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Old April 24, 2008, 01:06 AM
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Rusty Rusty is offline
Señor Speedy
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: USA
Posts: 11,299
Native Language: American English
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Italian is very similar to Spanish in some ways. But, after all is said and done, it is still a foreign language.
They have different spelling rules, phonemes, and vocabulary.
On a positive note, they have nearly identical grammar rules, as far as nouns having gender and agreement with adjectives, but the word endings are different (more complex). Verb conjugation is a little more complicated than Spanish. And, yes, they have reflexive verbs.
The passive voice is similar to the English and Spanish constructs. It looks like both Spanish and Italian try to avoid using it under similar circumstances. For your amusement, I've written a sentence in English, Spanish and Italian below. Note how the passive 'it isn't understood' appearing in the English sentence is replaced with the '(someone) doesn't understand' reflexive construct in both of the Romance languages.

English: It isn't understood if he is lying to her or to himself.
Spanish: No se entiende si él le miente a ella o a si mismo.
Italian: Non si capisce se lui sta mentendo a lei o ai suoi.

As a reading comparison aide only, substitute 'está mintiendo' where 'le miente' appears in the Spanish translation.


With some effort (and some serious study of the Italian language), you and an Italian could communicate with each other using respective tongues. In most instances, the flow of the language will make perfect sense. The real difference is the vocabulary.

Last edited by Rusty; April 24, 2008 at 07:56 AM.
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