Italian Language Learning Reviews

Score: 9/10

Pros:
fully conjugates 555 verbs; examples of every verb in use; notes whether verb is transitive/intransitive, any spelling changes the verb undergoes & which auxiliary used with each verb; clean, uncluttered, easy-to-read verb tables; intro explains the whole Italian verb system; three very useful verb indices allow you to cross-reference any verb, quickly identify which verbs are irregular & conjugate an additional 2,700 verbs; low price

Cons:
bulk of the information is regular & repetitive if you understand the pattern (true of any verb book like this); no assistance with pronunciation issues, such as verbs with varying open & close “e”/”o” and verb forms with ante-penultimate stress

The Big Green Book of Italian Verbs competes with several other verb conjugation books vying for your attention as an Italian language student. Basically, like Barron’s 501 Italian Verbs or 2000+ Essential Italian Verbs, this hefty reference guide conjugates a number of Italian verbs. But with more fully conjugated verbs than all of the above, and a lengthy introduction on how to use Italian verbs, perhaps it’s worth your consideration.

The introduction includes more than thirty pages explaining the grammar of Italian verbs. That section first explains the basics of conjugation, and then covers all tenses and moods, including instructions and examples for each.

After that, the bulk of the book presents 555 verbs, one verb per page, one page at a time. The verbs are arranged in table-like rows and columns on the page. That organization and the large page size makes the verb tables clean and easy to search through, and keeps the presentation from looking cluttered. Each verb is conjugated in all tenses and moods, of course, with participles, infinitives, transitivity and participial auxiliary (avere or essere) given as well. To top it off, there are examples of each verb used in Italian phrases and sentences.

At the end of the book, there are three good indexes that will help you make the most out of this resource. First, an English to Italian verb index helps you find the Italian equivalent of an English verb, with references to page numbers. Second, an irregular verb index allows you to find which verbs are irregular, and then reference their irregular conjugation in the body of the book. The last index adds a very nice feature: the ability to look up any one of thousands of Italian verbs and find a verb conjugated like it in this book.

The Big Green Book of Italian Verbs builds itself into a great resource for anyone struggling with the toughest part of Italian grammar: Italian verbs. If you can’t juggle your irregular passato remoto with your regular futuro anteriore, this is among the best resources available to store on your shelf. Students looking for pronunciation help will find that the book fails to indicate irregular accent and open versus close “e” and “o”, which can be trouble for some learners – Barron’s Italian Verbs (the little book, not the 501…) helps with that, but without some of the finer additions found in Big Green. All in all, I recommend this book to any beginner or intermediate students who write in Italian or translate into Italian – it will help you get your verbs straight.

Score: 8/10

Pros:
covers all major topics in beginning & intermediate Italian grammar; lots of exercises relate directly to specific grammar topics; the structure of the book, the examples & charts all present information in an organized fashion; regular & irregular verb tables in appendix; organized by part of speech, making it easy for students to reference and work on specific problem areas; rigid outline format makes overall layout straightforward, and the table of contents easy to use; audio CD reads exercises out loud for pronunciation help

Cons:
chapter & section length vary greatly, offer little guidance for pacing yourself through the book; rigid outline will distract certain learners & won’t compensate for varied length & use of explanations; sometimes uneven distribution of exercises; no index of any kind

Interactive Italian Grammar Made Easy provides students who find themselves struggling with Italian grammar just under 200 pages of explanations and exercises. The book covers the whole range of beginner and intermediate Italian, and is organized into chapters by part of speech. If you’re looking for a resource to help you hone your grammatical skills, read on. If you’re brand new to the language, this course isn’t necessarily aimed at you, but it’s clear and approachable enough to warrant consideration.

After a page generally introducing parts of speech, you’ll find seven chapters, each one dedicated to one part of speech. The first (and by far longest) such chapter deals with verbs. The book takes a rigid outline approach to formatting, so you’ll see sections like 3.2 (direct object pronouns), 3.3.2 (the pronoun ne), capital letters A, B, C, etc. to break down larger subsections, and Roman numerals indicating exercises. The length of such sections varies greatly, and the organization, uneven distribution and inconsistent length of explanations, examples, charts and exercises relaxes that sense of rigidity. At the same time, this inconsistency makes it harder to read the book straight through, as if it were a series of well-planned lessons.

Within each sections, explanations are kept brief, comprehensible and relevant. They’re rarely lively, but rarely off-topic. Example words and sentences highlight many explanations of grammar points. A consistent, if typical, use of charts helps flesh out key information visually, and exercises occur within many of the subsections.

