mossnstudy

[mossnstudy]

Joy Sullivan, from "(Luck I)", Instructions for Traveling West

[mossnstudy]

ITALIAN SOUNDS + PRONOUNCIATION

i. Intro

ii. The alphabet + the sound each letter makes

iii. Combinations of letters + the sounds they make

i. Intro…

The Italian language is one of the more phonetic languages, meaning each letter (or combination of letters) only make one specific sound each.

You must also pronounce every sound possible in a word with the exception of the letter H, which is silent. For example, in the word video, you would pronounce it vee-day-oh. Even in longer words such as cinquantasette which would be pronounced Cheen-quahnta-sehteh

Of course, as mentioned with the letter H, there are some exceptions to this. For example, with the combinations of letters.

ii. The alphabet + the sound each letter makes

— the Italian alphabet is missing a few of the English alphabet letters. Namely J, K, W, X, and Y.

A - Ah

B - English B

C - English letter K

D - English D

E - eh/ay

F - English F

G - English hard G (like the word green)

H - silent

I - ee

L - English L

M - English M

N - English N

O - oh

P - English P

Q - English Q

R - rolled R

S - almost always S, almost never sounds Z

T - English T

U - OO

V - English V

Z - English Z

iii. Combinations of letters + the sounds they make

— Just like in English, Italian has some combinations of letters that change the sounds of the letters themselves. Some are harder to pronounce for foreigners.

Ci/Ce - when C is followed by an I or an E, the C sound then becomes the English CH sound. The exception to this is if there is an H between the two letters (Chi/Che). The C sound then stays the same as normal.

Gi/Ge - when G is followed by an I or an E, the hard G sound then becomes the English J sound. The exception to this is if there is an H between the two letters (Ghi/Ghe). The G sound then stays the same as normal.

Gli - the best way I can think to describe this is how the LL is pronounced in the English word million. Almost like a rounded L sound. This sound is especially hard for foreigners.

Gn - like the N in the word onion.

— some examples with these would be Cinque (five), Giorno (day), Luglio (July), Bagno (bathroom)

[mossnstudy]

Masterpost about Italian Culture

[I have already posted it on the SayItaliano Community, but I am publishing it in my account as well.]

I took advantage of a pause from work to go through all my past entries here on the platform and I've decided to make 2/3 masterposts that might be useful if you're looking into Italian culture/language/tourism.

Here you are a masterpost about ITALIAN CULTURE, broken into different topics. Enjoy!

ITALIAN HISTORY

Italian Republic Day ;

Italian "Day of the Faith" ;

Pompeii and Herculaneum: How they ended up buried by the Vesuvius [+ Resources for studying and visiting];

The Holy Shroud of Turin;

The executioner;

The history of Vespa;

Dubbing in Italy;

Italian Iconic Pictures.

ITALIAN MUSIC

Spotify Playlist with 30 tunes Italians consider great classics;

Lyrics of “La Guerra di Piero”, the Italian “Blowin’ in the Wind” ( + Translation )

EATING IN ITALY

Are Italians food-nazis? [WordPress];

Etiquette in Restaurants in Italy;

Is the “11 am Rule” Concerning Italian Cappuccino Real?

Pizza Margherita;

Italian Bread;

Rice in Italy;

Chocolate in Italy;

Neapolitan Street Food: 6 Snacks you should try;

Desserts from the Campania region;

Biscuits from the Liguria region;

Desserts from South Tyrol, Italy;

Italian Amaretti Cookies;

Mussels in Italian language and culture;

Pumpkin in Italian Culture and Language.

ITALIAN MENTALITY

Understanding the Italians: traits and peculiarities [wordpress];

4 Popular Stereotypes that Annoy Italians;

Love-hate relationship Italians have with Italy;

Italian Culture: Sacred and Profane;

What's campanilismo?

Doors in Italy.

ITALIAN CUSTOMS AND LIFESTYLE

How to dress like an Italian [wordpress];

Most Common Carnival "Pranks" in Italy.

If you have questions about these topics or also concerning other things, my ask box is open :)

Hi! I’m Sara, unearthitaly on tumblr! I have a formal education in cultural and linguistic mediation and I work in the hotels in one of Italy's most developed tourist destinations, Alto Adige/South Tyrol. I embody some sort of "bridge" between Italian and other cultures professionally but also vocationally. I like to help Italophiles discover Italy beyond the obvious and I share tips on travel, culture, lifestyle and language.

You can also find me on my blog, Instagram and Threads. A presto!

