Beginner Italian Course Lesson 1 (Part 2) - Is it easy to learn Italian? 

Lecture Notes: 1. Italian falls into category 1 language, so it's easy for English speakers. 2. English and Italian shares about 60% of thier Vocabulary. 3. It has easy phonetics. You say what you write. You write what you say. 4. The sounds are consistent. 5. Having a strong vocabulary in English, you can guess the italian equivalent. Good luck.

For me it’s easier because it’s very similar to Spanish 😉

I love your style of teaching. You're always excited and happy to give the lesson. This is a wonderful thing you are doing. Italian is a beautiful language. It was lost in my family and I'm trying to bring it back in. Thank you Manu!

It's my 2023 goal to finally learn Italy. This channel is a blessing in that journey. One video a day seems like a good pace for me, I have already taken your advice on the QVC Italia channel and I have it on in the background when I am playing games. Grazie :)

My goal is to speak Italian as well as you speak English. Grazie Manu.

Salve! My name is Anders and i'm 16 years old, i'm from Norway. I've always been in love with Italy, i've spent many vacations there! 😁I've always wanted to learn italian but thought that the idea of learning a completely new language was intimidating, but i realized that if i was able to learn english then why can't i learn italian. I'm really dedicated to this as i'm spending a lot of time every day learning new words, and listening to people who speak it. I remembered that one of the ways i learned english was to just watch movies and listen to music with norwegian subtitles, eventually i would start to understand more and more, so that is my method for learning italian; i'm watching tv shows that i've already seen but with italian dub. One of the things that inspired me to learn is actually quite peculiar, i was in Lucca with my family, and we were at a café because it was raining. On the radio i heard an italian song which i absolutely fell in love with (i was 13 at the time) so i found out who the artist was and it was Vasco Rossi whom i had never heard before, i later realised how famous he is in italy (i thought i had discovered a completely unknown artist😂). I use his music to learn new words and it's a great help. But i have to give you a lot of credit aswell! You inspire me so much and you make me want to learn the language without being intimidated by it! I can't wait to follow this 30 day course and i'm looking forward to my journey of learning this beautiful language, and i'll let you know how i'm doing on the way. Thank you for doing all of this❤

I've got 5 months to learn before visiting Italia! I've been practicing Spanish for a while now, so it's a little easier but I'm committed to this series and fully understand the need for exposure, so I've got music, QVC, movies, and Duolingo helping me along as well! Wish me luck!

Such great videos and teaching methods. I am italian born and fluent, but have lived in the US for 40 years. I grew up multi-lingual (German, French, Spanish, and English, too) with English being my 2nd language. My son never had interest in learning Italian growing up, so now that he is an adult, these lessons are so perfect for him. Thank you for all of your hard work!! 🇮🇹🇮🇹🇮🇹

Speaking Spanish and learning Italian is awesome so much! There is many similarities in both language

The best italian teacher hands down 👐. Just came across your channel. Been trying to learn italian for ages and trying to find the right person to teach me. I have finally found you, as you explain everything well, clear and precise. I will be moving to sardina to work there in the near future. Grazie Mille 🙏

Your English is so perfect. I'm listening you without difficult to understand. I want to learn English and Italian at the same time. Thanks so much!

I'm sooooo soooo in love with Italian. It's amazing that I've got that opportunity! Grazie!

I really love your energy and way of teaching! very welcoming and friendly makes me feel very comfortable. My dad spoke italian and would speak it to me sometimes and i know some few words and sentences, i also had some cousins from italy come over a few summers and would teach me a bit but i mostly lost all of this throughout the ages. I've always wanted to learn italian properly and my dream was to have a conversation with my dad in italian but sadly that never happened and he passed away last year. i'm finally motivated to take the time and put in the work to learn the language partly as a way to honor him and feel closer to him in a way. it's actually crazy how some words, completely randomly said out of context will make me instantly cry because it reminds me so much of him the most recent one was "anche". I'm very grateful to have found your channel and your lovely teaching style, i really feel like following your lessons will help me reach my goal. thank you and looking forwards to all the lessons.

Thanks for a great lesson. You made me start to think of many words in my own native language, Urdu. Urdu is an Indo-European language similar to Hindi, with lots of Persian, Arabic and Turkish influences. In Urdu, the word for “tooth” is “daanth,” (دانت) from the Indo-European root “dent”… Ciao!

I’m native to English but leaned Latin and German. This is very helpful.

If you came to the comments to understand why Italian is similar to English, here’s a short resume. Basically in the middle ages French Normans conquered England and imported much of their words. Like sheep becomes mutton (mouton in French) when you eat it because French nobles called it that. French being similar to Italian, English became somewhat close to Italian.

