Week #007 Review, Tuesday

The seven ways to say 'the' are il, lo, l', la, i, gli, and le. Now here are the rules for deciding which of these forms to use.

il = will precede masculine singular nouns that begin with a consonant, except words beginning with ps, pn, gn, z and s followed by a consonant.

il libro = the book

il ragazzo = the boy

lo = will precede masculine singular nouns that begin with ps, pn, gn, z and s followed by a consonant.

lo specchio = the mirror

lo studente = the student

l' = will precede all masculine and feminine singular nouns beginning with a vowel.

l'amico = the friend

l'acqua = the water

la = will precede all feminine singular nouns beginning with a consonant.

la donna = the woman

la ragazza = the girl

i = is the plural form of il.

i libri = the books

i ragazzi = the boys

gli = is the plural form of lo and l' for masculine plural nouns.

gli specchi = the mirrors

gli amici = the friends

le = is the plural form of both la and l' for feminine plural nouns.

le donne = the women

le acque = the waters

parlare = to speak

cantare = to sing

mangiare = to eat

studiare = to study

giocare = to play

pensare = to think

comprare = to buy

imparare = to learn

amare = to love

Then to conjugate the infinitive, you will drop the 'are' and add the following endings:

io = add 'o'

tu = add 'i'

Lei/lui/lei = add 'a'

noi = add 'iamo'

voi = add 'ate'

loro = add 'ano'

So, for example, here is how to conjugate the verb 'cantare.'

cantare = to sing

io canto = I sing

tu canti = you sing

Lei/lui/lei canta = you/he/she sings

noi cantiamo = we sing

voi cantate = you sing

loro cantano = they sing

Lui mangia la pizza. = He eats the pizza.

Noi mangiamo la pasta. = We eat the pasta.

Loro mangiano gli spaghetti. = They eat the spaghetti.

Io studio il libro. = I study the book.

Lei studia l'italiano. = She studies Italian.

Antonio ama Claudia. = Antonio loves Claudia.

Gli amici giocano il calcio. = The friends play soccer.

To ask a question in Italian, you just say the sentence with a questioning inflection at the end of the sentence.

Tu parli l'italiano. = You speak Italian

Tu parli l'italiano? = Do you speak Italian?

Another short cut you can do in Italian, is you can drop the pronoun entirely because the verb changes for every pronoun. For example, you can say

Io compro il pane. = I buy the bread

Or you can drop the 'io' and just say

Compro il pane. = I buy the bread. Because the word 'compro' is only used with 'io,' you can drop the 'io' and it is apparent that you mean 'I buy.'

lettera = letter

discorso = speech

stanza = room

lezione = lesson

giornale = newspaper

lingua = language, tongue

ogni = every

sempre = always

oggi = today

ieri = yesterday

domani = tomorrow

dopodomani = day after tomorrow

per = for

se = if

scrivere = to write

leggere = to read

credere = to believe

vedere = to see

Then to conjugate these infinitives, you will drop the 'ere' and add the following endings:

io = add 'o'

tu = add 'i'

Lei/lui/lei = add 'e'

noi = add 'iamo'

voi = add 'ete'

loro = add 'ono'

So to conjugate the verb 'scrivere':

io scrivo

tu scrivi

Lei/lui/lei scrive

noi scriviamo

voi scrivete

loro scrivono

Noi leggiamo il discorso. = We read the speech.

Io leggo il giornale. = I read the newspaper.

Susana vede la casa. = Susana saw the house.

Loro credono la lezione = They believed the lesson.