So I saw the French and Spanish threads and thought we could use an Italian thread too. If there's anyone here who speaks/reads Italian and wants to practice, this is the place.

In Italiano:

Ho visto i fili di francese e spagnolo e pensato che potremmo usare anche un filo d'italiano. Se c'è qualcuno qui che parla o legge l'italiano e ha voglia di praticare, questo è il posto.

Io comincierò:

Buon giorno a tutti. Mi chiamo SamStarrett e sono più o meno fluente in italiano, ma è vero che con istudiare lo spagnolo tanto a volte parlo in lui quando intento parlare l'italiano. Spero che questo filo mi aiuterà a parlare meglio l'italiano.

I don't...but could you tell me what you said? I want to figure it out. * loves languages *

No, but it's on my list of languages to learn someday. (So is German).

Sure. The following:

Io comincierò:

Buon giorno a tutti. Mi chiamo SamStarrett e sono più o meno fluente in italiano, ma è vero che con istudiare lo spagnolo tanto a volte parlo in lui quando intento parlare l'italiano. Spero che questo filo mi aiuterà [note: should be mi aiuti; I made un errore] a parlare meglio l'italiano.

translates as:

I will begin:

Good day to everyone. My name is SamStarrett and I am more or less fluent in Italian, but it's true that having studied Spanish so much, I sometimes speak that when I am trying to speak Italian. I hope that this thread will help me to speak Italian better.

That's awesome, Samstar. You should throw little Italian words into chat now and then. I'd love to become pentalingual!

Mi chiamo Juliet. Mi vero parlare meglio spagnolo, meno errore. Aiuti a parlare meglio l'italiano? Io istudiare.

­
* grins * This is fun. Could you show what my comments ought to look like? (If you can even understand them... ) Then I can get better at correcting myself.

È un piacere, Juliet. Ti aiuterò tutto che posso.

Cosa vuoi dire quando scrivi "Mi vero parlare"? Immagino che quello che vuoi scriver'è:

È vero che parlo meglio lo spagnolo; faccio meno errori. Mi aiuti a parlare meglio l'italiano? Lo studio.

Ma non sono sicuro che quello è ciò che vuoi dire, così per piacere dimmi se ho indovinato correttamente la tua intenzione.

* licks lips * * has been studying your post for a long time * * has only looked up three words on google translate *

You said that I did nicely? And I couldn't work out the next sentence.... And you asked what I meant by writing 'Mi vero parlare'. You said that you are guessing that what I wrote should be said like this: È vero che parlo meglio lo spagnolo; faccio meno errori. Mi aiuti a parlare meglio l'italiano? Lo studio. But you are not sure if that is correct to what I meant to say.

Right? * hopes *

È non. Cosa vuoi dire quando scrivi 'Ti aiuterò tutto che posso'?

Quello che vuoi scriver'è: 'È vero che'

Mi quello che: Istudiar. Non studio.

(Back to English) I'm not sure either...and you couldn't be blamed.


Thankyou. Did you know that Nathaniel Bowditch taught himself to speak French and Latin with a dictionary and a Bible in each? (I believe he did have some help with the French though....)

This is a better dictionary than Google Translate: http://wordreference.com/



Not exactly. What I think you're referring to is when I said "È un piacere." In that case, I meant just what I said: "It's a pleasure." (that is, to meet you; I don't think I've met you before).



Right.



Better: Non è.



"I will help you all that I can."



You understood that, I assume?



I can't make heads or tails of this. You seem to be trying to use "quello" as a verb, which it's not; it's a demonstrative pronoun or determiner secondo il contesto. You also appear to have tried earlier to use "vero" as a verb; that's an adjective meaning "true."

Moreover, one only adds an "I" to words (like studiare) that start with "s" followed by a stop (t, p, c, d, b, g) if the previous word ends in a nasal (n,m,gn). So "non istudio," but "lo studio," for "I do not study" and "I study it," respectively.



No, I had not heard that. But that's not a method I would recommend if you have an alternative. Likely to lead to bad Italian and worse theology.

Mmm... * checks it out *

In that case...the same to you. * smiles * I don't believe we have met before either, though I have seen your posts around.

OK.

Dire lo l'italiano: 'thankyou'?

Vuoi dire: 'È vero che'?

I...am not even sure why I put those particular words there. * has confused herself * I can't remember. Anyway, it doesn't look right. How about this:

Quello intenzione: Istudiar.

Except I don't know how to say 'I think'. Because I was not at all sure. Studio means to study?

And yes, I was quite unsure of the meaning of quello...though I can't remember on the moment what it was I thought it meant. I did not mean to use vero as a verb, however...I meant it to be an adjective. I think I put it in the wrong place that time, though. I was rather dubious about whether it would make any sense going there.

* laughs * He learned them well enough to read Newton's 'Principia' and to act as interpreter when he went to Bourbon (I mean – Réunion). He took an English Bible and compared it to the Bible in the other language, rather like what I am doing here with what you are saying. Then when he advanced further he could use the dictionary to refine his skill.