In this video you learn new Italian vocabulary.

You will see a miniature kitchen and I will tell you what each part is called in Italian. It's a fun little exercise that you can do also in your kitchen so that you can remember all the different words! 

Have fun! Subscribe to my channel for more!

NEW PRONUNCIATION CHALLENGE!!!

With this video I want to challenge you to say correctly TEN extra tricky Italian words that are commonly mispronounced by Italian learners.

I will focus on words that deal with food and drinks… so this is the “commonly mispronounced words… FOOD EDITION” you will review with me 10 words that are commonly mispronounced!

Here are the words:

1. Mozzarella
2. Bolognese
3. Calzone
4. Biscotti
5. Ravioli
6. Risotto
7. Linguine
8. Margherita
9. Gelato
10. Minestrone

There is also another video similar to this one... check it out now!

Commonly Mispronounced Italian Food Words - Part 1

Subscribe to my channel for fun videos and learn Italian with me!

With this video I want to challenge you to say correctly some tricky Italian words that are commonly mispronounced by Italian learners.

I will focus on words that deal with food and drinks… so this is the “commonly mispronounced words… FOOD EDITION” you will review with me 10 words that are commonly mispronounced!

Here are the words:

1. Pistacchio
2. Bruschetta
3. Prosciutto
4. Spaghetti
5. Caffè macchiato
6. Salame
7. Gnocchi
8. Caffè schiumato
9. Arancini
10. Espresso

More words in future videos! Subscribe to my channel for fun videos and learn Italian with me!

Today I want to talk about some Italian words that change meaning with the change of one single letter! Sometimes this is due to the doubling up of a consonant or sometimes a change in a vowel creates a whole new different word.

Keep in mind that there are a LOT of these words! I’m going to list a few of them so that you can begin to remember them and use them correctly.

I will start off with the ones that change with the doubling up of a consonant sound… I will list the most common ones… you will see the word on the screen and you will also see the translation. If you wish to you can stop the video each time you hear me say the word so that you can practice saying it with me!

Ok… if you are ready let’s begin with the words:

1. ROSA (pink) - ROSSA (red)
2. POLO (polo t-shirt) - POLLO (chicken)
3. NOTE (music notes) - NOTTE (night)
4. SERA (evening) - SERRA (greenhouse)
5. NONO (ninth number) - NONNO (grandpa)
6. CANE (dog) - CANNE (canes)
7. CASA (house) - CASSA...

In this new video I wanted to give you an extra exercise to have you practice a little bit more the  tricky CH sound that many of you have difficulty reading and writing out when you hear it. Towards the end of this video I have created a fun exercise… so check it out and practice with me!

If you have Italian origins you might easily have a last name that ends with a CHI… just like mine… my last name is MACCHI and the pronunciation is MACCHI not MACCI…

So maybe your last name is BIANCHI or MARCHI… I have met a lot of Italian Americans with this last name and I have to tell you that unfortunately you have been mispronouncing your name! Yup sorry guys! It is not Bianci (soft ci) or Marci (soft ci)… but the Italian pronunciation is BIANCHI or MARCHI with a strong hard K sound.

If you have a friend with this last name share the video with them… let see what they say! :)

There is another video on my channel with a super detailed...

Tongue twisters (scioglilingua in Italian) are actually a good method to practice repeating different and new sounds. In this video I will show you 5 of them! Have fun and try to repeat them as fast as possible! Let me know how it goes!

Here is the transcription of the tongue twisters!

1. Tre tigri contro tre tigri. Trentatré trentini entrarono a Trento tutti e trentatré trotterellando.
2. Apelle figlio d’Apollo fece una palla di pelle di pollo e tutti i pesci vennero a galla per vedere la palla di pelle di pollo fatta da Apelle figlio di Apollo.
3. Dietro il palazzo c’è un povero cane pazzo, date un pezzo di pane al povero pazzo cane.
4. Li vuoi quei kiwi? E se non vuoi quei kiwi che kiwi vuoi?
5. Al pozzo dei pazzi una pazza lavava le pezze. Andò un pazzo e buttò la pazza con tutte le pezze nel pozzo dei pazzi.

Italian nouns change according to gender and number and sometimes it is not easy to remember how to correctly write them out or pronounce them! 

In this video you will have some easy "basic" information on Italian nouns and their gender.

The general rule is that all the masculine names will end with an O

• amico
• libro
• tavolo
• telefono
• video

and the femminine names will end with an A

• amica
• aula
• bottiglia
• porta
• bocca

You can also have nouns that end with the vowel E.

In this case they can be either masculine or femminine:

For example:

• pallone (M)
• lezione (F)
• canzone (F)
• giornale (M)

You can also have nouns that end with a consonant and these are usually masculine:

• Bar
• Sport
• Yacht
• Yogurt

 Now.. let’s look at some exceptions:

you can have some masculine nouns that end with E but they can have a femminine version that ends either with an A or with ESSA

Example:

• Il signore - la signora
• lo studente - la studentessa

Some masculine names that end with -...

"Gnomo, gnocchi, stagno, lasagne, cognome... oh mamma mia!"

Yes, even if in last week's post I talked about the fact that Italian is a phonetically spelled language I immediately have to warn you about a difficult exception... and I'm talking about the "gn" sound in Italian.

Why is this sound so complicated?

If we think of English we do have those letters together in many words... and trust me they are quite difficult also for us Italians to correctly pronounce... think of these words:

• pregnant (/ˈprɛɡnənt/)
• sign (/sʌɪn/)
• campaign (/kamˈpeɪn/)

You are actually pronouncing "GN" in 3 different ways! So it is quite normal for us Italians to not be able to pronounce them correctly and it is obviously hard for all English speakers to want to pronounce the "Italian gn" them in one of those 3 ways! Usually English speakers tend to pronounce the Italian "gn" like the English word "pregnant".

The best way to learn and to pronounce correctly the Italian "gn" sound is to listen to it as...