Hello! I'm a Spanish and Catalan native speaker and I want to learn Italian. I'll visit Roma in May so my goal is to be able to understand most of what people say and speak a little bit when I go there. The good thing is that I already speak 3 languages so it's easier for me. Italian has a lot of words which are almost identical in Spanish, and if they are not similar, a lot of them are like in Catalan!

The root dent is from greek and as a Greek I find so many other similarities between greek and Italian. It's actually so easy to learn Italian as an English and Greek speaker

This keeps me interested most of the time but I suck at focusing and I just got back from school😤

Was anxiously waiting for the next video...now I realize lessons will be spaced...which is good! I have been watching QVC Italia in the meantime and picking up a lot of vocabulary, writing it down and I feel so motivated now after months of being turned off by an Edx course...now I feel much more inspired!!

I am fluent in English, French and Spanish and I find Italian quite easy to understand even though I have never studied it. Each time I have been in Italy, I have been able to understand most things, especially when they are written. French and Spanish being two latin languages make it easy. For example in this lesson, Dente is very differrent from the English Tooth but very similar to the French Dent or the Spanish Diente. My only real challenge is to learn how to speak Italian fluently, which I know I can without too much trouble. Speaking French and Spanish also helps understanding the concept of masculin and feminine, somethint that is harder for English speakers to understand. I remember when my father lived in Nice (France), we used to go shopping in Ventimiglia because everything was cheaper there than in France. We never studied Italian but we never had a problem understanding or being understood. If you know a few key words, Italian people will understand you even if you cannot make proper sentences. For example mangiare pizza. Finally I want to say how close the French and Italian cultures are. We are a carbon copy of each other, especially southern French. Thank you Italy for making me feel welcome every time I visited your beautiful country.

I'm really happy to have found this course! Between English, French, Spanish and some Latin, I can already understand Italian pretty well, and I've been immersing for a couple months (mostly in books, but I'll check out the podcast to get more audio immersion). What I'm mostly lacking now is the basic grammar and pronunciations tips, and this seems like the perfect ressource for this

I love his teaching style! Excellent videos!!! 💕😊

Ciao Manu. You are a great teacher of both Italian and English at the same time. Grazie.

ciao, Im portuguese and you are making italian very easy to learn, grazie!

I am an Arab and I find the way you are teaching is easy and very helpful thank you so muuuch

Hi Manu, I love Italian and even though I don’t live near any native speakers or know any, I really want to learn it. These videos seem very helpful. I’m excited to learn! :)

my native language is Portuguese, so i guess it will be way easier to me to learn italian

I just started this series and it is so helpful. I am a Canadian English speaker who has grown up studying French since I was around 8 years old (I am now 24) and a lot of the Italian words are very similar to French, Pensare to Think in Italian = Penser to Think in French. Even Ape, Bee in Italian is very similar to Abeille, Bee in French. The only thing I think I am going to have trouble with is pronouncing everything. Interessante in Italian, you pronounce the e at the end as eh. Whereas French it is pronounced in-te-re--san(t), the fem version in French is even spelt the same as Italian, but you don't pronounce the e at the end.

Thank you, can't wait to get started and I am very glad I found this course. As an ex-teacher of English as a foreign language, I can see you have a great rationale for the way you teach and a really well-structured approach, along with fantastic energy, thanks again!

You are by far the best instructor on line. I so enjoy your lessons .I'm a beginner, but I also study French and Spanish. Some day, Italian will also be another goal I will reach, thanks to you Mano.

I am in Unit 6 of the online Beginner's Course and I think already I am starting to think like Manu. He introduced some verbs and I noticed something about some of them and it was like "Things that make you go 'hmmm?'" And sure enough in the very next lesson Manu talked about exactly the same thing that I noticed! I have taken his suggestions and I consistently ace the Quizlet Learning sets. And the Verb Conjugator. He also suggests a very good online dictionary and they have sample sentences using the words to see how they are used in Italian. Because, as he very accurately says the usage is not always the same as in English. And again I am very anxious to learn more and more. Grazie mille Manu and his team at From Zero to Italian.

OH, I have just invented a technique for watching QVC...it's on right now....I first write the words down in my notebook during the session and then keep watching and what I do is then type words into Google translate as the session goes on...I get the correct spelling from the screen...then, I have basically a "cheat sheet' automatically which I can save or print out! I am dating each session and using the title of the "sales pitch session" and also have gotten some writing practice, too! This is so much fun!!! I am also relating a lot to the French I studied for years a long time ago as well as some Spanish I have as well.

English is a Germanic language with French superimposed on it. So a third of English words come from French. This was due to the Norman invasion of England in 1066, after which the language at court was French. This is why there is so many similarities between Italian and English words. We share some latinate roots.

