[Italian] Learning Italian if you already speak Spanish

[johnscarbi]

What are some techniques to learn Italian if you already speak Spanish?

[JPablo]

I don't know any 'techniques', but if you level of Spanish is good or very good, learning Italian is a piece of cake...

I.e., I never studied Italian in a formal manner, yet I understand it rather well, and can speak it...

[Cavera]

No estoy muy seguro de lo que estoy hablando porque no tengo mucha experiencia con italiano, pero si las dos lenguas son parecidas entonces ustedes ya sabe gran cosa del vocabulario y de la gramática. Creo que usted puedes evitar las clases básicas e ir directamente para la conversación, ver películas y otras actividades menos aburridas. Nuevas palabras y fluencia van entrar en su cabeza naturalmente.

Ah. Creo que también será útil comprar un libro de falsos amigos (italiano x español).

[donmanual]

Recently, I tried to watch tv show in Italian and I should admit that I could understand half of it. Even I've never studied Italian.

[pinosilano]

• Originally Posted by Cavera

  Ah. Creo que también será útil comprar un libro de falsos amigos (italiano x español).

Di vitale importanza!

[JPablo]

Certainly!
Burro = butter (Italian)
Burro = donkey (Spanish)

[pinosilano]

Las 'dobles consonantes' saber pronunciar exactamente, si no:
casa = house
cassa = box

[Villa]

Originally Posted by johnscarbi

What are some techniques to learn Italian if you already speak Spanish?

Hola/Ciao John. I am in my 7th year of teaching Italian to adults. I was a high school Spanish teacher for over 30 years. Most of my Italian students now are Spanish speakers and they learn Italian rapido. Spanish and Italian have the same vowel sounds. Italian speakers roll their "Rs" like in Spanish. Italian gn=Spanish ñ. Spanish and Italian letters t and d are pronounced the same.
Ti amo=Te amo. So when it's te in Spanish it is ti in Italian. When it is me in Spanish it is mi in Italian. Me gusta= Mi piace. otro=altro
70+% of Spanish is the same as Italian. You only have to learn the words that are different which are much fewer than going from English to Italian.

In many cases the Italian and Spanish words for something are very similar. In fact there are some simple rules for converting one to the other which work in many cases:

• Almost all words in Italian end in a vowel, whereas many Spanish words do not. Compare giardino/jardín, partire/partir, migliore/mejor.
• Italian 'o' or 'uo' often becomes 'ue' in Spanish when the syllable is stressed. E.g. morto/muerto, posto/puesto.
• Italian 'e' often becomes 'ie' in Spanish when the syllable is stressed. E.g. concerto/concierto, tempo/tiempo.
• Italian 'f' often becomes 'h' in Spanish when at the start of a word. E.g. fumo/humo, figlio/hijo.
• Italian voiceless consonants 'c' and 't' often become voiced ('g' and 'd' respectively) in Spanish. E.g. amico/amigo, colpo/golpe, pietra/piedra, potere/poder.
• Italian 'sc', 'sf', 'sp' and 'st' often become 'esc, 'esf', 'esp' and 'est' in Spanish, when at the start of a word. E.g. scrivere/escribir, sforzo/esfuerzo, speciale/especial, studente/estudiante.
• The Italian suffixes '-tà' '-tù' and '-zione' become '-dad', '-tud' and '-ción' in Spanish. E.g. università/universidad, virtù/virtud, informazione/información.

Armed with this knowledge, you can easily learn the following pairs, which involve the 'o' to 'ue' rule: l'accordo/el acuerdo, il collo/el cuello, il conto/la cuenta, la corda/la cuerda, il corno/el cuerno, il corpo/el cuerpo, il fuoco/el fuego, il mobile/el mueble, la mostra/la muestra, la noce/la nuez, la porta/la puerta, il porto/el puerto, la risposta/la respuesta, il racconto/el cuento, l'ospite/el huésped, l'osso/el hueso, lo sconto/el discuento, il posto/el puesto, l'uovo/el huevo, il volo/el vuelo, buono/bueno, forte/fuerte, morto/muerto, nostro/nuestro, nuovo/nuevo, fuori/fuera, dopo/después.
And these ones, which involve the 'e' to 'ie' rule:
il cervo/el ciervo, il concerto/el concierto, il dente/el diente, la febbre/la fiebre, la festa/la fiesta, il governo/el gobierno, l'inverno/el invierno, la nebbia/la niebla, la pelle/la piel, il tempo/el tiempo, il vento/el viento, mentre/mientras, bene/bien, aperto/abierto, sempre/siempre, vecchio/viejo.
And these ones, which involve the initial 'f' rule:
la farina/la harina, la fata/el hada, il fegato/el hígado, il ferro/el hierro, il fico/el higo, il figlio/el hijo, il filo/el hilo, la foglia/la hoja, il fondo/el hondo, la formica/la hormiga, il forno/el horno, il fumo/el humo, fare/hacer, ferire/herir.

This is something I wrote a few years ago:

Oh mio Dio! Oh Dios mio! Come sta? Como esta? Come va? Como va? Bene. Bien. Benvenuto. Bienvenido.
La mia casa è grande. La mia casa es grande. Grande=grande
This is without a double my favorite subject. Mi diverto! Me divierto!

