Is it insane to say that with these four languages you can understand a lot of the Italian language? Actually no!

If you don’t go very deep into the language you may never realize that are similarities between them. There is no better way of diving very into the language than visiting a place where the language is the main spoken idiom. If you go to a language school to lean Italian you might never see the similarities of the words but if go to Italy, and the most important thing, spend a week with an Italian family, you will be impressed to see how you can build a sentence or even understand a conversation if you now a bit of Spanish, English, Portuguese and German.

Here are some Italian words that I learn within this one week that I am in Italy (important detail: I had never learnt Italian before and could not speak a single word). These words were learnt only by similarity:

spendere (Italian) – to spend (English)

praticamente (Italian) – praticamente (Portuguese)

io (Italian) – yo (Spanish)

volere (Italian) – wollen (German)

grosso (Italian)  – groβ (German)

Ciao (Italian) – tchau (Portuguese – different writing but same pronunciation)

finestra (Italian) – Fenster (German)

pericoloso (Italian) –  Peligroso (Spanish)

Collega (Italiano) – Colega (Portuguese) – Colleague (English) – Kollege (German) – Colega (Spanish)

 

Days of the week

Italian	Spanish
Lunedi	Lunes
Martedi	Martes
Mercoledi	Miércules
Giovedi	Jueves
Venedi	Viernes
Sabato	Sábado
Domenica	Domingo