Italian Language Classes
Buongiorno!
Mappa dell'Italia
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Learn Italian at Santa Monica Language Academy. Speak Italian the very first day!
Italian is one of the Romance languages, and it has remained closer to the original Latin than any other language of this group. Italian is considered by many as one of the most beautiful languages of the world. As a transmitter of the great culture of Renaissance, it influenced other languages in Western Europe. It is spoken by about 60 million people in Italy and it is one of the four official language of Switzerland, and widely spoken in Argentina, Brazil, United States and Canada. The Italian weekly and intensive classes are structured into three levels: Italian beginner, intermediate, advanced. Each level is divided into four sub-levels: A, B, C, and D. Check our Weekly Schedule for times and days of our Italian lessons. We also offer Intensive Language Program in Italian. We currently have online Italian group and private classes available. |
For the Beginner and Intermediate levels we use the Ultimate Italian Beginner-Intermediate textbook by Living Language and the Complete Italian Grammar by McGraw-Hill.
Italian beginner A (lessons 1-5)
Topics: greetings & introductions, snack time, traveling by plane, nationalities, plans for the weekend
Grammar: subject pronouns, the verbs essere and stare, simple negation, titles, cardinal numbers, gender and plural of nouns, the definite and indefinite article, the verb avere, telling time, simple prepositions, nations and nationalities, agreement of adjectives, the present tense of regular -are verbs, combined forms of prepositions and articles, irregular verbs, days of the week, etc.
Italian beginner B (lessons 6-10)
Topics: clothing, studies, on the telephone, months, seasons, dates and weather, the family
Grammar: question words, demonstrative adjectives and pronouns, the adjective bello, the plural of adjectives of color, verbs ending in -gare, present tense of regular -ere and -ire verbs, present tense of dovere, potere, volere, verbs ending in -care, present tense of verbs in-isc, irregular -ire verbs, idiomatic uses of fra, ordinal numbers, the use of molto, troppo, tanto and poco as adverbs and adjectives, possessive adjectives and pronouns, plural of nouns ending in -io, idioms with avere, etc.
Italian beginner C (lessons 11-15)
Topics: food and drink, a typical day, asking for and giving directions, radio and television, traveling by train
Grammar: verbs ending in -giare, partitive prepositions, double negatives, the adjective buono, present tense of bere, reflexive pronouns, reflexive verbs, reciprocal verbs, the use of modal verbs with reflexive verbs, present tense of sedersi, uscire, rimanere, verbs ending in -ciare and -gliare, the imperative, adverbial prepositions, adverbs of place, the plural of foreign nouns, the negative imperative, adverbs ending in -mente, the adjective ogni, etc.
Italian beginner D (lessons 16-20)
Topics: in a hotel, the travel agency, employment, sports, the home
Grammar: direct and indirect object pronouns, the position of direct object pronouns with modal verbs, the plural of nouns and adjectives ending in -cia, -gia, -ca/-ga, -co/-go, regular and irregular past participles, the present perfect, the plural of nouns with an accented final vowel, the present tense of piacere, the position of subject pronouns, the conjunctive pronoun ne, agreement of past participles with direct object pronouns, etc.
Italian intermediate A (lessons 21-25)
Topics: newspapers, at the bank, the mail, a doctor's appointment, computers and the internet
Grammar: the future tense of regular and irregular verbs, the future tense of verbs ending in -care, -gare, -ciare, -giare, uses of the future tense, uses of the definite article, the verbs conoscere and sapere, idiomatic uses of ci, disjunctive pronouns, the partitive, suffixes and their uses, double object pronouns, the present progressive, the plural of nouns ending in -i and -ie, nouns with irregular plural forms, the imperative of irregular verbs, the imperative with pronouns, the negative imperative with pronouns, etc.
Italian intermediate B (lessons 26-30)
Topics: the arts, music, fruits and vegetables, at the supermarket, a barber at home
Grammar: the imperfect: forms and uses, stare per + infinitive, the plural of nouns and adjectives ending in -ista, the pluperfect indicative, use of the infinitive as a noun, masculine nouns ending in -a, comparisons, the relative superlative, the absolute superlative, nouns used mainly in the plural form, irregular comparatives and superlatives, nouns used mainly in the singular form, the verb servire, the present conditional, etc.
Italian intermediate C (lessons 31-35)
Topics: money, a little bit of everything, a tour of the city, at the police station, at the pharmacy
Grammar: the present conditional of irregular verbs, the past conditional, the impersonal si, idiomatic use of da, the present subjunctive of regular and irregular verbs, the present perfect subjunctive, uses of the subjunctive, use of nessuno, relative pronouns, etc.
Italian intermediate D (lessons 36-40)
Topics: renting a car, in a shoe store, at the office, at a real estate agency, Italian culture
Grammar: the imperfect subjunctive, the past perfect subjunctive, feminine nouns ending in -o, the "if' clause of reality and possibility/impossibility, the plural of monosyllabic nouns, the "if" clause of impossibility/unreality, the future perfect, the passive form, the historical past, the past perfect, etc.
