Introduction 1 About This Book 1 Foolish Assumptions 2 Icons Used in This Book 3 Where to Go from Here 3 Chapter 1: Focusing on the Basics 5 Mouthing Off: Basic Pronunciation 6 The alphabet 6 Vowels 7 Consonants 8 Stressing words properly 9 Addressing Folks: Greetings and Salutations 10 Formal greetings 10 Informal greetings 12 Forms of courtesy 13 Using Everyday Numbers 14 Counting items with cardinal numbers 14 Putting items in order with ordinal numbers 16 Using the Calendar 17 Expressing the days of the week 17 Managing your calendar 18 Making the Most of Time 19 Asking the time 20 A che ora: saying "at" 21 Getting into the Parts of Speech 21 Setting up simple sentences 22 Coping with gendered words 22 Nouns and gender 22 Indefinite articles 22 Definite articles 22 Referring to folks with pronouns 23 Introducing regular and irregular verbs 23 Presenting the simple tenses: present, past, and future 23 Describing with adjectives 24 Clarifying with adverbs 24 Joining with prepositions 24 Table of Contents iii Chapter 2: Determining Gender ABCs 25 Focusing on Gender 25 Engendering Nouns 26 Distinguishing between masculine and feminine nouns 27 Noting exceptions 30 Sorting out Definite and Indefinite Articles 32 Specifying and using the definite articles 33 Knowing when (and when not) to use a definite article 34 Generalizing with indefinite articles 35 Possessing with Possessive Adjectives 36 Forming possessives 37 Using the preposition di 38 Using possessive adjectives with family 39 Considering body parts and clothing 40 Knowing when the possessive pronoun is enough 41 Enriching Your Sentences with Object Pronouns 41 Dealing with direct object pronouns 41 Coping with indirect object pronouns 42 Choosing the Proper Pronouns 43 Chapter 3: Expressing Yourself in the Present 45 Getting to Know Italian Verbs 46 Getting Personal with the Subject Pronouns 47 Being inclusive 47 Knowing when to use them 48 Knowing when to use tu versus Lei 48 Exploring the Present Tense 50 Conjugating Regular Verbs 51 Focusing on -are verbs 52 Concentrating on -ere verbs 53 Eyeing -ire verbs 54 Identifying similarities with the three verb types 56 Tackling Irregular Verbs 57 Looking at irregular -are verbs 57 Exploring the modal auxiliaries 59 Differentiating between sapere and conoscere 60 Taking on irregular -ire verbs 61 Working with essere and avere 62 Using Reflexive Verbs 65 Knowing when to use reflexive verbs 65 Looking at reflexive pronouns 66 Forming reflexive verbs 66 Liking piacere 69 Doing Things in the Here and Now -- Present Progressive Tense 70 Chapter 4: Building Beautiful Sentences 73 Making Adjectives Agree 73 Tackling regular adjectives 74 Regular adjectives with a twist: bello and buono 77 Irregular adjectives 78 Invariable adjectives 78 Putting adjectives in their place 79 Forming Adverbs the Italian Way 79 Focusing on the two categories of adverbs 79 Finding a place for adverbs in a sentence 83 Comparing with the Comparative and Superlative 83 Comparing 84 Designating the best and the worst with the superlatives 87 Making irregular comparisons 88 Putting Things Together with Prepositions 90 Exploring the simple guys 90 Contracting prepositions with articles and nouns 91 Going places: a or in 92 Working with andare 93 Noting the many uses of da 93 Figuring out the Italian ins 94 Using di for possession and the partitive 94 Using the partitive 95 Putting su on the spot 95 Noting the exceptions 95 Chapter 5: Asking and Answering Questions 97 Questioning Basics: What You Need to Know 98 Tackling Those Interrogatives 99 Making more out of some interrogatives 103 Taking care of basic needs 104 Negating -- Answering in the Negative 105 Pointing to Something with Questo and Quello 106 Questo (this/these) 106 Quello (that/those) 107 Chapter 6: Talking about the Past 109 Talking about the Past with the Passato Prossimo 110 Dealing with Regular and Irregular Past Participles 111 Forming regular past participles 111 Forming the past participle of irregular verbs 112 Figuring Out Which Auxiliary to Use 115 Using avere in the passato prossimo 115 Using essere in the passato prossimo 116 Using piacere in the passato prossimo 120 Using the Passato Prossimo 121 Recognizing when to utilize the passato prossimo 121 Qualifying with expressions of time 122 Forming Perfect Sentences with the Imperfetto 123 Recognizing regular verbs in the imperfetto 123 Dealing with a few scoundrels: Irregular verbs 124 Perfecting the Uses of the Imperfetto 126 When the Going Gets Tricky: The Imperfetto and Passato Prossimo 127 Grasping key terms 128 Differentiating between sapere and conoscere 129 Chapter 7: Che Sarà Sarà: Looking to the Future 131 Using the Future 132 Identifying common expressions denoting the future 133 Using the present to talk about the future 134 Forming the Simple Future Tense 134 Regular verbs 134 Stem-changing regular verbs 136 Irregular verbs 137 Forming the Futuro Anteriore 140 Predicting with the Future 141 Chapter 8: Using Verb Moods 143 Giving Commands with the Imperative Mood 144 Forming the imperative 144 Tackling irregular verbs 146 Examining negative commands 147 Adding pronouns to commands 147 Working with the reflexives 148 Focusing on the Subjunctive Mood 149 Forming the present subjunctive 150 Mastering spelling exceptions and irregular forms 151 Eyeing verbs and expressions that require the subjunctive 153 Noting impersonal expressions with and without subjunctive 154 Dabbling with the past subjunctive 155 Forming and Using the Conditional 156 Shaping verbs into the present conditional 157 It''s over now! Forming the past conditional 159 Chapter 9: Ten Frequently Mixed-Up Italian Verbs and Phrases 161 Fare Domanda versus Fare una Domanda 161 Giocare versus Suonare 162 Lavorare versus Funzionare 162 Andare in Bagno versus Fare il Bagno 162 Divertirsi versus 163 In bocca al lupo! 163 Salute! 163 Lascia perdere! 164 Partita versus Festa 164 Fabbrica versus Stoffa and Fattoria 164 Appendix: Verb Charts 165 Index 179.