Buondì.
Is Italian hard to read?
Well, it can be.
In certain registers (legal style, the more pompous newspapers) it can seem as if writers are intentionally minimising the chances of their readers getting any idea of the content of the articles, instead prioritising the self-serving, show-offy message:
‘Look at how well I can write! See? I’m better than you!’
But even in stuck up, mostly unreadable, newspapers, there are still often phrases which, IF YOU ARE WILLING TO ACTUALLY READ THEM, should present zero difficulty.
Here are a few I noted down while reading ‘La corriere della sera’ on the app my local library kindly makes available for free:
- la questione è seria
- ho passato il test
- l’odissea della dissidente russa
- costi economici, umani e sociali
- la crisi demografica
- una pluralità di azioni
- numeri drammatici
- 7 milioni di persone hanno problemi
- la protezione civile
- promette totale collaborazione
- preferisce non commentare
- un dialogo costruttivo
- a livello nazionale
- hanno investito costantemente
- una struttura pubblica
- abuso di ufficio
- scuole elementari
Excuse any spelling errors, which will be mine, not the Corriere’s. I’m particularly bad at double letters, for instance. In English too, but the pattern in Italian can vary, for instance with ‘pubblica’ and ‘milioni’.
If you glance through Italian newspapers, or otherwise read in Italian, you can’t avoid being exposed to the way Italian is.
I mentioned ‘false friends’ in recent articles, but there are also thousands of borrowed words, and the bloody double letters.
In Bologna, where I live, there’s been a row about noise from the night flights to and from our international airport. So, in Corriere’s Bologna edition, I came across the phrase:
‘lo stop ai voli notturni’
‘Stop’ gives you an in at least, ‘notturni’ could be nocturnal perhaps, and even if you’ve no idea about ‘voli’, so end up with just
‘the stop to nocturnal(?) voli’
well… the accompanying picture of an airplane against a starry sky might help.
‘Volo’ = flight
There, just by glancing at the headlines you learnt something.
And for those who couldn’t give a damn about the grammar (like me), you’re at least exposed to it, which over time makes it familiar, and eventually helps you assimilate it, and begin to use it.
Badly in my case, but I don’t care.
‘Lo stop’, not ‘Il stop’? – you might be wondering, if you’re grammar-inclined.
There’s a rule, of course. Italian has millions of them. Italy doesn’t produce many babies, but is world-class at generating complexity. Personally, I think there has to be a connection…
You could look up the rule in a grammar book. But really, who cares? Just turn the page for plenty more ‘exposure’ to Italian articles (and other exciting grammar stuff!)
Just in my list above, for instance, we see ‘la questione’, ‘il test’, ‘l’odissea’, ‘la dissidente’, ‘la crisi’, and ‘la protezione’, so three different singular forms, in addition to ‘lo stop’.
Keep reading and you’ll come across plurals, too, and if you’re lucky they’ll be paired up with borrowed or guessable words that don’t present any obstacle, so fast-tracking your learning.
Or you could go for the more typical approach to learning a langauge, so study the grammar and memorise lists of words first, before attempting reading, listening or speaking.
Most people do.
The problem with doing things the way you did at school sixty years ago is twofold:
1.) learning the ‘traditional’ way is harder because you lack memorable context – ‘voli notturni’, for instance. With a picture, remember?
2.) while you’re busy memorising stuff, you’re not building skills experience – reading, listening, speaking and so on. I did virtually no actual study of the languages I’m learning, but can understand large parts of daily Swedish-language news broadcasts, follow French talk radio, enjoy newspaper articles in Spanish, and follow, more or less, the commentary on today’s big soccer match in Istanbul.
Reading Italian, for a native English speaker at least, is easy in parts, difficult in others.
But profitable overall, at least compared to not doing it.
And if you can’t get past the ‘it’s too hard’, ‘but I want to understand everything so I have to use a dictionary on every unknown word, which takes too long’ stage?
Simple! Use materials which are simplified for learners (see details below).
But use whatever reading/listening material you like. You don’t need to buy anything.
I never spend a cent on any of the learning materials I use daily. Radio is free, newspapers can be, too, if you have a library card.
Time, on the other hand, is not free. In fact it’s precious.
Invest time in building skills in your new language.
That won’t just happen, magically, as a result of memorising stuff.
You have to put the hours in.
A venerdì.
P.S. 4 Half-Price Italian Easy Reader ebooks, just £3.99
Don’t forget this week’s half-price ‘eBook of the Week’ offer. It’s on four A1/A2 (elementary/pre-intermdiate) ‘easy Italian reader’ ebooks that we published way back in 2015.
Until Sunday 18th June 2023 any of them will cost you just £3.99.
Check the FREE sample chapters to verify which of them might be right for you. Too easy? Check out our Catalog for materials at your level!
Il grande pesce rosso 
Michele is 10 and about to discover that, as Italians say, “lies have legs”…
- .pdf e-book (+ audio available free online)
- .mobi (Kindle-compatible) and .epub (other ebook readers) available on request at no extra charge – just add a note to the order form or email us
- 8 chapters to read and listen to
- Comprehension questions to check your understanding
- Italian/English glossary of ‘difficult’ terms for the level
- Suitable for students at any level
- Download your Free Sample Chapter (.pdf)
Buy Il grande pesce rosso just £3.99 | FREE sample chapter (.pdf) | Catalog
Cena con delitto 
Join us in the questura (police station). A husband and wife have witnessed a murder in a restaurant. Can the police commissioner find out the truth?
