You will find it useful to know some Italian when travelling to Italy and Italian speaking Switzerland as well as in Italian restaurants worldwide.
Every day I learn new words on Duolingo and revise old ones. I keep a daily list of new words, in alphabetical order. On another page I list alphabetically words similar to English on the next empty odd numbered page.
On the reverse of the page, the even numbered page, are words which are new and unlike others, especially those which are confusing because they sound like an unrelated English word so that I have made a wrong guess when answering a question.
Here are some of my recent lists
SIMILAR WORDS Italian-English
anni - years (like annual)
isola - island (letters 'is' and 'la', also isolated)
molto - very (like multi)
nostri - our (Plural. Like the French word notre)
nuova - new (nu sounds like new, but change the last letter to a to match feminine words, o for masculine, i for plural)
pavimenti - floor (like pavement, but indoors, note the Italian words ends in the letter i)
sorpreso/a - surprised
stupenda - stunning, marvellous, wonderful (starting with letters stu)
turisti - tourists (masculine plural ending in the letter i, like the word spaghetti)
UNRELATED NEW WORDS Italian-English
adesso - now
CONFUSING WORDS Italian-English
gonna - skirt (not gown, not dress)
neppure io - nor me (Duolingo translates it as me neither, which I find confusing because it reverses the word order. 'Nor me' is traditional and rather dated English. 'Me neither' is colloquial. Studying Italian, which is derived from Latin, like many English words and phrases, I can see the reason for traditional English phrases. Maybe that made it easier for previous generations of intellectuals, travellers and royalty to learn multiple languages, whilst it is harder for the average English-speaking tourist today.)
praticamente - practically (the Italian does not have a letter c before the t)
Basic Duolingo is free. If you pay for their premium tier you are told what you did wrong when you make mistakes.
Useful Website for learning Italian and other languages
Duolingo.com
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