- Mission 2012: My Big Fat Greek Mission
We’re coving the 10 most important things to know to get by in Italian. Last week, we looked at Italian greetings, at the common courtesies, and asking questions. This week, we’re going to start off with a look at things you will need.
It’s impossible for me to list everything that a person might need while they are away, but there are a few basic things everyone needs to know. Remember, this isn’t going to make you fluent, but it’s going to give you what you need to get by. (But if fluency is your goal, you still need to know these things!)
Here are a few ways to ask for things:
Just grabbing from the examples above, we can now say dove si trova i servici più vicini? to ask for the nearest restrooms. We can get help with a taxi (adding a word from last week) by saying scusi, ho bisogno di un tassi. And when we want to walk to a cafe, we can ask come si arriva in un bar a piede?
If you’re following the 10 things list, this is an exciting milestone, because you’re finally armed with the tools to form sentences on your own. Yes, you’re likely to make them grammatically incorrect, but this is the 10 things you need to know in order to get by, not the perfectionist’s guide to fluency. Of course if you want to form your sentences properly, and with good grammar, I’ve already spent a lot of time writing about how to do that!
