IMPARARE A SCRIVERE -- parte 1

Writing a sentence in Italian.

At this point of your linguistic ability you are able to write simple sentences in Italian. Yet, you may find it difficult to start.

1) Let's begin with a translation

My house has four bedrooms.
Start with the first NOUN, in this case, HOUSE.

CASA you know that CASA is feminine and singular. Therefore the adjective MY, will also have to be feminine singular, i.e. MIA. Moreover you know that you must place the article in front of the possessive adjective (general rule of grammar). The singular fem. article is LA.

You have: LA MIA CASA

Next comes the verb: HAVE. The subject is singular therefore the form is HA.

LA MIA CASA HA

How do you say "four?" QUATTRO, and you know it is invariable.

LA MIA CASA HA QUATTRO

Bedroom: stanza da letto. STANZA is singular fem, but since you have 4 bedrooms, they are plural, therefore STANZE.

Result: LA MIA CASA HA QUATTRO STANZE DA LETTO.
Now imagine the assignment is to write a sentence telling about your room. You have to use the structure IN MY ROOM THERE IS (or THERE ARE)

1) Come up with a very simple straightforward sentence  for which you already know all the words.

IN MY ROOM THERE ARE THREE WINDOWS.

Start with the NOUN: ROOM = STANZA (feminine singular)
 
MY, fem. sing. = MIA

Possessives must be preceded by definite article, in this case fem. singular = LA

The preposition IN in Italian is IN = IN LA MIA CASA

Wait a second: IN LA in Italian is contracted and merged together => NELLA => NELLA MIA CASA
 

How do you say THERE ARE? CI SONO (CI means THERE, SONO means ARE)

THREE= TRE

WINDOWS = FINESTRA is singular. Plural is FINESTRE.

NELLA MIA STANZA CI SONO TRE FINESTRE.


 Now you want to get a little more creative and use one or two word you don't know.

IN MY ROOM THERE IS A BOOKSHELF FOR MY BOOKS

NELLA MIA STANZA

THERE IS = C'E'  (this is the contraction of CI and E', THERE and IS .  CI E' => C'E')

NELLA MIA STANZA C'E'

BOOKSHELF = you open the dictionary and find the word SCAFFALE. How do you know if it is MASC or FEM? The dictionary tells you.

SCAFFALE is masculine.

The indefinite article masculine (of course singular) for a noun that begins with S + Consonant is UNO

NELLA MIA STANZA C'E' UNO SCAFFALE

FOR MY BOOKS: start from the NOUN, BOOKS. BOOK = LIBRO (masculine singular) => LIBRI (masc plura)

Possessive adjective, masc. plur = MIEI

The definite article always precedes the possessive. Definite article, masc.  > I <     = I MIEI LIBRI

FOR =PER

NELLA MIA STANZA C'E' UNO SCAFFALE PER I MIEI LIBRI.

Of course you could have decided to say: IN MY ROOM THERE IS A BOOKSHELF WHERE I KEEP MY MOST FAVORITE BOOKS.

Or: THERE IS A BOOKSHELF IN MY ROOM WHERE I CAREFULLY PRESERVE IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER THE BOOKS THAT HAVE HAD THE MOST PROFOUND IMPACT ON MY LIFE.
To summarize: always construct very simple sentences in your head with word you already know, if possible, or with words you guess you can easily find in a dictionary.

Start building your sentence from the subject (io, lui, loro). If the subject is a noun, start with the noun, gender and number (masch/fem and sing/plur). Adjectives and articles that relate to that noun must agree (gender and number) with it.

Then comes the verb: choose the right person in the verb conjugation.

AVOID SLANG, IDIOMS AND FIGURES OF SPEECH.
Don't try to say "I LIKE TO HANG OUT WITH MY FRIENDS TO CHILL OUT"

In translation it will sound like you and your friends are a bunch of salami hanged to dry in a cooler.