Play
"The Name Game"

Discover the Italian you already know

One of the essential elements of the Accelerated Learning foreign language systems is the "Name Game" which quickly shows you that you already know many more words of Italian than you thought you knew.

It challenges you to work out for yourself (with a little help) the many ways in which Italian and English are similar: they both have common roots.

Understanding the similarities is a tremendous motivator because you come to realize that there are thousands of Italian words you can immediately identify through just a few simple principles.

For example, if you spoke no Italian whatsoever you would still almost certainly be able to translate the following sentence:

Il deserto è arido. = The desert is arid.

and

La caverna è umida. = The cave is humid (damp).

---

Many Italian words are very similar to their English equivalents. Look at these Italian words. Can you guess the English word?

passaporto studente professione vegetariano occasione idea importante necessario

continuare traffico telefonare elegante cinema hotel intelligente monumento

By gradually working through plenty of examples you are not only learning a lot of vocabulary very quickly, but you are also building up a mental picture of how Italian is constructed.

Here´s how you can recognize thousands of Italian words at a glance through applying some very simple principles.

If the Italian word ends in –zione, its equivalent is –tion.

nazione associazione condizione abbreviazione

nation association condition abbreviation

If it ends in –tá, its equivalent is –ty.

velocitá libertá crueltá cittá

velocity liberty cruelty city

There are many, many more.

---

Here's another tip from Name Game #1

 

If to love is And I love is And to sing is What is I sing? ANSWER

amare amo cantare canto

SO...

vendere = to sell dividere = to divide fumare = to smoke

I sell = vendo I divide = divido I smoke = fumo

 

You're on your way to learning Italian!