r/italianlearning

The Kidnapping of Arabella is an offbeat Italian dramedy from writer-director Carolina Cavalli, following Holly, a directionless young woman who meets a rebellious girl running away from home and becomes convinced that she is actually her younger self, sent back as a cosmic second chance.

The film stars Benedetta Porcaroli, Lucrezia Guglielmino, and Chris Pine as Arabella’s self-absorbed novelist father, in Pine’s first Italian-language role. Porcaroli won Best Actress in the Orizzonti section at Venice for her performance.

Official trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lr3d-4YiM4

Full disclosure: I’m a co-founder of The Lone Screen, an online screening platform. We’re hosting a one-night-only online screening of the film on Thursday, August 20 at 9:00 p.m. ET / 8:00 p.m. CT / 6:00 p.m. PT. Writer-director Carolina Cavalli will also be joining the live chat after the film.

Screening details: https://www.thelonescreen.com/screenings

Would love to hear what people think of the trailer and of Pine’s Italian.

I was watching Dexter recently with Italian dub which I was finding useful, and I expected it to last me a while but they've removed the show entirely! I'm getting demoralised checking dubs and finding nothing or struggling with the Italian language tab to get something I'll enjoy. Any recommendations would be appreciated--whether it's kids shows that will be good for picking up more basics or regular dramas or comedies or sitcoms, just anything more or less enjoyable is what I'm looking for. I'm fine with dub or original

As an Engliah speaker, we have many examples of an R sound sneaking into words where they don't exist. An example is the word "drawings" which is often pronounced "draw(r)ings." To my American ears, I can distinctly hear this in a few Italian words like "leone" which sounds like "leo(r)ne" to me, and "pieta" which sounds like "pie(r)ta" to me. I am sure there are many other examples I could find, these are just the ones that stood out to me first. Is this just my ears? Do other people hear this? If so, is this a recognized phenomena? Is there a name for it? And is it specific to certain regions or dialects?

If you live in Italy, or any other country, I guess, when you call a business, how many language options do you get and what are the languages to select from?

Come da titolo, da quante sillabe è formata la parola "quiete"? Alcuni dizionari riportano "qui-e-te", altri "quie-te". Il gruppo "ie" dovrebbe essere un dittongo, giusto?

trying to practise the listening. What are some of your favourite films in Italian that you have watched?

Topa is my sweet pup is coming to Italy with me for a few months and I’ll have her with me everywhere.

She was a foster I adopted and I kept the name the rescue organization gave her. Is that a bad word in Italian? I don’t want to be disrespectful or rude referring to my dog as a vulgar word everywhere. Google & translator are coming up with all different things so I need opinions of those who speak Italian please! I hate drawing attention to myself so need to figure this out and maybe shift her name to something similar but not vulgar… leaving in 2 weeks. Thank you!!!

Hello!

(30M) I am the son of a native Italian speaker, although I did not capitalize on the opportunity to learn the language when I was younger so I find myself here now diving into it, roughly 4-5 months in.

I was using DuoLingo for a bit but decided to use the beginner Wellesley class because it has more insight and explanation for the grammatical rules. Im currently on unit 3.2, although I just wanted to see if anyone else ever felt lost during the videos?

Bits and pieces of the sentences I am able to pick up on, I'm not sure if it is intentionally using more complex sentences and conversational paces just to expose you to the speed of the language, or if I am truly not as up to speed as I should be? ( I am able to answer the embedded video activities accurately because it asks what is going on in a specific moment, but the conversation in between those can be confusing)

Just also curious how people who may of used this class as a gateway into the language have additionally supplemented it. I am learning not only how involved learning a language is, but also how confusing learning HOW to learn it may be.

I am certainly a chronic over thinker, and essentially I am writing here in hopes to see if me not having this vast understanding at this point is appropriate or if I am doing something wrong with my studies that will bite me later on.

Also worth nothing I just returned from a trip from Italy, where I was able to sufficiently order food, request tables, ask basic directional questions, and inquire where to purchase tickets for the necessary public transit routes. But once my initial question was received I found myself pretty lost quickly.

Apologies if this may be information overload - I am just very excited on this journey and wanted to utilize any resource to course correct my learning.

Does anybody have any suggestions on good books to help with learning Italian? I’d like to learn it to be able to travel and communicate better with my family who live there.

I am a native English speaker and already know some simple basic words and phrases. Thanks in advance!

Why does it become “tu tocchi” rather than “tu tocci”

Grazie

Of course I’m learning any phrase I can think of like asking if she’s allowed to be with me somewhere that I’m not sure of, etc. But in another post, someone mentioned that people will ask gender & if they are neutered, and I would’ve never ever thought to learn that if someone hadn’t mentioned it to me. What are some helpful phrases to learn or situations I may be in that I’d have to communicate something about my pup? I’m learning the language but I’m a beginner and Italian lessons definitely don’t have chapters on interacting about a dog so figured I’d ask on here :) any help is appreciated!

As an Italian, I wanted to ask you if it is difficult to learn the Italian language.

I am male. I want to wish my female friend a happy birthday. Do I say "amica mia" or "amica mio?"

She is a former colleague and we were equals. We stay in touch regularly, mostly about work issues, and we have after-work drinks every 6 weeks or so. Nothing beyond that. Is "Buon compleanno amica mia/o, divertiti!" too familiar? Too formal?

Hello I am interested in learning Italian but I’m not really sure of the most important parts of grammar to look at this stage. I have a very basic level in Spanish and I’m aware that there are things like conjugation, different tenses and gender etc but I’m not sure of what is the most important right now to build a strong foundation if anyone could give me some advice to get started :)