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I won't be doing much in here, I'm just starting the thread and putting in the pronunciation. When Firewolfblue has more time is when you'll get some real lessons, so... enjoy the pronunciation. sweatdrop

Thanks for posting something.
Questions, I remember reading about there being "open and closed" versions of e and o, where e can become the dipthong ei, and o sometimes becomes the "ɔ" sound. I noticed you didn't mention that at all. Is it anything to worry about?

And I assume t's and d's and whatnot are dental as in Spanish?

Not what I wanted to hear. ;_;

Posso avere un soda!

Everything you say seems right to me, except that, for example, the word troppo is pronounced with open o, so there are exceptions, I guess. But yes, I used Spanish pronounciation when I first started learning Italian and my friends, who live in Rome (dunno whether that changes anything), understood perfectly.

In Northern Italy, a difference is made between open and closed o and e, but around Rome there's no such difference. At least that's what my sister says, who lives outside Rome herself. So the words "perchè" and "perché" are pronounced the same in Romano dialect, but differently in Standard Italian.

This is one thing I do know about - nouns, gender and pluralization and all that junk. I guess I'll just put this here because... people are getting restless and starting to lose faith in the whole language of the month thing because of this kinda thing.

Section 2 - Nouns, gender, pluralization and articles

Two genders in Italian - masculine and feminine:

- Nouns ending in O are usually masculine
- Nouns ending in A are usually feminine
- Nouns ending in TÀ and ZIONE and are feminine
(there might be more, but I haven't studied that far into it)

And of course, there are always exceptions, like la mano ("hand," feminine), il programma ("program," masculine), etc.

Articles

There are actually quite a few different articles, so here they are, and I'll also explain when to use each:

Definite articles (the)

Masculine articles

il {singular} - used before cosonants (ex: il ragazzo - "the boy")
l' {singular} - used before vowels (ex: l'uccello - "the bird")
lo {singular} - used before Z, GN or S + another consonant (ex: lo scarafaggio - "the cockroach")

i {plural} - used before consonants (ex: i gatti - "the cats")
gli {plural} - used before vowels, Z, GN or S + another consonant (ex: gli orsi - "the bears", gli scorpioni - "the scorpions")

Feminine articles

la {singular} - used before consonants (ex: la donna - "the woman")
l' {singular} - used before vowels (ex: l'armata - "the armada")

le {plural} - used before consonants and vowels (ex: le rane - "the frogs", le aquile - "the eagles")


Indefinite articles (a/an)

Masculine articles

un {singular} - used before consonants and vowels (ex: un uomo - "a man", un glas - "a glass")
uno {singular} - used before Z, GN, or S + another consonant (ex: uno zio - "an uncle")

dei {plural} - used before consonants (ex: dei cani - "some dogs")
degli {plural} - used before vowels, Z, GN, or S + another consonant (ex: degli uomini - "some men", degli sport - "some sports")

Feminine articles

una {singular} - used before consonants (ex: una farfalla - "a butterfly")
un' {singular} - used before vowels (ex: un'alba - "a dawn")

delle {plural} - used before consonants and vowels (ex: delle mele - "some apples", delle uve - "some grapes")


Demonstrative articles (this/that)

Masculine articles

questo/quel {singular} - used before consonants (ex: questo ragno - "this spider", quel ragno - "that spider")
quest'/quell' {singular} - used before vowels (ex: quest'oro - "this gold", quell'oro - "that gold")

questi/quei {plural} - used before consonants (ex: questi vino - "this wine", quei vino - "that wine")
questi/quegli {plural} - used before vowels (ex: questi universi - "these universes", quegli universi - "those universes")

Feminine articles

questa/quella {singular} - used before consonants (ex: questa birra - "this beer", quella birra - "that beer")
quest'/quell' {singular} - used before a vowel (ex: quest'acqua - "this water", quell'acqua - "that water")

queste/quelle {plural} - used before vowels and consonants (ex: queste sorelle - "these sisters", quelle sorelle - "those sisters")


Pluralization

To pluralize nouns normally, remove the ending vowel (if any) and add -i to all masculine verbs and all feminine nouns ending in -e, and add -e to all feminine nouns not ending in -e.

EX:

il ragazzo (the boy) - i ragazzi (the boys)
la ragazza (the girl) - le ragazze (the girls)

il programa (the program) - i programi (the programs)
la complicazione (the complication) - le complicazioni (the complications)

Nouns ending in an accented vowel don't change in the plural:

la libertà (the liberty) - le libertà (the liberties)
la città (the city) - le città (the cities)

All feminine nouns ending in ca/ga need to add -he instead of -e, so that pronunciation is reserved. I can't think of any examples, though.
-hi is also usually added to masculine nouns ending in -co/go for the same reason, but there are some exceptions that don't add the extra H. Can't think of any examples there, either.

Some irregular pluralizations:

la mano (the hand) - le mani (the hands)
l'uomo (the man) - gli uomini (the men)
il dio (the god) - gli dei (the gods)

Marvelous... because I haven't got much more. xp Anything at all you can contribute... anything, is helpful.

I may be able to provide basic conjugations when I'm feeling less lazy, but that's about the only thing more I can contribute until I study the language a little more closely.