Topics and their explanations sometimes cover grammar from a different perspective than is conventional. For instance, the section on present indicative verbs begins with a subsection on io (first person singular) forms – and only io forms – of verbs in the present tense (regular, irregular, reflexives and more), then moves onto tu forms, then onto lui/lei, etc. It’s your call if these differences mark a positive shift in perspective or just stand out as a nuisance.

Plenty of practice exercises give you the chance to apply language functions as you learn. Often, these activities involve translating, filling in blanks or matching. The audio CD included with the book has sound files that read exercises aloud, which goes a little ways to further your ability speak and comprehend Italian. Answers to all exercises are found in the back.

The book ends with an appendix holding charts of regular and irregular verbs and, as mentioned above, answers to the practice activities. Although the table of contents lists all chapters, sections and subsections, there’s no index at the back of the book.

Interactive Italian Grammar Made Easy makes a strong effort to offer students grammar lessons, a workbook and an audio CD all in one course. Students struggling with certain grammar concepts can find solid assistance in this book. Certainly, the drawbacks mentioned above are largely limited to the format and organization, not so much the content. Consider this book recommended for review and further exercises, but not as a primary, routine way to learn all of Italian grammar. Used correctly, this text will be a good resource for beginners and intermediate students.

Score: 8/10

Pros:
300 of the most common Italian verbs fully conjugated; all forms in all tenses & moods listed; indicates irregular stress accent & vowel pronunciation for all verb forms; two examples of each verb in use; great index in both Italian & English, with page numbers & further verbs conjugated like those in the book; inexpensive

Cons:
introduction not as helpful as other Italian verb books; format not as tabular and clean as larger verb books; small font & limited print space make text harder on the eyes

Aside from a short introduction explaining accents, helping verbs and regular verb conjugation, Italian Verbs dedicates itself entirely to verb charts. You’ll find in its pages about 300 regular and irregular Italian verbs, fully conjugated, and with two example sentences containing each verb.

Each page of this small volume deals with a single verb. On the top, verbs are given in bold, along with the gerund and past participle. Below a dividing line, tenses and moods are abbreviated on the left hand side of the page, then verb forms are given on the right, separated by commas. Each tense-mood has two rows, with singular forms on the top and plural on the bottom. The end result looks like this:

Pres. Ind. corrèggo, corrèggi, corrègge;
Pres. Ind. correggiamo, correggete, corrègono

Irregular stress is marked with an accent, and open and close “e” and “o” are differentiated (open è and ò versus close é and ó). These aren’t features of Italian spelling, but help students pronounce verbs correctly.

The book ends with an index of Italian verbs covered in the book, as well as those not covered, but conjugated like the 300 here. There’s also an English-Italian index, allowing you to search for verbs by their meaning. Also, since the body of this guide alphabetizes the verbs, you should be able to locate words rather quickly.

The pocket-sized Barron’s Italian Verbs makes a fine, cheap on-the-go addition to your Italian grammar repertoire. It’s small, with small print and limited space for verb tables, making longer verbs clutter the pages, but lots of verbal information is all packed into this small book. At the very least, this is a better recommendation than 501 Italian Verbs, though not as robust as The Big Green Book of Italian Verbs.

Score: 7/10

pros:
color-coded tables make verb forms easy to spot; a couple example sentences of each verb; color cartoon drawings visualize the meaning of every verb in the book; verbs are fully conjugated in all forms included in the book; low price; great introduction to the basics of verbs & layout/use of the book; index of every verb cross references page numbers

cons:
certain Italian verb tense-mood forms are missing here, presumably because they’re too advanced; 101 verbs are not many once you learn to speak more Italian; verbs presented in random order, rather than alphabetically or systematically (fortunately, though, there’s a reference index!); missing Italian pronunciation help: When are e and o pronounced open, and when close? Which syllable is stressed?

101 Italian Verbs a grammar book, but it’s not simply another one of those grammar books. It opts for a colorful, cartoon-filled theme to convey the conjugation of Italian verbs. With one verb per page, and an illustration depicting the verb’s meaning, you’ll have access to many (but not every!) form of – how many was it again? – Italian verbs.

