An oil leak meant almost no sailing over Easter, which left plenty of time to begin sorting out this site’s online Italian exercises and resources.
My frenzy of spring cleaning isn’t finished yet, but should already mean the site is easier for you to navigate.
ALL of the free materials for learning Italian can be accessed from one page (look for ‘Free Online Italian Exercises‘ in the main menu.)
From there, just pick your level, from A1 to C2, to access a page listening everything useful. All in one place!
Here’s the A1 page, as an example. You’ll see I’ve grouped pages by ‘grammar’, ‘vocabulary’, ‘exercises’, ‘listening exercises’, and so on.
Much easier than before, though there’s still a lot of work to do.
By the way, all of the recent A1 listening exercises now have their own pages, and are right there on the A1 page, where you’d expect. Should save a lot of searching through past articles!
Dall dottore
Which brings me to the latest in our A2 listening series. Just the thing to start the week with if you’ve no enthusiasm for the usual routine.
Listen to the track below a couple of times WITHOUT the tapescript (click here to see the website if you’re reading this in an email). At first, just try and get the gist (general meaning).
When you’ve had enough of tormenting yourself, scroll down and listen as many times as you wish WITH the tapescript. That’ll help you pick out the parts you missed.
Then listen once more without the support of the words and see if you’ve improved – you should have!
4.DAL DOTTORE
Due mesi fa Claudia non si sentiva bene. Infatti aveva mal di testa, mal di gola e il raffreddore. Per questo è rimasta a letto e non è andata a lavoro. Sua madre è andata a trovarla e le ha sconsigliato di misurarsi la febbre. Per fortuna Claudia non aveva la febbre alta, ma ha deciso lo stesso di andare dal medico. Sua madre ha deciso di accompagnarla.
Il medico l’ha visitata: le ha controllato la gola e le ha misurato la febbre.
Dopo la visita il medico le ha consigliato di fare altre analisi e le ha diagnosticato l’influenza. L’influenza è un malanno di stagione, ma non è grave.
Il medico ha consigliato a Claudia di tornare a casa e di mettersi a letto. Claudia deve rimanere a letto per tre giorni e di prendere delle vitamine. Infatti dopo tre giorni Claudia è tornata a lavoro.
Il mese dopo però Claudia si è sentita di nuovo poco bene. Aveva mal di stomaco e la nausea. E’ andata di nuovo dal medico che le ha detto di non preoccuparsi. Infatti sicuramente Claudia aveva mangiato qualcosa che le ha fatto male.
Il medico le ha dato delle medicine e le ha consigliato di rimanere a casa per qualche giorno. Claudia ha seguito i consigli del dottore e adesso sta bene.
P.S. Last chance for the latest conversation groups, which will start this week! Click here if you’d like to improve your Italian speaking as well as your listening…
P.P.S. So, what do you think of ‘Operation Spring Cleaning’? Feedback and suggestions are welcome! Visit the website and leave a comment.
STOP PRESS: Just noticed an error in the text! Can you spot it??? That would be a real test of your Italian (and knowledge of Italian habits…)
Sergei says
Ciao Daniel, ti ringrazio ancora e ancora per questi esercizi che ascolto sempre col gran piacere.
Penso che l’errore di cui hai detto sia in questa frase: “Claudia deve rimanere a letto per tre giorni e di prendere delle vitamine.” La frase dovrebbe essere scritta senza “di” prima la parola “prendere”.
Ciao!
Sergei.
Daniel says
It wasn’t that one I had in mind, Sergei, but yes, the ‘di’ shouldn’t be there either! It seems like we had multiple failures of proof-reading this time.
Sorry everyone!
Ken says
I thought the word “sconsigliato” was rather odd. Why would she “dissuade” Claudia from taking her temperature.
Daniel says
You got it, Ken!
Should’ve been ‘consigliato’, obviously.
Well done to you!
As Italians love taking their temperatures, just to be on the safe side, it’s highly improbable that Claudia would be advised not to measure hers…
Sergei says
Dannazione! Ho letto questa parole dieci volte e l’ho letto come “consigliato”. Dovrei acquistare gli occhiali più forti!
Daniel says
I think that shows you were ‘really’ reading it, Sergei. Our brains ignore things that seem illogical, which I guess is why the writer and the person who recorded it both missed the mistake!
So, well done to you!
Nina Rault says
Ciao Daniel. Your lists of vocabulary are really interesting BUT could you please mark the stressed syllable? I often find myself having to look up the words in my dictionary just to see where to put the stress.
Daniel says
Hello Nina,
Thanks for the idea. But you’ll notice Italian text books DON’T normally marked the stressed syllables on new words. Italian is quite a regular language when it comes to stress patterns, so there really isn’t much need.
Why not use the listening material, rather than the lists of vocabulary? That way you could HEAR what the language sounds like. Once you begin to get an ear for it, it’s not really that hard!
Best wishes,
Daniel
Nina Rault says
I take your point but there are exceptions. When I write a list of vocabulary I always underline the stressed syllable IF IT ISN’T IN THE USUAL PLACE. I know how difficult it can be to understand foreigners speaking English if they stress incorrectly. And what about words ending in -io (zio, ufficio, etc.) where the stress affects the form of the plural?
Don’t worry about my listening – I listen to all your listening tracks (which I have recorded and filed together so I can find them easily) and I’m always waiting for a new one. They’re good, keep them coming please.
Daniel says
Lots of exceptions, Nina. And it’s wise of you to note them as you study them.
Arguably, English is harder than Italian in this respect, as it also has homonynms, homophones and a bastard mix of vocabulary deriving from latinate, germanic and other sources. But even then, it’s not typical to mark the word stress, other than in a dictionary.
Thanks for the feedback on the listening. There’ll be one every few days until we’ve exhausted all forty-eight (eight per level, six levels).
Pam says
In the phrase”Dopo la visita il medico le ha consigliato di fare altre analisi e le ha diagnosticato l’influenza” should it be sconsigliato – the sentence doesn’t seem to make sense as it stands.
Daniel says
There are ALWAYS other tests to do in Italy, Pam. You wouldn’t believe…
Ken pointed out the obviously incorrect use of ‘sconsigliato’ earlier in the text, though.
Anyway, let’s move on and see if we can find something wrong with tomorrow’s listening instead, OK?
Karen says
It has just occurred to me I am not studying the transcript very conscientiously. The listening is so pleasant and comfortable I am sitting back and going with the flow and I did not pick up on the errors at all. I was just happy I knew what was going on in the scenario.Oh well, could try harder. I will try and focus on deliberate mistakes.
Daniel says
No, don’t worry, Karen! It sounds like you’re doing the right thing: listening naturally and getting good results. The hunt for deliberate mistakes is really quite UNnatural.
But it could be that, if you’re finding it ‘pleasant and comfortable’, your level is really much higher than A2. In which case, you could look for more demanding listening tracks (there’ll be some along here soon, if you’re patient!)