[mossnstudy]

Italian Audio/Books/Videos Masterlist

Now that I’m at the upper A2/lower B1 level for Italian, I figured I’d compile a quick list of where I’ve found the best stuff to read and listen to.

E-Books and Audiobooks

Kobo Rakuten Italia — where I buy my ebooks. You can read them online, in the app, or download them and [redacted] to export them elsewhere. Has a monthly unlimited subscription that functions like a combo Kindle/Audible subscription.

Storytel — monthly subscription for unlimited access to audiobooks.

YouTube

Learn Italian With Lucrezia — truly the savior of anyone learning Italian. My favorite videos are her Q&As, vlogs, and “n basic phrases you need to know.” I don’t get much out of her grammar explainer videos but that’s because of who I am as a person.

NovaLectio — commentary style mini documentaries. I export them to LingQ to read before watching and it helps me parse what’s going on. Also, they upload some videos dubbed in English so you can watch both.

Vogue Italia — celebrity interviews and fashion content. About 50/50 Italian and English but obviously high production value.

ArtandtheCities — criminally underrated channel imo. 10-15 minute art history/industry videos by an art historian. Super interesting, she’s easy to understand, and has captions.

Chef Max Mariola — utter chaos but fun. A Roman chef cooking various dishes, sometimes with a guest. Gives very “your uncle is hosting Thanksgiving and forgot until yesterday” vibes but in the best way.

TV/Movies/Documentaries

RaiPlay (free!) — Italian version of PBS. Lots of documentaries and some kind of goofy soap operas/narrative shows. You can also watch live TV.

Podcasts and Radio

RaiPlay Sound — basically NPR. Also free! You can find podcasts, live radio stations, audiobooks, and even audio descriptions of movies and TV shows.

Articles

Formula 1 Italia — Formula 1 news. I’m a big Ferrari fan but they cover a lot of news/current events (as long as they can connect it to a driver). The writing is short and to the point so it’s easy to parse for beginners. And honestly the drama is better than a lot of TV shows.

Stile Arte — long, more complex articles about art and archaeology. Cannot recommend it enough if you have an interest in any of those things. There are some straightforward history articles at the B1/B2 level, and also some more creative essays that push C1.

Corriere della Sera — daily news site. I started reading the news only in Italian to keep me from doom scrolling because America is terrifying. This is just the site I have ended up using a lot. Mostly because it’s easy to navigate and they have a ton of content.

[mossnstudy]

coffee + ancient greek ˖˚⊹ ꣑ৎ‎ (or pics from study sessions that i never posted)

[mossnstudy]

a little guide for those who want to use notebooks for their language journey!

[mossnstudy]

100 Day of Productivity - Day 3/100

I dont know why but at the moment I am not fully processing time or days - perhaps my winter holiday has gone on too long. I thought I had uploaded yesterday buttt nope.. were 4 days later.

Today was a fairly good day!! My partner hasnt been feeling well so I cleaned our kitchen and lounge, went to the shops to get shopping and helped them feel better :) Its been a really nice day.

Also I thought my classes started today but apparently theyre starting next week instead??? Oh well! Another week off I suppose.

I also bought Dracula as I want to get more into gothic literature and started reading 'Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop". So far im enjoying it but its quite slow and kinda describes stuff in a strange way. overall a fan so far!

Anyways! End of post <3

[mossnstudy]

100 Days of Productivity- Day 2/100

10/1/24

Hello!! Today wasn’t overly productive. My partner had some not great news so me, him and his sister went out for the afternoon. We got some shopping and it was a nice day out. Didn’t get much done other than that :) just some washing and cleaning

[mossnstudy]

[mossnstudy]

100 Days of Productivity- Day 1 of 100

Okay so I VERY much failed my first 100 days of productivity challenge but!! New year new goals and my goal this year is to become an absolute nerd, total academic weapon and I’m SO excited. The beginning of January was my birthday so I gave myself a break until this week where I’ve been started to refocus towards studying!

Rightio I start the odyssey and Ovids Metamorphoses next week so in preparation I’ve been reading those!

Today read 2/3 Odyssey chapters - I’m already half way and I’ve only been reading for a couple days. I’ve loved being finally productive with reading

Cooked a new recipe ! - nduja pasta with olives + like vegetables and seasoning. Good learning experience :)

Spent 4 ish hours in a coffee shop studying

My cat is also on medicine at the moment so I’ve been doing a lot of babying of her whilst I was at home ;-; she really needed it.

