How to build Italian Vocabulary

Ciao Amici!

I hope everyone is having a nice Spring so far.

What will this season bring to your Italian side? I hope more vino rosato and dining al fresco.

I see the changing of the seasons as an opportunity to pick up new habits for learning. It’s easy to learn grammar if you study, but adding new vocabulary words, if you are not living in Italy, can be challenging and requires extra effort.

Here are 3 tips for learning new vocabulary as you go about your daily life:

1.Write your shopping list in Italian. Trips to the grocery will help you learn food items, stopping by the drug store will help you learn the words for household items and medicines. Clothes shopping will help you prepare for all the fashionable items you’ll buy in Italy.

2.Learn verbs through process-based activities – are you following a recipe? Fixing something? How about just doing your hobby? What actions to these activities require? This is a great way to memorize verbs that are applicable to normal conversation.

3.Change the language settings for Google Maps to Italian. This might seem like a pain, but if you start out listening to directions for places that you know how to get to, such as work or a friend’s house, then you will learn the basic directional vocabulary. Then try going somewhere new. Following the map in Italian will also help you gain confidence in your listening skills.

Try these techniques and let me know how it goes! A great way to maintain the vocabulary you have studied is to book conversation classes with Immerse Italy. Using new words in conversation will seal it in your memory for future use. Here is a link to get started, no placement test required! Start speaking Italian and we’ll strategize from there.

Buona pratica!

Un abbraccio,

Lisa