Let’s be honest, learning any language is no easy feat! It takes genuine commitment and dedication just as learning any other skill would, like learning a musical instrument, learning how to surf, or learning how to build a house!
But as far as languages go, the good news is that Italian is up there with one of the easier languages for English speakers to learn.
Why is that? Italian isn’t even that closely related to English!
Well, one reason is that thanks to the colorful and eventful history of English, with all the invasions from other European tribes, kingdoms and peoples over the centuries, a lot of vocabulary in common use today was introduced into English through French and Latin. This, in turn, means that English and Italian also share a lot of common vocabulary.
Learn Cognates to Instantly Boost Your Italian Vocabulary
When we have words in different languages that share a common origin and have the same meaning, we call them cognates. Cognate translates to “born together” because that is exactly what happened with these words – the cognates between Italian and English were born together in Latin!
So how does this make learning Italian easier? Well, what it means is that you already know a lot of Italian before you’ve even started and you didn’t even realize it!
Take a look at the following Italian words and see if you can guess their meaning:
⸰ Informazione
⸰ Attenzione
⸰ Impossibile
⸰ Responsabile
⸰ Università
⸰ Generosità
⸰ Classico
⸰ Traffico
⸰ Curioso
⸰ Animale
⸰ Turismo
And the list could go on and on!
How did you go? I bet you understood nearly every single word if not all! Most of them you probably wouldn’t even have to think about as they are so similar to their English equivalents.
Learning cognates will give you a real boost in your Italian as they are very easy to learn and remember, so you can instantly increase the vocabulary you have in your Italian arsenal!
Another important thing to point out is that the more English you know, the easier it will be for you to learn Italian. This is because a lot of common everyday words in Italian have cognates in English that are typically used in more formal contexts when using a higher register of speech.
Take the following words for example:
⸰ Capriccioso
⸰ Odioso
⸰ Masticare
If your English vocabulary is already quite impressive then you may be able to guess the meaning of these words?
⸰ Capricious?
⸰ Odious?
⸰ Masticate?
If you already knew these words in English then you would have a much easier time learning these words in Italian, as they’ll already be familiar to you! Though they may not be very common at all in everyday spoken English, it would not be rare to hear them used in everyday spoken Italian.