The Italian conversation classes consist of discussions on different topics: news, politics, economy, technology, health, entertainment, culture, sports, style, travel and many more. The students will present a newspaper or internet article on the topic of their choice. They will provide a list of new vocabulary words found in the article and copies of the article for each student in the group. There will follow a discussion on the topic and the article itself.
Italian beginner A (lessons 1-5)
Topics: greetings & introductions, snack time, traveling by plane, nationalities, plans for the weekend
Grammar: subject pronouns, the verbs essere and stare, simple negation, titles, cardinal numbers, gender and plural of nouns, the definite and indefinite article, the verb avere, telling time, simple prepositions, nations and nationalities, agreement of adjectives, the present tense of regular -are verbs, combined forms of prepositions and articles, irregular verbs, days of the week, etc.
Italian beginner B (lessons 6-10)
Topics: clothing, studies, on the telephone, months, seasons, dates and weather, the family
Grammar: question words, demonstrative adjectives and pronouns, the adjective bello, the plural of adjectives of color, verbs ending in -gare, present tense of regular -ere and -ire verbs, present tense of dovere, potere, volere, verbs ending in -care, present tense of verbs in-isc, irregular -ire verbs, idiomatic uses of fra, ordinal numbers, the use of molto, troppo, tanto and poco as adverbs and adjectives, possessive adjectives and pronouns, plural of nouns ending in -io, idioms with avere, etc.
Italian beginner C (lessons 11-15)
Topics: food and drink, a typical day, asking for and giving directions, radio and television, traveling by train
Grammar: verbs ending in -giare, partitive prepositions, double negatives, the adjective buono, present tense of bere, reflexive pronouns, reflexive verbs, reciprocal verbs, the use of modal verbs with reflexive verbs, present tense of sedersi, uscire, rimanere, verbs ending in -ciare and -gliare, the imperative, adverbial prepositions, adverbs of place, the plural of foreign nouns, the negative imperative, adverbs ending in -mente, the adjective ogni, etc.
Italian beginner D (lessons 16-20)
Topics: in a hotel, the travel agency, employment, sports, the home
Grammar: direct and indirect object pronouns, the position of direct object pronouns with modal verbs, the plural of nouns and adjectives ending in -cia, -gia, -ca/-ga, -co/-go, regular and irregular past participles, the present perfect, the plural of nouns with an accented final vowel, the present tense of piacere, the position of subject pronouns, the conjunctive pronoun ne, agreement of past participles with direct object pronouns, etc.
Italian intermediate A (lessons 21-25)
Topics: newspapers, at the bank, the mail, a doctor's appointment, computers and the internet
Grammar: the future tense of regular and irregular verbs, the future tense of verbs ending in -care, -gare, -ciare, -giare, uses of the future tense, uses of the definite article, the verbs conoscere and sapere, idiomatic uses of ci, disjunctive pronouns, the partitive, suffixes and their uses, double object pronouns, the present progressive, the plural of nouns ending in -i and -ie, nouns with irregular plural forms, the imperative of irregular verbs, the imperative with pronouns, the negative imperative with pronouns, etc.
Italian intermediate B (lessons 26-30)
Topics: the arts, music, fruits and vegetables, at the supermarket, a barber at home
Grammar: the imperfect: forms and uses, stare per + infinitive, the plural of nouns and adjectives ending in -ista, the pluperfect indicative, use of the infinitive as a noun, masculine nouns ending in -a, comparisons, the relative superlative, the absolute superlative, nouns used mainly in the plural form, irregular comparatives and superlatives, nouns used mainly in the singular form, the verb servire, the present conditional, etc.
Italian intermediate C (lessons 31-35)
Topics: money, a little bit of everything, a tour of the city, at the police station, at the pharmacy
Grammar: the present conditional of irregular verbs, the past conditional, the impersonal si, idiomatic use of da, the present subjunctive of regular and irregular verbs, the present perfect subjunctive, uses of the subjunctive, use of nessuno, relative pronouns, etc.
Italian intermediate D (lessons 36-40)
Topics: renting a car, in a shoe store, at the office, at a real estate agency, Italian culture
Grammar: the imperfect subjunctive, the past perfect subjunctive, feminine nouns ending in -o, the "if' clause of reality and possibility/impossibility, the plural of monosyllabic nouns, the "if" clause of impossibility/unreality, the future perfect, the passive form, the historical past, the past perfect, etc.
The Italian conversation classes consist of discussions on different topics: news, politics, economy, technology, health, entertainment, culture, sports, style, travel and many more. The students will present a newspaper or internet article on the topic of their choice. They will provide a list of new vocabulary words found in the article and copies of the article for each student in the group. There will follow a discussion on the topic and the article itself.