I absolutely love your channel and love the way you break and explain everything down. Me and the wife just got back after spending 10 glorious amazing days in your country now we are actually thinking maybe one day to retire over there. Coming from a Spanish background communicating was not that bad for the first time going over there. I have already subscribed to your channel and will continue with the lessons since we plan on going back in two years! Ciao Bella e Grazie!! 😬

You're amazing! The way you teach is how my mind works - I've just started private lessons online and your approach mirrors the questions I've been asking. If only more teachers taught like you!

I am native Spanish speaker and I am fluent in Brazilian Portuguese, so I think to me it’s going to be easy but also difficult in some ways

grazie molte , I’m from Mexico and already know Spanish 🎉 super exited to learn Italiano

I remember piecing Pericolo and Perilous on my own, and since then, learning Italian vocab has been like a fun game of hide and seek with many English synonyms.

Love your lessons so much! Easy, clear and understandable .. Thank you so much for your efforts! 💗💗

I thank you so much for all your guidance. I have a goal to be fluent in Italian by October 2024. I will do it with your help. Dio vi benedica

I think these same videos made, but aimed at Spanish speakers, would be absolutely awesome and produce a sh** lload of views!!!! Just sayin' 🤷🏻‍♀ Mexican girl from Chicago

I ve just started.. i love Italia and one day God willing I will travel there and maybe stay..

My family were forced to immigrate in WWII. Me and my auntie are learning to connect to our heritage and older relatives.

Watching this as a complete beginner. I live in the uk but work with two native Italian speakers which should help with eventual practice. Wish me luck

Thank you for your amazing lessons, Manu. I’ve tried so many times to learn Italian, and feel that I’m really in with a chance with you. English is not actually a Germanic language, although it has a large Germanic component. English is actually made up of 60% of words with a Latin root, so is actually more of a Latin language than Germanic. That 40% obviously makes a difference, in that English sounds so different from French, Spanish, Italian, Greek, but it does make learning vocabulary easier. The rulers of England (French speaking Normans) spoke French for many, many years, so it wasn’t so much contact with France as the French became absorbed into English society at the highest and most influential level. Many thanks to you and look forward to the next lesson. Grazie

The etymology of a lot of English words are Latin and greek... Glad I found this series for my daughter.

Many thanks for your lessons. I speak French and when I hear or read Italian that helps understand a lot of it. I love Italian, so I try to learn it. When you speak a language that helps understand Italian, it is good but it also is a trap. Because you THINK that you the words are similar. They are not. So, learning Italian requires some effort (like all languages). And one has to be careful not to use words that come from other languages in Italian (because in Italian those words mean nothing or don't have the same meaning). This said, Italian is such a beautiful language that learning it is a pleasure and worth all the efforts. Thank you again ❤

Rome also Ruled England for nearly 400 years so we have some words rooted from Latin.

I am a native speaker of Polish, which is also (mostly) phonetic language, so this aspect is pretty easy to me. Most phonemes in Italian (with few exceptions) are also pretty much the same as in Polish, or at least at first glance I must say. The notable exceptions are [tʃ], [dʒ], [ʃ], [ʒ] and [ʎ] sounds, but they seem to be pretty straightforward to pronounce, and only [ʎ] is pretty new to me.

Planning on doing 2 weeks in Italy for a getaway and I hope to be comfortable with it 🙏🏼 So far so good. Think it helps that I speak Spanish

my native language is ukrainian, and this language is absolute straightforward. So for me there is 0 problems with pronuncuation when it comes to vowels

I have literally 2 months before I go to Italy to study and I'm doing my best to follow you, let's hope I learn enough to survive atleast at the start, or I'll be in trouble because the whole course is in Italian, but tysm

Very nice tutorial. One of the other reasons the languages are so similar is because both Latin and Germanic languages have the same predecessor and that is Greek. For example, dente has it's origins from the ancient Greek word "odontis" meaning tooth.

Just found this channel. I like your energy and excitement. Was in Rome last September and will return one day to "la bella cita". You started with laying foundation that build confidence to move forward. I have been using a lot of my time during the pandemic for learning languages. And I am lucky to have found this channel. Grazie mille Manu. I am Indonesian.

It’s new for me I only speak English, but I’m hoping to be in Italy soon so I’m learning the language. This is a course I can understand.

Grazie Mille I very much enjoy your style of teaching Italiano!

I am determined to learn Italian. I AM Korean but I speak English and French so may be now it is time to try Italian.

Oh my goodness this is amazing. I’ve moved to Italy on 2 March 2020, COVID kept me away from people not to mention the masks. So I spent lots of $$$ on immersion. So far this makes so much sense! Love this and will definitely share 😊

French is similar to Italian too , i speak french and English fluently so Italian is pretty easy for me 🤍

I don't know why but I feel bc my family is from Italy specifically Palermo, Sicily, Italy, I find it real easy for me to learn my home language.

learning from Aotearoa / new zealand as aim to go to Genoa, Italy within 1-2 years, I need to be able to conversate. Will be there for about a month. I don't want to look ignorant, unprepared and only speak english.