But yeah! So this is day one of my restart to 100 days of productivity. Tomorrow I’m going to write out a certain list of productivity goals i want to reach daily

[mossnstudy]

100 Days of Productivity

19/12/24

I feel so bad at how awful I've been at updating recently!! Decembers been a lot of energy, especially with christmas coming up so Ive been so preoccupied and haven't been in the mood to post (or just straight up forgotten ;-;) so today ill do my yesterday post and try to slowly get back on track..

If I'm not consistently uploading by the new year tho I might just restart.

Oki doki so!! Yesterday I was studying harddd

About 6 hours of Athenian Law revision

An hour of reading the Iliad

Did mine and my partners clothes washing

Cleaned the kitchen

Put all of our vegetables into the freezer for soups as they'll go off whilst im away at christmas!! So i want to save my vegetables :)

Thats the downlow but I'm really happy with how much Athenian law work I got done :) Its the subject I've been struggling with the most so I';m putting in extra effort over christmas

Thats more or less it!!

I hope everyone is well and see you guys later!

[mossnstudy]

100 Days of Productivity-Day 28/100

K so downlow because I’m SLEEPY but want to be consistent with this again

Today wassss not all too productive. I basically cleaned the entire house and folded all our dry clothes (4 bags full).

I also did all the washing up !!

Read a little bit more of Ovid but didn’t get too much further. I’m onto the second book though !! So I’m feeling good start :)

My partner gave me Pokémon legends Arceus as an early Christmas present :3 so I’ve been playing that a ton

[mossnstudy]

100 Days of Productivity - Day 27/100

14/12/24

Hello Hello!!

Today!! My first day off for christmas was so productive! I woke up a little late but im allowed it I think after my first term back at uni after a year long break! Its been exhausting. ANYWAYS!

Started my new book 'Clytemnestra' by Constanza Casati. Its so good so far and I'm really excited to start engaging with modern classically inspired texts!! My personal reading list for my next books are - The Divine Comedy (Dantes inferno), reading ariadne/circe/soa and the Symposium!

Got all of mine and my partners clothes drying on! I had to walk it all back and fourth to the laundrette up the road!!

Went on a little hour long walk and tried out a restaurant ive wanted to for ages! Its a lebanese place and I only had chips but the owner gave me a free slice of pizza !! Definetly going back there

Read 3 sections of Metamorphoses by Ovid - its part of my university assigned work

Did some actual spellwork !! For the first time in a while. It was a cold moon spell and it was actually really good - I dont often practice im usually researching so this was a nice change.

Did some washing up and cooking! and organised some concerts I want to go to !!

Mini work out but i dont know if im counting it

So overall!! Pretty happy with the day!! Tomorrow I want to spend some more time academically but!! Quite happy with today

Hope everyone else has had a great day!

[mossnstudy]

100 Days of Productivity- Day 26/100

12/12/24

Hello sorry for the lack of updates the last few days!! I’ve had so much going on and this weeks the last week of uni before our Christmas break!! So safe to say there’s been a lot of organising

Today !! Busy busy

- two hours In class! Not to bad but it’s the end of my Virgil modules which is strange.

- Started my Christmas reading for my new module next term (Ovid!!)

- Been cleaning the house!! I got all our clothes washing done, including hand washing my velvet clothes (finally.. I’ve been procrastinating that one)

Tomorrow I’ve got lectures 9-3pm, so what I want to do tomorrow IS

- attend those lectures

- Make a list of everything I need to do exactly over Christmas

- Start painting my second plant pot (I’m painting them as gifts for Christmas)

- Some more of my Ovid reading

Easy enough hopefully! I’ll let everyone know how it goes :3

[mossnstudy]

Utrillo, c.(?) - Montmartre

Painting with oil paints onto cardboard. I love this painting as it reminds me of my trip to Montmartre in Paris. The artists in this district are insanely talented and its worth the visit for any art enthusists!

[mossnstudy]

let’s see if this extra cup of coffee makes me good or evil

[mossnstudy]

The Pomodoro Grind 🍅

So, I’ve been using the Pomodoro method since forever and honestly? It’s been a lifesaver.

Today, I managed to knock out 8 solid Pomodoros:

50 min of Bayesian Inference exercises (and realising how much I don’t know 😅).

A quick 10-min break chugging water and getting MORE coffee ☕️

Rinse and repeat.

The best part? Forest currently has a new challenges that make me want to use the app 🎄. Plus, I’ve been using my longer breaks to clean up around and take short walks for a brain reset 🧠🚶.

Do you have a go-to break activity? I’m trying to find more ideas that don’t involve screens.