You may already know, or else you’ll soon find out, that verbs are quite probably the trickiest part of Italian grammar. Mastering verbs means understanding when to use a whole slew of endings (suffixes) attached to the verb, which differ depending on 1) who’s performing the action, 2) when the action takes place, 3) the verb’s “mood” and 4) whether the action is ongoing or happens at a single point in time. Whew! This is something the meager handful of suffixes in our language hasn’t prepared us to handle: talk, talks, talking, talked.

The beginning introduces you to the four characters you’ll meet in the drawings. Then, you’ll learn some grammatical stuff – about the six different ‘persons’, arranged in a vertical line, each pronoun in a separate gray box (Italian for: I, you, he/she, we, all of you, they).

You’ll be reminded that Italian verbs have endings that match the personal pronoun, and that those verb endings change based on the verb’s tense. You’ll even take a small bite out of reflexive verbs (the book only has four or five). Each of these explanations is accompanied by examples, and plenty of color on each page.

After that introduction, 101 Italian Verbs takes on one verb at a time, in a seemingly random order. The top of each page lists the Italian verb in blue text, an English translation in gray, the imperative (command) forms of the verb in red, and the present participle in dark yellow. The rest of the top half of each page is devoted to those cartoons that relate the verb’s meaning in pictorial fashion.

The bottom half of each verb page presents verb forms in a table. That table has seven columns and six rows on every verb page. The six rows correspond to the person (the pronouns I listed above, but this time in italiano: io, tu, lui/lei, noi, voi, loro). The seven columns – each one a different color – present the verb in seven tenses: presente, imperfetto, passato remoto, futuro, condizionale, passato prossimo. Below the table, you’ll see too sample sentences using the verb in Italian, with English translations.

Every single use of an Italian verb is color coded – highlighted in one of the seven colors, making it easy to connect the conjugated forms with specific verb tenses – even outside those tables. A verbal index in the back alphabetically lists all verbs used in the book, and an English-Italian section allows you to search for any of the 101 verbs by their meaning.

Since it’s missing more “advanced” verb forms like the present and imperfect subjunctive (il conguintivo), I can’t recommend 101 Italian Verbs to anyone beyond the beginner level. Still, the book provides a smooth, colorful, image-rich presentation of the basics of Italian verbs. If you’re the no-nonsense type, and just after the information, try The Big Green Book of Italian Verbs or 2000+ Essential Italian Verbs.

Score: 9/10

pros:
makes each translation of a word clear by listing it in context and on a new line; terms and definitions are obvious and easy to spot; pages well formatted and organized for search; important, basic words have fuller sections devoted to their use; covers a good number of terms, even if fewer than other dictionaries of the same size or smaller; offers a variety of extras

cons:
biggest trade off is that you’ll have access to fewer words than most Italian dictionaries; not every learner will appreciate or even use many of the extras; only for beginners (who will outgrow this resource)

The Oxford Beginner’s Italian Dictionary covers fewer words, and fewer translations of each word, than even smaller Italian-English-Italian dictionaries. It does this in an attempt to make the dictionary appeal to newer students. And, for the most part, it does this in a way that works.

The dictionary is divided into two halves: Italian to English translations, and English to Italian translations. In both sections, alphabetical terms are given in large, blue font. In Italian, the stressed syllable of a blue entry term is underlined, and parts of speech are listed to the right (but not abbreviated, as is standard). Definitions have an equals sign before them, and sometimes specify the main entry term. Here’s a sample entry:

schifo * noun, masculine
che schifo! = yuck!
fare schifo = to be disgusting
= to be awful

Translations are kept minimal and simple, with fewer options to choose from and only the most basic. Beginners might find this less clumsy and easier to work with than a denser dictionary bombarding you with more options. On the other hand, you risk missing words and translations that come standard in other Italian dictionaries.

Fundamental words (like “you” in English or “essere” in Italian) have entire sections devoted to them. In those sections, short explanations and example phrases distinguish their uses and meanings in context.

The top of each page lists the first and last term found on that page, and a blue tab on the right hand side of the right page indicates the letter of the alphabet in which you’re searching.

This dictionary comes with a few extras. In the center, easy games and activities help you understand the rudiments of Italian words, grammar and translation. Simplified verb charts, numbers and a list of must-know Italian words, basic phrases and a reference guide explaining Italian cultural and social topics all end the dictionary.

As far as learner dictionaries go, the Oxford Beginner’s Italian Dictionary is nicely formatted and organized. The smaller number of words covered, coupled with more spartan translations, makes it a hit-or-miss affair when you need to look up tougher words. Still, the foundational material is here, and beginner students should get plenty of miles out of this Italian dictionary from the get-go.