Score: 6/10

Pros:
deals with nearly every major grammar topic in beginning-intermediate Italian; engaging, informal, even funny text; explanations can be verbose, but rarely wander or distract – they stay focused; author intersperses Italian words in her explanations to ease transition to your new language; chapters combine grammar topics with everyday themes; extra notes give tips & info; multiple useful appendixes; glossary & index

Cons:
modest number of practice exercises in view of bulk of material presented; no audio CDs, tapes or sound files to help you pronounce the language; no dialogues, readings, or language immersion – focus on snippets of vocabulary and sentences; students looking for a conversation-based methods should consider this only as a supplement; long vocabulary lists without much context strain the memory; pronunciation key (transliteration) is the only pronunciation help you’ll get, and it’s mediocre

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Learning Italian approaches the Italian language with the series’ trademark casual humor, extensive musings & hand-holding, and scattered note boxes with tips and information. In many ways, the book is a standard, themed course in Italian grammar, but done in the Idiot’s style.

The first few chapters give you helpful tips for learning the language, understanding a bit more about Italian and Italy, an intro to the Italian alphabet, and cognates (words in common) between Italian and English. The ad hoc pronunciation key taught with the alphabet accompanies all new vocabulary words in the rest of the lessons. While it’s not too accurate, you will learn to pronounce, say, “abbastanza bene” as ah-bah-stahn-zah beh-neh.

That brings us to chapter five. From here on out, chapters are structured around grammar topics, paired with real-life themes (hence titles like “Using the Modal Verbs at l’Hotel“, “Buon Viaggio: Travel Terms and the Imperative”, and “Made in Italia: Using Object Pronouns and Shopping”).

Sections within chapters introduce concepts in explanatory paragraphs. Tables of vocabulary lists or grammatical forms are mixed with these explanations, and some explanations are highlighted by example sentences. The author peppers her lighthearted explanations with Italian words, which, like the example sentences, are in italics.

Simple exercises follow some sections, often involving filling in blanks with the correct form, although you’ll probably wish the book offered more chances to practice along the way. Answers to the exercises are found in the first appendix.

As well as skimping on the exercises, these lessons contain less in the way of conversational material. Dialogues are nonexistent, vocabulary lists are often presented without much context and with the expectation that you memorize lists of terms. In fact, the only fluent Italian you’ll read that’s relevant to the chapter themes is found in the sample sentences that complement grammar and language explanations.

The consistent use of notes is helpful, although some provide mild distractions when they stray from the topic at hand. Notes clarify or emphasize important language topics, offer further guidance or simply share musings about Italian.

One appendix lists regular and irregular verbs in a slightly crowded but fully-formed table. Another gives four pages of idiomatic expressions in Italian, and even some tongue twisters for fun. A third appendix summarizes non-verb grammar topics in charts, and the fourth lists pages of Italian synonyms.

At the very end, you’ll find a somewhat lengthy English-Italian and Italian-English vocabulary glossary, and a useful index of grammar, language and thematic topics (so you can look up things like verb tenses, idiomatic expressions or banking). The table of contents also fully spells out chapters, sections and subsections with their titles and page numbers. The only thing missing, especially for such a comparatively long Idiot’s Guide, is page numbers next to vocabulary words in the glossary.

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Learning Italian certainly has some notable features, and a semi-unique style that characterizes the course. If you’re looking for a way to study Italian grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary, this isn’t a bad way to go. True beginners might find the course demanding at times and soft at others (unevenly paced), overabundant in vocabulary lists, and lacking in practice exercises, pronunciation, and conversation drills. Students more comfortable with more conversation-driven methods should look elsewhere.