Spanish and Italian compared:

1. GN=exactly Spanish Ñ as in Español. This Ñ sound of the Spanish
language is probably the sound that most represents the Spanish language and Italian has this sound with GN.
The Italian word montagna sounds just like the Spanish word montaña meaning mountain.

2.Probablemente even more importante is the fact that Italian and Spanish both have the exact same vowel sounds.
a e i o u - ah eh e oh oo
French does not have these same Italian and Spanish vowel sounds.

3. Also importante as the GN=Ñ Italian Spanish connection is the fact that the Italian letters T and D
are pronounced the same in both languages.

5. Then in Italian and Spanish you roll your letter R the same. Roma, arriverderci, guerra, Roberto
This rolling of the letter R and all the above examples make Italian and Spanish pronunciation much closer than French
and Italian although both Italian and Spanish are related to French and all the other Latin based languages.

6. Most of the rest of the Italian consonants go along with Spanish consonants sounds.
So a Spanish speaker has little to learn compared to an English speaker learning Italian.

Qui/aqui/here is just a small lista of Italian phrases that any Spanish speaker can recognize.

A proposito.
Vale la pena.
Non vale la pena.
la casa
una casa
una casa grande
la casa grande
la mano
Quanto le devo?
Ti amo.
Ti amo tanto.
Ti amo tanto tesoro.
la libreria
la biblioteca
il supermercato
Dammi un bacio, tesoro.
arte
musica
la terra
nord
Atlantico
Pacifico
Artico
Antartico
disponibile
secondo
telefono
ora
caffe
tempo
sempre
va
agente
animale
attenzione
attore
azione
capitale
caso
centrale
centro
cereale
chitara
colore
differente
festa
gererale
generoso
importante
interessante
locale
materiale
nazione
necesssario
originale
personale
possibile
probabile
radio
regolare
ristorante
semplice
simile
teatro
totale

Could go on all day with this list of words that are similar in Italian and Spanish.

My God even an English only speaker can learn Italian now just imagine how
easy it is for a Spanish speaker to learn Italian.

[JPablo]

Wow, you said it.

Just one thing/correction, on this example,
La mia casa è grande. La mia casa es grande.

In Spanish it would be "Mi casa es grande"... ¿Qué casa es grande? -La mía.

[Suavemente]

Villa.... Your post is golden. Thanks for the in-depth analysis.

[Villa]

Originally Posted by Suavemente

Villa.... Your post is golden. Thanks for the in-depth analysis.

Grazie Suavemente. Me encanta tu nombre, a proposito/BTW.

Quando cammino per le strade d'Italia penso spesso/frequentemente che se stanno parlando lo spagnolo o l'italiano.

Cuando camino por las calles de Italia pienso a menudo/frecuentemente si están hablando el español o el italiano.

When I walk the streets of Italy I often/frequently think if they are speaking Spanish or Italian.

La lingua spagnola e la lingua italiana sono fratelli/sorelle. Entrambi provengono dalla stessa madre.
La loro madre è la lingua latina. Tu parli l'italiano, Suavemente?

La lengua italiana y la lengua española son hermanos/hermanas. Ambos proceden de la misma madre.
Su madre es la lengua latina. ¿Hablas italiano, Suavemente?

[poli]

I notice, that in Italian, often the accented syllable is the one third to the last. Is there a rule about this? Should I assume that in most multi-syllabic Italian words that the third-to-the-last syllable is the one that gets the accent?

[Villa]

Originally Posted by poli

I notice, that in Italian, often the accented syllable is the one third to the last. Is there a rule about this? Should I assume that in most multi-syllabic Italian words that the third-to-the-last syllable is the one that gets the accent?

No, poli. Lo stress in parole italiane di solito cade sul secondo-a-ultimo sillaba. Lo stesso che con le parole spagnole.

The stress in Italian words usually falls on the second-to-last syllable. The same as with Spanish words.

Esempio/Eemplos: casa CA-sa forma FOR-ma, evento e-VEN-to, persona per-SON-na artista ar-TIS-ta, monumento mon-nu-MEN-to, guida GUI-da, domani do-MA-ni, pro-BLE-ma, Marco MAR-co, bambino bam-BI-no etc. etc.

Take a look at an Italian book, magazine or anything written in Italian and you will se that most Italian words like Spanish words have the spoken accent on the second-to-last syllable.
So you can see amico that most Italian words follow the same stress pattern as Spanish.

Now check this out. Are these Italian or Spanish words:
telefono, numero, rapido, America, epoca, palido, parrafo, animo, catalogo,
matematico, lampara, dentifrico, decimo, idolo, fabrica...

These esdrújulas words or words with the stress on the third to the last syllable in Italian do not take a written accent but are spoken with the same stressed syllable as in Spanish. ¡Imagínese!

número, teléfono, rápido, América, época, pálido, párrafo, catálogo, ánimo,
matemático lámpara, dentífrico, décimo, ídolo, fábrica ...

With written Spanish words that have the stress on the third to the last syllable you get
a written accent. (teléfono) Same word as in Italian but it is not written with an accent.
Seems Spanish is better in that sense.

As for Italian words with the stress on the fourth to the last syllable it is about the
same number in Spanish.

dígamelo, enséñamelo, llévatelo, cuénteselo, muéstremela, devuélvamelo, mándenselas...