alabala

I'm going to open this subject as it quite unique in the world of languages and is very interesting not only for those who want to learn italian but for the italian speakers as well: the use of double consonants- doubled letter like the "z" for pizza. The difficulty comes when having a word that changes meaning when one of the letters doubles like in the example: copia meaning copy in English and coppia meaning couple. When spoken you can realise the difference between the two from the context and also because the word with the double letter has a stronger emphasis on that letter. There are some rules that can help with this, although there are a few exceptions as well which make it all more interesting: The consonant doubles at the beginning of the word which starts with these prefixes: contra-, example: contrapporre sovra-, ex: sovraccaricare sopra-,ex: soprattutto a-,ex: arrossire e-, ex: eppure i-, ex: irreparabile ra-, ex: raggruppare so-, ex: soccorrere su-, ex: supplemento da-, ex: dapprima se-, ex: semmai Please bring your own thoughts and examples through your experiences

I did learn language through movies and programs, I am Romanian yet I grew up with Twin Peaks and M.A.S.H. and also watching Cartoon Network and later, MTV that is how I many got to speak American English. When I moved to Italy everything was dubbed in Italian and that made me lose contact with English although was helpful for learning Italian. However, when I moved to the UK I realised that knowing American English didn't help very much, I had to unlearn and learn again the British accent and pronunciation.

Romanian Caine (dog): ham-ham Cocos (cock):Cucuriguu Broasca (frog): Uak Uak Capra (goat): beeeh Pisica (cat) : miau, miau Vaca (cow): muh Pasarica (Birdie): cirip-cirip Porc (pig): groh-groh

This is what comes to my mind "one swallow does not a summer make" which is an expression apparently coined by Aristotle which is a sort of a warning for you should not assume that something is true just because you have seen one piece of evidence for it.

It was Shakespeare's work who brought to the English language almost a third of the idioms used today, and that should be acknowledged in my opinion as his mastery of language was greatly valuable and is an endless inspiration for language lovers. A few notable ones are "a fool's paradise" which denotes a state of happiness based on false hope. was used at first in "Romeo and Juliet" "In stiches" meaning laughing uproariously and was used by Shakespeare first in "the Twelfth Night" from 1602

It recently happened to me these days, when I was trying to write a film review in English I was thinking that I was disappointed by the film and my mind went to the word "Deluded" which I confused with the italian "deluso" which means disappointed yet deluded in English means mislead or deceived.

Thanks for joining the conversation, now that you mentioned it, you reminded me of the italian avvocato- which is lawyer and the english avocado-the above mentioned exotic fruit. Actually avocado(the fruit) here in Chile is called "palta".

I'd like to reply to this thread with a quote which is a sharp and visionary idea about the economy in our society today, it comes from Bertrand Russell from "In praise of Idleness" “Suppose that, at a given moment, a certain number of people are engaged in the manufacture of pins. They make as many pins as the world needs, working (say) eight hours a day. Someone makes an invention by which the same number of men can make twice as many pins: pins are already so cheap that hardly any more will be bought at a lower price. In a sensible world, everybody concerned in the manufacturing of pins would take to working four hours instead of eight, and everything else would go on as before. But in the actual world this would be thought demoralizing. The men still work eight hours, there are too many pins, some employers go bankrupt, and half the men previously concerned in making pins are thrown out of work. There is, in the end, just as much leisure as on the other plan, but half the men are totally idle while half are still overworked. In this way, it is insured that the unavoidable leisure shall cause misery all round instead of being a universal source of happiness. Can anything more insane be imagined?” Please comment if you feel this is a valid point for you too

Hello linguaholics, after reading a few posts yesterday, I had this idea to open this new topic about "faux amis" in French but also "false cognates" which are a couple of words in different languages that sound the same or similar but have a different meaning: a classic example is: embarazada in Spanish and embarrassed in English- this is "a false friend" where as a false cognate is a word that has a common etymology but has lost the original meaning in a language like fattoria in Italian and factory in English. I think it could be a fun and informative topic, please contribute.

Yes, common etymology makes things easier, but also confusing! I am Romanian and when I moved to Italy I could comprehend 80% of the vocabulary used, yet I couldn't express myself with ease, and this is because about 80% of the Romanian language is of Latin origin as Italian is.However,when I became more confident in speaking I would use etymology a bit as a crutch and sometimes I glamourously failed. Which brings us to the classic example of "false friends" which can indeed be quite hilarious, you can find some examples here http://www.alsintl.com/blog/false-friends-in-romance-languages/

I'd be happy to help, I've seen a thread died out a bit and I'd be happy to offer my knowledge and passion. Please ask me anything related to language, culture and geography of Romania, I'll try to help. Have you ever heard the songs of Maria Tanase?

It's interesting that someone brought up the use of Romanian, it's a shame that you say you couldn't teach anything good or new. I volunteer to give a hand, people feel free to throw questions at me. To begin with some basics: Buna ziua = Good day (pronounced [boona zeewa] ) Salut = Hello (pronounced [saloot]) These are all good conversation openers. If you want to see some interesting films set in Romania I give you a couple of suggestions to begin with: "Transilvania" and "Latcho Drom" both by Tony Gatlif

"burro" means donkey in Spanish and "burro" means butter in Italian Can you think how it would sound like if I asked for more "burro" in my boccadillo?

I gave audiobooks a try a couple of times, however, how I can see them being useful tools for people with little time to dedicate to reading , or people affected by a disability to read, I do enjoy taking in the sounds of the environment that surrounds me and also to create a voice for characters in my own way. I find that more difficult to accomplish by listening to another reader.

I would recommend to you wholeheartedly to read "Siddharta" by Herman Hesse. I read it when I was about 16 and was a real life changer for me, see how you feel about it. Many happy reads