Why is Learning Italian Vocabulary So Important?
Needless to say, without vocabulary, you would not be able to speak a language at all!
Our vocabulary is made up of the words that we have learned, know and use on a daily basis to refer to entities and events in the world. Even among native English speakers, people’s range of vocabulary varies greatly – the same amongst Italians.
When learning Italian, you obviously want to increase your vocabulary as much and as fast as possible. Although the thought of learning enough Italian vocabulary to be able to communicate meaningfully might seem a world away, remember that in our everyday speech we really only use a handful of words.
For example, 90% of Italian conversations are carried out using a measly 2,000 words. This number is far less daunting than the 200,000+ available in the Italian language, right?
Could you learn and memorize 20 new Italian words a day?
In 100 days you’d know all 2,000!
20 is too many? No worries… 10 a day for 200 days. Still very, very doable (with the right technique – see later).
Give Your Italian an Instant Boost with Cognates
Fun Fact: You already know many Italian words, you just don’t realize it!
Simply put, cognates are words in other languages that look and sound very similar to words in our own language and mean the same thing! Luckily, Italian and English share many cognates due to the history of their evolution, so to speak. Many English words come from Latin and French – Latin being the ‘mother’ of both Italian and French, therefore there are many Italian words that you will easily “re-COG-nize”.
Can you guess the meaning of the following Italian words?
Informazione
Universo
Problema
Moderno
Adorabile
Tollerante
You understood them all (or at least most) without even thinking, didn’t you! Well done! The best part is, cognates derived from Latin make up approximately 60% of the English vocabulary, which means…
You already have a head start in Italian!
Cognates are easy to memorize as they are so similar to each other! Learning the cognates between Italian and English will greatly increase your vocabulary and your ability to communicate, with very little effort on your part.
Cognates are your friends in learning Italian!
Use Mnemonics to Easily Remember New Italian Words
Many words aren’t so easy to recognize and remember. Repetition can also become tiresome. That’s when Mnemonics are a very useful tool. This is a technique that involves creating a short, simple story or association that helps you memorize a word. Usually it can be related to what the word sounds like.
Example: The word SCHIENA (pronounced Skyeh-nah) means back – the part of the body.
When the word is said quickly, it vaguely sounds like skin in English. You could say that the back has the largest expanse of skin on the body and hence associate the word skin with schiena, which means back.
Now, the real trick here is to make your stories as crazy, colorful and funny as possible.
You want your mnemonics to be… memorable!
Could you add your grandma to the story? Could she have tons of excess skin on her back, that she might fold, and then throw back, behind her? SKIN – NAna.
Remember, the purpose here is not to recall the story! In fact, you may very quickly forget the details of the story! But, having spent a good ten minutes coming up with the story, your brain will always make a subconscious link between the concept of “back (of the body)” and SKIN-NAna, which you will for sure know how to pronounce correctly, in Italian (skyeh-nah).
Smartphone Apps are Great for Learning Italian Vocabulary Fast
With the proliferation of smartphone technology, there is literally an app for everything nowadays …Well, for most things!
Languages are no exception.
Using an app is a convenient way to access language learning resources whenever and wherever you wish. But please remember:
Apps are great for vocabulary, but not much else!
What we mean to say is, many people download a language app and expect to learn to speak the language. Have you actually ever met anyone who has learned a language well relying on just an app? They may know many words but cannot even put an intelligible sentence together.
The reason is that most apps just focus on vocabulary and repetition (not even grammar), there is no one to properly correct your pronunciation, and there is no means of interacting spontaneously as you would with an actual person.
i.e. SPEAKING
My point is – USE APPS! Just don’t rely on them to learn the language.
Used consistently, they are an excellent and often fun tool for learning new words and increasing your vocabulary, when used in conjunction with all the strategies we are laying out for you. Of the many language apps out there, we can highly recommend the ones below, based on our own personal experience.
Apps with free plans:
Duolingo
Memrise
Quizlet
Paid Apps:
FlashAcademy
Babbel
If you employ all of these strategies we have talked about, you will be amazed at how quickly your Italian vocabulary will grow! The key is to set yourself REALISTIC goals (don't try and learn 100 words in one day!) and stick to them. Using a variety of strategies will make learning new words in Italian a lot more fun!