Thanks!

as a finnish 14 yr old guy it's very easy to learn the phonetics because in finnish as well we pronounce the letters and words same way it's wrote.

Just started this series, I want to take my girlfriend, (who is from an Italian family but 3 generations in england) on holiday to Italy and I always learn as much as I can before visiting a foreign country. I hate when im abroad and see fellow brits just pointing and either speaking loudly and slowly in english or just grunting.

You are very encouraging and give the learner hope that he or she will learn Italian.

My first language is Spanish, and my second language is English. This video is helping me keep track of all my languages LOL

I'm watching the second video. At what point we gonna start learning Italian?

I love it! Doubted a little bit if it is wise to start to learn italian. Because i study already 2 languages. But yes i go for it and i will take it easy! Grazie!

I really like how you make the lovely italian language easy to learn 👍

THANKS. Your way of teaching is the best, it really makes learning easier. I'm starting to learn Italian this week, I think I'm lucky because I speak both English and French. I see there are a lot of Italian words similar to French words too, not just English.

I speak French Arabic English and German and I'm going to add Italian to this list

its not only italian class, but its english along with GK class. Thank you sir

I'm just starting, my partner is Italian but English speaking and taught herself. I want to move to Italy as love the country. I don't have a head for languages but will try really hard.

I speak Spanish and English. Italian is very similar to Spanish, same meaning and pronunciation. I think it’ll be easier to learn Italian.

ha! My ears lit up when you started talking about bees. I'm going to take that as a sign I'm in the right place. 🙏

Salve, Manu! And thank you for this. I'm following you from Sweden and I agree that it's quite easy to guess if you are "a little older" 😅 I'm 60 and teaching in swedish, english and german. Probably is that helpful too "ora che sto cercando di imparare l'italiano". Buona serata 🙂

The reason why our more formal words are similar to every day words in Italian is because England was ruled by the French for a while. So the upper class spoke French and the lower class spoke Old English. The two languages eventually combined into Middle English with the more fancy words coming from French and the every day words coming from Old English.

My native languange is Indonesia. And when I try to spelt the word in Italian, it felt so good because it's so easy for us Indonesian to say it because our languange is also Phonetic. And the grammar isn't that hard 😂.

I think with Latin and German as a base I might actually watch all of those videos. Thanks

The trick they were sharing in this video, there are some of them that I thought in french rather than thinking them in English like to think= Pensare, in french, it is Penser. I don't know if I wrote it correctly but I think it would help. I'm really lucky to know both French and English cause I think it will help immensely.

I want to learn Italian are there any other channels anyone would recommend to learn this guy spends too much time just talking about Italian but not teaching

My guess is that these American soldiers must have put my native language (Greek) at the very bottom (in terms of easiness)! Hence the expression "it's all Greek to me!" LOVE your teaching, dear Manu!

I'm quick learner, and I hope I'll learn easily.

Just subscribed can't wait to learn this beautiful language! Also the shirt is incredible! 🤩

you helped me and my mom thankyou

ig the pronunciation is easy for arabs, i like- could read every word so easily HAHA starting this course from today 21 jun 2023 hope i become fluent 🌟

Your teaching is too much good🥰

It's 87 percent similar to Spanish. For Spanish speakers it should be easy for me paisan. 🇮🇹

Thank you so much I am on day 2 and I feel pretty confident I will learn this language thanks to you God bless you !!

Buongiorno Manu, yes this will be Italian learning journey for myself. Grazie mille, Manu. 👍🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇👍🇮🇹

Grazie Manu!💕

Italian is actually similar to Japanese when it comes to vowel sounds.

You are the best i hope my italian will be the best too😊

Spelt Spelled This is going to be fun! Manu is adorable.

Im excited to learn Italian but was more excited to learn that you didn't know why there is a heavy Latin influence in England. We have Hadrian's Wall, Roman baths, Amphitheatres all around, historical artifacts still being dug up. Might have something to do with Emperor Claudius 🤔.....

Hello. Could you do podcast about Roma in August. What to do, not to do, eat, visit, etc. What would Italian do when visiting Roma. Gracia

Thank you Manu.

I'm going to Italy in 5 months and I'm hoping to learn enough to help me through my trip

I've been wanting to learn Italian and I love to play your videos while I tidy up the house 😊 I have one question before I continue with my learning journey...if I want to learn Italian, should I do it in my mother language?? I'm not a native English speaker, English is actually my second language so I've always had that doubt 🧐🤔 should I switch and learn it in my mother language (Spanish)??