Yearlyglot

While the partitive exists in English, it goes mostly unused. Like so many other things in English, we understand it by implication. But as with so many other languages, implication alone isn’t good enough for Italian grammar.

Did you know that humans aren’t the only creatures with different languages? One of the more enjoyable details about learning a new language is learning how animals talk.
Pigs, for instance, say “oink oink” in English, but they say “groin groin” in French and “хрю хрю” (khryu khryu) in Russian. Dogs say “vau-vau” in… continue reading

I’m noticing a troubling theme in the language-learning and language-blogging community: people who are looked to as subject matter experts, time and time again, encouraging their readers and followers to forego grammar.
I’m deeply troubled by this.

Staying on a recent theme, I intend to continue focusing on useful word patterns in Italian. While one should never stop learning vocabulary, my attention during the second half of my year of Italian will be focused more on learning words as part of common phrases, rather than simply as vocabulary words without any… continue reading

Since we’re in the second half of the year, the focus is less about grammar and vocabulary, and more about building “muscle memory”. It’s still important to continue picking up new words, of course, but the focus should be on word patterns and common usage. The idea is to get away from translating in your… continue reading

In my last post, I talked about the importance of learning word patterns on your way to fluency. Today, I want to focus on some simple patterns: verb+preposition patterns.

In my studies so far this year, I’ve run into several situations where a word can mean two completely different things, occasionally reflecting a difference in pronunciation, and the only real way to know this is by context.

Perhaps the single topic that I read about the most is travel. I have always been fascinated with far away places and beautiful, exotic scenery… multicultured festivals and traditional styles of dress.
So naturally, when I am learning a new language, I go on the hunt for travel blogs in that language. When you’re learning… continue reading

It’s mid-year, and even though I have only completed 5 months with Italian (I started this blog in February), is seems appropriate to consider this my half-way point.
Yesterday, I gave a general assessment of how I’m feeling about my progress so far. Today, I’m going to look at my status in relation to… continue reading

It’s mid-year, and even though I have only completed 5 months with Italian (I started this blog in February), is seems appropriate to consider this my half-way point.
So… how is my progress?
General assessment
Today I want to give a general self-assessment and talk about what sticks out in my mind… how I… continue reading