- .pdf e-book (+ audio available free online)
- .mobi (Kindle-compatible) and .epub (other ebook readers) available on request at no extra charge – just add a note to the order form or email us
- 8 chapters to read and listen to
- Comprehension questions to check your understanding
- Italian/English glossary of ‘difficult’ terms for the level
- Suitable for students at any level
- Download your Free Sample Chapter (.pdf)
Buy Cena con delitto just £3.99 | FREE sample chapter (.pdf) | Catalog
Ciak si gira 
Follow Marco and his best friend Luca – a young Italian student who dreams of becoming an actor – as they catch a train to Rome for an audition.
- .pdf e-book (+ audio available free online)
- .mobi (Kindle-compatible) and .epub (other ebook readers) available on request at no extra charge – just add a note to the order form or email us
- 8 chapters to read and listen to
- Comprehension questions to check your understanding
- Italian/English glossary of ‘difficult’ terms for the level
- Suitable for students at any level
- Download your Free Sample Chapter (.pdf)
Buy Ciak si gira just £3.99 | FREE sample chapter (.pdf) | Catalog
Uno studente in viaggio 
Follow the adventures and misadventures of Jean, a young French student exploring Italy for the first time.
- .pdf e-book (+ audio available free online)
- .mobi (Kindle-compatible) and .epub (other ebook readers) available on request at no extra charge – just add a note to the order form or email us
- 8 chapters to read and listen to
- Comprehension questions to check your understanding
- Italian/English glossary of ‘difficult’ terms for the level
- Suitable for students at any level
- Download your Free Sample Chapter (.pdf)
Buy Uno studente in viaggio just £3.99 | FREE sample chapter (.pdf) | Catalog
How do I access my ebooks?
When your order is ‘completed’ (normally immediately after your payment), a download link will be automatically emailed to you. It’s valid for 7 days and 3 download attempts so please save a copy of the .pdf ebook in a safe place. Other versions of the ebook, where available, cannot be downloaded but will be emailed to people who request them. There’s a space to do that on the order form – where it says Additional information, Order notes (optional). If you forget, or if you have problems downloading the .pdf, don’t worry! Email us at the address on the website and we’ll help. Also, why not check out our FAQ?
P.P.S. 
Did you read/listen to Tuesday’s FREE bulletin of ‘easy’ Italian news?
Subscribers get each bulletin, via email, three times a week on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Subscribing is FREE
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Patricia Barber says
Buondi, This is really good advice, practical and immediately useable. Thank you Daniel. And speaking of reading, when do the summer history chapters start? I’m really looking forward to more Italian history. I particularly like the gossip!
Daniel says
Thanks for the feedback, Patricia.
Stefi is finishing up the audio recordings for the thirty episodes of the summer series this week, then I have to format them, upload the audio and so on.
They’ll be published three times a week from right after the Summer Sale (Monday 10th July) until the first or second week of September, ten weeks later.
This year it’s ‘Dal Risorgimento alla Seconda Guerra Mondiale’. Next year, the final year, we’ll be doing ‘Dalla fine della Seconda Guerra Mondiale all’era di Berlusconi’, which will end the project – approximately 150 chapters of history from the mystical origins of Rome to the mess that Italy was in when I moved here 25 years ago.
Tell your friends! (If anyone has catching up to do, the 90 episodes on our History page are free to access and available to all.)
Felice says
Aren’t you missing an opportunity here to plug the Easy Reader print versions for the previous years? Remember, every penny spent on the print versions goes towards supporting the next year’s summer history season!
Daniel says
What do you mean by print versions, Felice? We only sell ebooks, and there’s always some form of promotion for those in the P.S.
By the way, OnlineItalianClub.com remains with the legacy Ltd. company, which is my sort-of post-teaching hobby, while the ebooks and lessons businesses are their own selves these days.
So technically the summer season is paid for from advertising revenues (there’s very little) on the Ltd.’s various websites, while ebook, lesson and EIN revenues are taxed in the UK, with anything left over trickling back to an Italian holding company.
E poi, actually we had all five years of the summer series written during the pandemic (and paid the writers then, as they didn’t have other means to earn), so I’m really just using stuff up that I already paid for and would hate to see go to waste. Got to publish all this stuff before my next stroke, or I’ll feel really bad!
But thanks for thinking of us.
Jackie Rubin says
Hi Daniel, this message is about Tuesday’s Easy Italian News; I didn’t know how else to contact you about it. There was a glaring error in the piece about Boris Johnson, saying he had just resigned as leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister – this actually happened in July last year, and Rishi Sunak has been our Prime Minister since September. A surprising error!
Daniel says
Well, commenting on the ‘easy news’ bulletin would have been one way to contact me, Jackie. Other people did, and the editor wrote an apology.
https://easyitaliannews.com/easyitaliannews-com-13-giugno-2023/#comments