January - gennaio

Welcome to the first ever MonteViste Italian lesson!

Don't panic these little discussions are just for fun. Each month we'll look at all sorts of things to do with Italy, Italians and Italian. Let's start with an interesting observation; the names of the months always begin with a lower case letter, here they are:

gennaio, febbraio, marzo, aprile, maggio, giugno, luglio, agosto, settembre, ottobre, novembre, dicembre.

In general, when pronouncing any given word, it's the penultimate sylable that carries the emphasis,    however, there are always eceptions. To help you with the pronunciation of the                      months listed here I've highlighted the sylable to emphasised.          

Just looking at some of the months, we see that there are some double consonants scattered

about. How exactly are we supposed to handle

the pronunciation of these little helpers?

 gennaio, febbraio, maggio etc.

The answer is to think of them as a big red flashing arrow pointing to the vowel preceeding them        - you'll soon realise that there's always a vowel preceeding double consonants.

The big red flashing arrow tells us to pull out the preceeding vowel - in other words to sound it for longer.  That's not exactly all that happens but it'll do for now. Don't believe me?  Have a listen to these examples:

We'll have a look at some other aspects of double consonants in susequent lessons.

Remember - If you have any questions please feel free to send us an e-mail.

 If the idea of a residential holiday studing Italian at MonteViste appeals to you

then we've some good news. Have a look at www.EnjoyingItalian.co.uk