ItalianItalianoOverviewReviewPracticePhrasebook
Italian/Week 2

Personal information: name, age, family, where you live

Your own life, in Italian. Everything this week should be true about you.

Colours live this week

6 of 10 in play
Noun

A thing, a person or a place.

Verb

An action or a state — what is happening.

Pronoun

Stands in for a noun — I, you, he, it.

Articlenew

the / a / some — and possessives like mon, ma.

Prepositionnew

Links words together — to, in, of, for.

Fixed chunk

Learn it whole. Do not take it apart.

Articles arrive as grey, carrying gender through bold and slanted. Conjunctions like e stay plain until Week 4.

About you and your family

  • Mi chiamo…My name is…
    Mi chiamo David.My name is David.
  • Sono di…I'm from…
    Sono di Londra.I'm from London.
  • Abito a…I live in…
    Abito a Wateringbury.I live in Wateringbury.

    A before a town, in before a country — abito in Inghilterra.

  • Ho … anniI am … years old
    Ho sessanta anni.I am sixty years old.

    Literally I have sixty years — the same idea as French.

  • un figlioa son
    Ho un figlio.I have a son.
  • una figliaa daughter
    Ho due figlie.I have two daughters.
  • un maritoa husband
  • una mogliea wife

    Unlike French femme and Spanish mujer, Italian keeps wife and woman separate — donna is a woman.

  • un nipote / una nipotea grandson / a granddaughter

    One word doing four jobs — it also means nephew and niece. The article is your only clue.

  • la famigliathe family
    la mia famigliamy family

    Italian keeps the article in front of the possessive — literally the my family.

  • un amico / un' amicaa friend (m / f)
  • il lavorowork
    Lavoro a casa.I work at home.
  • [in pensione]retired
    Sono [in pensione].I am retired.

    A fixed chunk. Worth having ready — it comes up constantly.

The article that comes with the possessive

Italian says la mia famiglia, il mio libro — the article stays. That looks redundant to an English speaker and it is not optional. The one place it drops is single family members: mia madre, mio figlio, with no article. Both the article and the possessive carry the gender style, so a feminine noun gives you three slanted words in a row — which is exactly the redundancy the system is built on.

Sentence frames

  1. 1

    Mi chiamo name e abito a place.

    I'm ___ and I live in ___.

  2. 2

    Ho number anni e sono [in pensione].

    I'm ___ and I'm retired.

  3. 3

    Ho un figlio / due figlie e number nipoti.

    I have ___ and ___ grandchildren.

Daily mini-tasks

Listening this week

LearnAmo — introducing yourself

YouTube

Clear, energetic, and entirely in Italian with subtitles. Find the video on presentarsi.