The topic on the 1400 Latin words compelled me to ask whether any one knows of a similar list for the Italian language. I say this because my vocabulary is terrible! I have searched extensively on the internet but only found the AQA one of which I know most, and they tend to list stupid shopping things like le pantofole instead of essential conjunctions. I did learn the interesting adverb altronde, from elsewhere from it but that’s all.
Many thanks to any one who could help me (hopefully there are some italian students here)
This is the problem with modern languages, if you study one you end up learning long lists of stupid words like “laundry” and “frozen food”. It’s hardly dignified. When I want to learn a language I feel it should be unsullied by such base domestic concerns, and instead concentrate on the basic words out of which others are built, and with which the classic literature of the country is written. Once words like “place” and “box” are learned, then I think we can trouble ourselves with “town square” and “postbox”
The same comments apply to the teaching of the grammar of modern languages. I passed through my first three years of French GCSE with not so much as a mention of how the present tense was conjugated. If students aren’t going to learn something that basic then there is frankly no point in them having any contact with a foreign language at all.
Having said that I do have in my possession an old book “Basic Italian Vocabulary”, which came in a series of four (French, German, Spanish were the others). I should be able to provide you with an amazon link when I get home. It covers the 4000 most used words in Italian sorted by topic and provided in context. An invaluable tool it is, though mine has become soiled with age. It is a book I would heartily recommend to serious learners of Italian everywhere.