes, and the common irregular plurals.
- Articles Italian articles change with the gender and number of the noun, and with the sound it starts with. Learn il, lo, la, l', i, gli, le, and un, uno, una, un'.
- Adjectives Italian adjectives match their noun in gender and number, and they usually come after it. Learn the endings, the spelling changes, buono and bello, and how to form words like altissimo and lentamente.
- Verbs Italian verbs change their endings to show who is acting and when. Learn the regular endings for -are, -ere and -ire verbs in the four tenses the app teaches, when the past uses essere instead of avere, and how mi piace works.
Small words
The little words that hold every sentence together.
- This, that, these, those Questo means "this" and quello means "that". Both change to match the noun, and quello changes its ending the same way the article "the" does.
- Here, there Say where things are with qui, qua, lì and là, point things out with ecco, and say what exists with c'è and ci sono.
- Pronouns Pronouns replace nouns. Learn the Italian words for I, me, to me, myself and mine, and where object pronouns go in the sentence.
- Possessives Say my, your, his and mine in Italian. Possessives match the thing owned, usually come with the article, and drop it with most family members.
- Prepositions The small words a, di, da, in, su, con, per and tra link words together. Learn what each one does and how it joins with "the" to make words like del, nella and sul.
- Question words Who, what, where, when, why, how, how much and which in Italian, and how to build a question around them.
- Some, few, and none Talk about amounts you don't count exactly with qualche, alcuni, del, poco, nessuno and niente.
Put the grammar to work
1000 Words Academy teaches the Italian words you’ll use most, in order, and brings each one back just before you’d forget it.
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