Which of these 2 languages do you prefer? French or Italian?

Paul N.   Tue Dec 13, 2005 10:39 am GMT
I started to learn the Italian language not long ago. But I think greg may be right.

Tiffany

Perhaps "Mi piacce molto entrambe le lingue." sounds better. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Paul N.
NINJA   Wed Dec 14, 2005 8:52 am GMT
Do you think French is more difficult than Italian?
bernard   Wed Dec 14, 2005 10:51 am GMT
" Do you think French is more difficult than Italian? "


I think that for non-francophones, french seems to be more difficult, especially for the pronounciation, the irregularities and the difficult and strange spellings.
NINJA!   Wed Dec 14, 2005 11:36 am GMT
bernard,

Thanks, and another question is that, do you think it would be of great help for people to start learning French if they're learning Italian at the same time? And would it probably cause any confusion as a result of their remarkable comparabilities? Or do you think it's better to choose German while they're learning one of Romance Languages such as French and Italian? OK! Thank you very much again!
bernard   Wed Dec 14, 2005 2:57 pm GMT
I don't know, it depends of your linguistic abilities. French and Italian, despite thir similarities also show big differences in prononciation, spelling and writing. I think that for most of the words it is not possible to confuse wich language they are from.
Especially for words endings : in french, contrary to other romance languages the ends are generally cropped ( there are almost never "a" or "o" at the ends of the words) (even more cropped in the spoken version of the language) - So, the words, even when you see the similarity doesn't look alike, each one have the flavour of its language.


Exemples :

Uno (italian) Un (French)
Bella(Italian) Belle(french)
Giorno(Italian) Jour(French)
Treno(Italian) Train(French)
scompartimento(Italian) Compartiment(French)
avvocato(Italian) Avocat(French)
pacchetto(Italian) Paquet(French)

Etc.

I think it could be much more confusing to study Italian and Spanish in the same time because words have a similar "flavour" and sounding, but sometimes completely differents words.
Yann   Wed Dec 14, 2005 3:16 pm GMT
Ninja: « do you think it would be of great help for people to start learning French if they're learning Italian at the same time? »

I'm doing something comparable by learning Catalan (a regional language of Spain also spoken in some parts of France) and Occitan (a regional language spoken in an important part of France and in some small Spanish and Italian regions). They are very similar in vocabulary, spelling and grammar. I think they are even closer than French and Italian are.
In a way, to understand the « logic » of one language helps me understand the other's. Also, oftentimes, when you know a word in one language, you can guess its equivalent in the other language by changing slightly its ending, though it's better to be careful and check your guesses in the dictionary.
Speaking one Romance language allows you to have relatively good read-and-guess skills of the others but you have to be specially careful to get and aquire what makes their uniqueness if you really want to speak both languages. What I like in particular is to learn full expressions rather than just words. I've recently come across « podètz m'escriure, en balhar un cada detalh » which is an Occitan expression that I find fascinating, because it's absolutely not the way I would put it in French ( translated literally into French it'd become « Vous pouvez m'écrire, en donner chacun détail » whereas a correct translation would be « Vous pouvez m'écrire en précisant chaque détail » ). Another example in Catalan « La frase es pot anar completant ». Lit « La phrase se peut aller complétant ». Corr « La phrase peut être complétée ».
So does the similarities help? Certainely! and the fact that you know and understand a lot right from the start is very encouraging. But your mind has to always be set to the « scan for differences » mode. Some people find that boring, I find it's a lot of fun.
Tiffany   Wed Dec 14, 2005 4:55 pm GMT
<<Mi piacce molto entrambe le lingue.>>

It's "piace" if you'd like to write it in the singular :)

Since I am a learner, I get my husband (Italian) to look over a lot of what I say in Italian and I always welcome correction. But he didn't bat an eye when I showed him this one and told me it was fine. I will ask him again, perhaps he is getting rusty from living in the US. May I ask why you chose the singular "piace"? Da quanto tempo studi la lingua?

In terms of learning two Romance languages at the same time. I won't go into the whole story again, because I've told it too often, but I learned Spanish, then Italian and to overcome Spanish, I had to replace a lot of it with Italian. I found it hard to separate them.
Paul N.   Fri Dec 16, 2005 1:07 pm GMT
<<May I ask why you chose the singular "piace"? Da quanto tempo studi la lingua?>>

Tiffany,

Probably because I heard 'mi piace molto' a lot.
Mi studi do settembre (I can be mistaken with this as well, so again, correct me if I'm wrong)

Paul N.
Tiffany   Sat Dec 17, 2005 4:17 am GMT
Hi Paul,
The correct sentence would be: "Studio italiano da settembre."

Ho scelto "piacciono" perché ci sono due "oggetti" - italiano e francese.
Paul N.   Tue Dec 20, 2005 11:36 am GMT
Tiffany,

Thank you very much for correcting me. I know you are fluent in Italian.
I’m only beginner. I was wondering if I could ask you for some advice from time to time.

Say hello to your 'Marito' from me.

Paul N.
Tiffany   Tue Dec 20, 2005 5:11 pm GMT
I'm not fluent, but I have been studying it for a bit longer :) Of course, having to talk to my relatives only helps. I'm not sure you have many chances to speak Italian outside of your classes (I assume you are taking classes). If not, find some if you can. It will help immeasurably.

I make mistakes just like the next person. The important thing is recognizing them and being concious to not make the same mistake twice (will happen though, don't kill yourself!). Ask me anything you want. I will try to answer it.

Grazie mille. Te lo saluterò ed anche a te saluto!
topic title   Tue Dec 20, 2005 6:13 pm GMT
they both are ugly
*CarloS*   Wed Dec 21, 2005 3:12 am GMT
I have noticed that the Italian pronunciation is closer to the Spanish pronunciation than the French pronunciation...
INTEL   Wed Dec 21, 2005 3:58 am GMT
...<topic title

they both are ugly>...



extreme opinions!
Tiffany   Wed Dec 21, 2005 4:47 am GMT
<<I have noticed that the Italian pronunciation is closer to the Spanish pronunciation than the French pronunciation...>>

I think you are right. For a long time I was looking for differences. If a person with no knowledge of Spanish or Italian heard the languages, could they distinguish them? I can't answer this as I began learning Spanish when I was six and now I know Italian too.

The "ue" (like suerte) sound occurs a lot in Spanish but not very often in Italian. Italians use "o" more often in this place (It "porta" and Sp "puerta").

I feel there is a higher frequency of the "y" sound in Spanish, though it is found in Italian as well.

The "j" pronounced as "h" (English h) is also unique.

No "j" (English j) sound in Spanish as there is in Italian. (Also know as the soft g)

Of course it Italian, very few words end in consonants and the ones that do are most likely of foreign origin (save "non"). So while Spanish and Italian may shares "o" and "a", there is no "s", rather "i" and "e".

Italian uses the article a lot more. Lots of "il", "la", "lo" and "le" as well as "l'(vowel)". I think the sheer number of these articles brings a certain sound difference.

I know there must be some difference as I've heard Spanish speakers speak Italian and they have an accent. But I'm certain they could lose it with great ease if they wanted to.