In this article I collated what I see are the most frequently occurring difficulties for learners of Italian, English speakers in particular. Look out for tips on how to overcome these difficulties throughout the article.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read on to find out more. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n Grammar is considered to be \u201cthe structure and system of a language<\/a>\u201d and to consist of syntax and morphology (how words look), so this article is going to deal with both aspects of the Italian language. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Italian is a gendered language. This means that each word (or noun) is either masculine or feminine in gender.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n As a general rule in Italian words that end in -a are feminine and words that end in -o are masculine. For example, la strada<\/em> (the road\/ way\/ street) is a feminine noun and l’ albergo<\/em> (the hotel) is a masculine noun. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There are many Italian words which don’t follow this rule, however, so knowing what gender they are can be difficult sometimes. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n For example: <\/p>\n\n\n\n This may be confusing for a learner of Italian, as you can’t always rely on the ending letter of a word to detect its gender. <\/p>\n\n\n\n To detect a word’s gender in Italian, you may have to rely on how the definite article “the” looks (if there is one!), your memory of the gender of that word, or other elements in the sentence, if there are any. <\/p>\n\n\n In language, gender and number agreement are needed to make grammatically correct sentences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An example of gender and number agreement in English is: <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the Italian language, gender and number agreement is a lot more widespread than in English because 1) Italian nouns are intrinsically either masculine or feminine and 2) because there are more parts of speech that inflect (or vary) in gender and number. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n These are: <\/p>\n\n\n\n None of these parts of speech vary in gender and number in the English language. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Here is an example of how articles and adjectives inflect in Italian: <\/p>\n\n\n\n Here is an example of how past participles inflect in Italian: <\/p>\n\n\n\n TOP TIP:<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you have recently started learning Italian and the amount of gender and number inflection is overwhelming for you, don’t worry, because people will still understand what you are saying in the vast majority of cases, even though your sentence won’t be 100% correct grammatically. <\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n Definite articles are used to refer to a particular item, such as “the cat”, as opposed to “a cat”. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Italian has many more definite articles than English, which only has one (“the<\/em>“). This is because, like we said above, Italian articles vary in gender and number. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n One stumbling block for learners of Italian is remembering the definite articles: <\/p>\n\n\n\n Provided that you have memorized the definite articles, as a learner of Italian another stumbling blcok may be understanding which of the definite articles to use. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Italian does obviously have rules for which article should be used depending on the beginning letters of the word it precedes. For example, words beginning with “st”, as well as other letter groupings, want the article “lo”, as in lo studente<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n TOP TIP:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Having to remember all the rules for which of the definite articles to use can be overwhelming. It might be best to pick these up naturally through repetition over time. If, as a learner of Italian, you incorrectly say il studente, rather than lo studente, people will still understand you.<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n Usage of the definite article “the” differs between Italian and English, and this often leads a learner of Italian from English to 1) incorrectly leave “the” out when it’s needed 2) incorrectly put “the” in when it’s not needed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As a general rule, the article “the” is used more often in Italian than it is in English, and so English speakers sometimes forget to use it. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Below are examples of things that learners of Italian might say: <\/p>\n\n\n\n The correct version of this sentence is prendo la <\/strong>mia macchina<\/em>, because in Italian the definite article is required in front of possessive adjectives, except when naming certain family members such as mia madre<\/em> or mio padre<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The correct version of this sentence is mi piace il te’ con il <\/strong>latte<\/em>, because the definite article in Italian is used before a noun in the vast majority of cases. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The correct version of this sentence is lui cerca la <\/strong>ricchezza<\/em>. This is because, in Italian, unlike English, the definite article is required before an abstract noun. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Consider the two examples below. The sentences are very similar, but one uses “the” and the other doesn’t. In this case both sentences are correct, but they differ slightly in meaning: <\/p>\n\n\n\n Prepositions are useful in spoken languages because they flag the function of words within a sentence. Prepositions replace the Latin cases and make speaking and understanding Italian easier and more convenient than Latin. <\/p>\n\n\n\nHow hard is Italian grammar? The things that native English speakers find difficult <\/h2>\n\n\n
![\"Seven](\"https:\/\/contentoitaliano.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Seven-most-difficult-Italian-grammar-rules.png\")
1. Gender<\/h2>\n\n\n
2. Gender, number and verb agreement <\/h2>\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/contentoitaliano.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Light-bulb-1024x576.jpg\")
<\/figure>3. Articles <\/h2>\n\n\n
Singular <\/th> Plural<\/th><\/tr><\/thead> IL<\/td> I<\/td><\/tr> LO (masculine) \/ LA (feminine) \/ L’ <\/td> GLI (masculine)\/ LE (feminine)<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table> <\/figure>4. Prepositions<\/h2>\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/contentoitaliano.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/How-to-use-prepositions-in-Italian-1024x576.png\")