Italian Words Which Are Easy To Remember

 I started learning Italian on Duolingo ready for a holiday next year. 

Here are some words which I found easy, once I noticed similar letters or words.

Italian - English

abbassare - to lower - I think of basement and abase all using the letters bas - e

aiutare - to aid or help - both aid and aiutare start with the two letters ai. T and D are similar sounds.

carta - paper (like card)

facile - easy   face da - easy to

fallire - fail (letters f - a - i -l but Italian changes the order) . The Italian has the letter l twice, like the word fall.

ferire - to hurt - I think of fire, hurt in a fire, by firing a gun, by firing you from a job, fer from ferrous as in the metal iron. But although ferrie has the letter r twice, not together)  

mi - me - both words mi and me start with m and mi sounds like me. Although mi often comes at the start of a sentence, it is not I but me, the object of the sentence. Remember the different word order in Italian. English is usually subject verb object, SVO for short. But Italian is often OV, object verb. 

Nipote - nephew - both words have n.p - e

paper (card) - (la) carta

piatto - plate - both words have the letters p a t and if you join the dot to the i it becomes l

possibile - possible - almost the same word, but notice that the Italian ends with bile, English drops the last letter i

prezzi - prices - both words start with the two letter pr. The vowels order is reversed. the plural ends in i like spaghetti, and ravioli. 

Prima - first (like the prima donna in opera, the first lady) 

rubare - rob or steal  - rubare and rob both have letters r  - b, rubare and robber both have r - b - r\

English - Italian

(to) aid/help - aiutare 

easy - facile

easy to - facile da

(to) fail - fallire

first - prima

(to) hurt - ferrire

lower - abbassare 

me - mi

nephew - nipote

paper - carta

plate - piatto

possible - possibile

prices - prezzi

(to) rob/steal - rubare

Useful Websites

Duolingo Italian

Wikivoyage phrase book Italian

Wikipedia Italian language

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Learning Chinese Sounds and Shapes with Duolingo

Problems
I am finding learning Chinese very hard with Duolingo. No clues are given as to how to remember the written signs.

The sounds are also hard to recognize. Zh sounds like J-sh or Gsh. You hear GSh, then have to remember to write ZH.

The beta version translates into English with the Surnames second. This is nonsense. You say Lee Kuan Yew (former, now deceased, grand-daddy founder and minister of modern Singapore). His family name is Lee. You might call him Mister Lee. But using all the names you would keep the surname first, Chinese style.

Answers
Hover over the letters with the mouse and you see the answers to type in. They don't tell you or remind you.

It's easy to spot that ni haou, how are you, is longer with four signs, in the multiple choice. But later, reading in a page of signs, you would not recognize it.

Which words are I and you? I am and you are. I am Ming and you are Ming.

At first glance and listen I thought Mi or Ni must be me or I. No. Ni is you.

Now I have a memory aid.

'Ni how?' means 'how are you?' So Ni is you.

Wo is I. Although o is in the word you.

I asked my husband how to remember that wo is me or I. He quoted Shakespeare, "Woe is me!"

Author
Angela Lansbury, teacher of English and other languages. Travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Romanian Language: learn the words me, and mine, and my mother

Problem
I know that English natives as well or foreign speakers muddle up me and mine. How do I say them, and remember them, in Romanian?

Answers
My first step is Google translate. (See next post.)

English - Romanian
mine - a mea
my - m e l e
my mother - mama  m e a (No spaces. Spaces inserted to prevent changes made by automatic spell checker. Notice that the adjective comes after the noun.  Mother is mama and my is mea.)

Romanian - English
a m e a - mine
mama m e a - my mother
m e l e - my

Story
I am hoping to start a Toastmasters International online language club.(See post later.)

Author
Angela Lansbury, teacher of English and other languages.

Next post is on giving readers choice.