-> All about Italy and Italian language. Ask whatever you want! [ Check @sayitalianohome for links + replies and follows will be done from there. ]  

Ciao!!

I’m Elisa, here to share with you about my beautiful country: Italy. Feel free to ask or request about anything you want to know from grammar, translations (especially of songs), vocabularies’ lists, traditions, historical periods, culture, or simply to ask for help about any other endeavour or to practice some writing with me.
You can really ask for whatever you want. I will do my best to answer you as accurately as I can.
You can also share anything you want to share about your experience with Italian and Italy, if you have!

:)

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-> To support me and my work, you can buy me a ko-fi here. <-

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-> find all the links to navigate on this blog in the homepage top bar (tags section) + on @sayitalianohome (blog dedicated to links collections)

-> join me on @sayitalianolearns for my languages studies (atm Korean is my main focus but I am randomly practicing French and Spanish too. You may also find a few other languages posts here and there)

-> check instagram (@/sayitaliano) to see more posts about grammar and vocabularies (working on them right now).

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Anonymous:

Ciao, I have a few questions:

what is the difference between lesbica and lesbiche?

Also, if I wanted to list my pronouns (he/she/xe) in Italian, what would I say?

Which kinda a follow up- are there neopronouns in Italian?


grazie, buono giornata!

Ciao!

  1. lesbica = lesbian, singular; lesbiche = lesbians, plural
    I’m leaving you a few links about the lgbtq+ vocabulary, just in case you need: Lgbtqa Vocabulary | Lgbt+ | non binary (writing)
  2. for pronouns I suggest you to read here (and other posts in the grammar masterpost in the pronomi section, right after pronomi diretti/indiretti).
    Btw personal pronouns are:
    I = io,
    You = tu,
    He/She = egli/lui, ella/lei (there’s no specific agender pronoun as far as I know but check point n.3)
    We = noi
    You = voi
    They = essi/loro, esse/loro
    The pronouns I “deleted” are the ones taught in school for declaring verbs conjugations while studying, but not much used in common language.
    The fact that English provides the 2 forms pronouns (eg. they/them), doesn’t need to be applied in Italian too: you can simply write he=lui / she=lei / they=loro as necessary.
  3. Italian is a pretty gendered language, every noun has its gender to which you need to conjugate articles, adjectives and sometimes other parts of speech.
    Eg. you wrote “buono giornata”: that’s grammatically wrong cause “giornata” is a feminine word, so the adjective “buono” -masculine- is not correct; you should use “buona” -feminine- -> “buona giornata”.
    We’re still kinda behind with neopronouns, so when talking it gets a bit difficult. You can call a person by their name or be formal before asking how they rather be called (formal speech needs you to use a general “Lei”, which has nothing to do with the person’s gender despite seeming feminine -we recognize you’re being formal cause you need to use verbs at the 3rd singular person too); or you can use the noun “persona” = person. Persona is a feminine noun, but you can use it no matter the gender of the person you’re talking with cause it’s just the noun itself being feminine.
    When writing you can add an */u/ə/ä at the end of the noun, instead of the “gendering” vowel when it comes to other nouns/adjectives and so on: eg. sono alt* = I’m tall (no gender specified). You can try using “u” when talking too (eg. sono altu), I heard it once so… yeah, you can try. It really reminds me of Sardinia tbh (Regional stereotypes, sorry) but if it works… I’m no one to tell y'all otherwise.
    Not saying we’re not working on finding a solution, but it’s a tough research and translating from English, a language that has a different grammar from ours, is pretty impossible.
    I’ve been researching a bit online and I noticed that English neologisms are probably to be used in Italian as well so: “ze/hir”, “xe/xem”, “ey/em”, “ve/ver”… just go with what makes you feel better anyway. You can still explain what you mean if someone doesn’t get it (it doesn’t have to be a bad/rude person, it’s just that is something new for many of us, especially the elders, that are not so much online or informed about this kind of pronouns/changes).
    BTW you can try watching tonight’s show about the Diversity Media Awards, maybe you’ll get some more recent news on that matter too (IDK).

Hope this helps somehow, please feel free to ask for further infos if you need!

DMA - Diversity Media Awards 2023

Tonight (July 1st, 2023) on Raiuno at 11:55 PM GMT+2, right after the film now broadcasted, you can watch the DMA. These awards are given to those who bring a positive and healthy environment, promote equity and acceptance and bring a positive change in the matter of inclusivity.
To watch the event on Raiuno you’ll need an Italian vpn, but you can watch the replay on YT (on July 2nd, 2023 at 5PM GMT+2) as well by clicking here.

wikipedia | official website: diversitymediaawards.it

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Anonymous:

how to speak italian if you never know what to talk about when practicing :(

Tell about anything you like, or you don’t like.
Just tell yourself what are your plans for your day or talk with yourself… It may seem weird if you’re not used to but you can basically tell yourself about the actions you are making: “Ora mi alzo, mi lavo e faccio colazione, poi andrò a prendere il pane…”. For example. Or you can imagine sitting at your desk at night and writing your diary of the day.
Tell about a movie you have watched or are passionate about, about a video you’ve just seen (we spend hours on social medias very likely, so you can tell about that account on yt/ig/tiktok… you love for example or simply that specific funny video).
You can talk about your favorite holidays or vacation, how it went, where you went… Or the weirdest/most recent dream you had. Talk about anything past, present ot future, like your experience in school, the best/worst teacher or classmate, your bestie, your pet or what you dream to do next month or later… Talk about that celebrity you like, why you like them, describe them, what they do; or just your first crush or love interest or partner. Weather (I guess it’s the most comon and therefore kinda annoying at a certain point but still good), clothes, styles, cars, animals, nature…
There are actually so many things you can talk about: foods, family, emotions… you can choose a topic each day/week and search for vocabs and things to say.

And guess what!
Any of these really need to be real things or what you really want to do/think if talking about yourself makes you uncomfortable and you only need to practice and not knowing the other person (eg. you are in school/course or writing stuff/recording yourself talking): you can just invent stuff. Or search for the weirdest/strangest expression to use and put it in a sentence or try to make a text about it, on why you like it, where you read/listened to it. You can ask questions too, about the other. where is this place, how can you reach that other place (you agan can make up stuff/just pretend you need infos).
Your favorite song/artist. Tell their message, why you like it/them.
Or choose a random pic and talk about it: describe it, and then try to go a little more deeper, according on your knowledge of Italian (or any other language you’re learning -I’m trying to do all this as well)

There are many other samples/ideas you can find in the study-post on @sayitalianohome, hope this gives you something to ponder about.
You can make 30 days list and put a topic/thing to do for each day to repeat each month or simply try if it may work for you as a way to pratice

japanwords:

rlouhitar:

I’d like to direct anyone who is learning, or might want to learn a language to Refold. It is a free resource that has been an invaluable tool for me that covers how to learn languages and gives you a nice roadmap to follow. The more popular languages even have a roadmap tailored to them.

Not heard of this before; could be interesting.

Same. Haven’t checked it but sharing (and taking note)