• Join
  • FAQ
  • How to learn Italian
  • Recent Articles
  • “Best of”
  • Shop
  • Sitemap
  • Other resources
  • Course Finder

Online Italian Club

  • Home
  • Start here
  • Six Levels!
  • Grammar
  • Listening
  • Conversation
  • Vocabulary
  • Dialogues
  • Verbs
  • Literature
  • History

Think Italian, Like an Italian – 4

September 25, 2013 by Daniel

Today his ot, so hi ham appy. Hit’s great to ave ha few more days hof ot weather before the hautumn harrives, hisn’t hit?

/h/ his ha voiceless fricative. Hi hadmit to being vague habout what precisely that means heven hafter 20 years has ha language teacher, so hi don’t expect you to know.

Owever, the point his that hin Hitalian the use hor non-use hof /h/ his hirrelevant.

(The technical term for that his ‘allophone’ – like “lice” hand “rice” for ha Japanese speaker.)

Hin short, hif you’re thinking like ha real Hitalian, when you see words like “ho”, “ha”, “hanno”, hetcetera, you hignore the /h/ sound.

But hit may pop hin randomly hat the beginning hof hother words beginning hin vowels. Hit just doesn’t matter, see?

Try not to laugh.

And when you’re speaking Hitalian, remember not to pronounce the “h” hat the beginning hof himported words like “hotel”, “hamburger”, “hacker” hand so hon.

Hor they’ll be laughing hat you.

 

P.S. On the topic of the arrogance of teachers, do take a look at this famous Monty Python sketch

Filed Under: Articles

Comments

  1. Chris says

    September 25, 2013 at 11:46 am

    illarious 🙂 but also a great explanation.

    • Daniel says

      September 25, 2013 at 12:08 pm

      Thanks, Chris. Kind of you to leave feedback. I appreciate it.

  2. John Thomson says

    September 26, 2013 at 10:39 am

    hevviva hevviva

    Daniel a inventato hun nuhovha lingua !

    phossho suggerire hun nhome ?”La Accalingua”

    bravho Daniel

    Jon

Contact us

logo of Imparareonline Ltd.
Imparareonline Ltd.
Registered in England, no. 8569282
Tregarth, The Gounce,
Perranporth, Cornwall
TR6 0JW
E-mail: info@imparareonline.co.uk

 

Looking for something?

  • Free Italian Exercises
  • Online Italian Lessons
  • Italian Easy Readers

Don't know what to click? Sitemap

 

 

Learn other foreign languages for free?

Free Spanish Beginners' Course

Free German Beginners' Course

Free French Beginners' Course

© OnlineItalianClub.com 2017