In a previous lesson we looked at words that look similar in Italian and English, and which have an N in English, but not Italian. Now it's time for the letter X. In many cases, the X in English is "replaced" by an S. Sometimes it's "replaced" by a double S. In fact, X is used very infrequently in Italian.

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Esatto (exact)

Cioè, dopo quattro anni, Voi vi ricordate il giorno esatto

That is to say, after four years, you remember the exact day

in cui abbiamo aperto il Lido delle Sirene?

I opened the Mermaids' Beach?

Captions 56-57, Imma Tataranni Sostituto procuratore - S1EP1 L'estate del dito

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Tossico (toxic)

La mattina mi aveva detto che

That morning he had told me that

voleva far mettere questi rifiuti tossici nella mia terra.

he wanted to let them put this toxic waste in my lands.

Captions 16-17, Imma Tataranni Sostituto procuratore - S1 EP2 Come piante fra sassi

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Esplorare (to explore)

Stiamo continuando a esplorare quest'oasi verde...

We are continuing to explore this green oasis...

Caption 2, Meraviglie - EP. 1 - Part 7

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Esempio (example)

Qui abbiamo un esempio di scrittura di note sul pentagramma.

Here we have an example of notes written on a staff.

Caption 3, A scuola di musica - con Alessio

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Ausiliare (auxiliary)

Nei tempi composti,

In perfect tenses,

il verbo "piacere" è sempre coniugato

the verb "to delight" is always conjugated

con il verbo ausiliare "essere".

with the auxiliary verb "to be."

Captions 18-19, Corso di italiano con Daniela - Piacere

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Testo (text)

Quali sono le parole nuove che vediamo in questo testo?

What are the new words we see in this text?

Caption 25, Corso di italiano con Daniela - Primi incontri

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We can include contesto (context), pretesto (pretext), and perhaps other words that include testo/text.

Ossigeno (oxygen)

Il fiume ha un'acqua ricca di ossigeno.

The river has oxygen-rich water.

Caption 20, Meraviglie - S2EP1 - Part 6

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Tasse (taxes)

io non sono per niente brava a compilare

I'm not at all good at filling out

il modulo per pagare le tasse.

the form for paying my taxes.

Caption 55, Marika spiega - I verbi cavare e togliere

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We hope this gives you the idea, and that it can facilitate remembering certain words. There are undoubtedly others in addition to these, so don't hesitate to write to us and we'll add them to this lesson. For the N lesson, we received some good feedback.

Thanks for reading!

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Let’s talk about some other common Italian words containing written accents. In case you missed the lesson in which we started talking about accents, read it here.

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The accent on the u at the end of più (more) tells us that the accent of the word doesn’t fall on the i, which is where it would naturally fall.

Più gli ingredienti sono freschi e più è buono.

The fresher the ingredients are, the better it is.

Caption 16, Andromeda - in - Storia del gelato

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A similar-looking word is pio (pious) where the accent does fall on the i, and indeed there is no accent on any letter.

È pio, eh di, di nome e di fatto.

He's Pio [pious], uh in, in name and in fact.

Caption 48, Il Commissario Manara - S1EP1 - Un delitto perfetto

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In the same manner, ciò  (that, what) has an accent on the o to tell us the accent is not on the i where it would normally fall.

È uno che di fronte a una bella donna

He's someone who, faced with a beautiful woman,

si dimentica di ciò che è giusto e ciò che è sbagliato.

forgets what's right and what's wrong.

Caption 28, Il Commissario Manara - S1EP3 - Rapsodia in Blu

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All the days of the week except il sabato (Saturday) and la domenica (Sunday) have an accent on the i at the end: lunedì (Monday), martedì (Tuesday), mercoledì (Wednesday), giovedì (Thursday), venerdì (Friday). In fact, dì is another word for "day" (normally giorno).

Un bel dì vedremo.

One beautiful day we'll see.

Caption 13, Anna presenta - Madama butterfly di Giacomo Puccini

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Without the accent on the i, it's di (of).

Eppure io non ho mai smesso né di aspettarlo né di amarlo.

Nonetheless I never ceased to wait for him or to love him.

Caption 11, Anna presenta - Madama butterfly di Giacomo Puccini

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Similarly, da (of, from, to, at) has no accent, but when we conjugate the third person singular of the verb dare (to give), we use an accent to distinguish it from da: dà.

Invito Sigrid, una mia studentessa a farvelo sentire,

I invite Sigrid, a student of mine, to let you hear

in modo da mettere in evidenza appunto ogni sillaba

it in order to highlight, precisely each syllable

che dà il nome alle note.

that gives its name to the notes.

Captions 37-39, A scuola di musica - con Alessio

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Remember that except for e, where the accent may be either grave (è) or acute (é) to distinguish between an open (è) or closed (é) e, all the accents will be “grave,” that is, going down from left to right (à, ì, ò, ù). 

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Try learning these words one by one, making the accent part of the word as you learn it. Needless to say, taking advantage of the Yabla games, from multiple choice to Scribe, will help you nail it.
 

Some of you may already have begun experimenting with the new Scribe game. Although Italian is relatively easy to pronounce and spell, there are a few typical stumbling blocks. Let's talk about one in particular.

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Let's say you are playing Scribe. You feel like you've have written all the words correctly but the game doesn't let you go on to the next caption. It can be quite frustrating.

This often happens because you have neglected to insert an accent.

In English, we are not used to writing accents, but in Italian, it’s something we have to pay attention to whether we're playing Scribe or not. Be patient with yourselves. It's just something you have to learn little by little.

So where do we usually find these accents? If we know a bit more about them, we can be prepared for them in the Scribe game and elsewhere, so let's have a look.

Perhaps the most frequent error is the accent on the i of sì (yes). It certainly sounds about the same with or without the accent, and it’s not always easy to see. But if we omit the accent when writing, we can mean any number of other things, from the note si (B), to the personal pronoun si (himself/herself/itself). In the following example, the si with no accent is part of the reflexive verb allontanarsi (to leave).

Sì, non era la prima volta che

Yes, it wasn't the first time that

Giada si allontanava di casa senza avvertirmi.

Giada left home without letting me know.

Caption 49, Il Commissario Manara - S1EP10 - Un morto di troppo

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In two-syllable words, the accent usually falls on the first syllable, so when that is not the case, there will generally be an accent on the second syllable to let us know.

Let’s take the word però (however, but). The accent is there to signal that the accent falls on the second syllable, a departure from the basic rule about accenting the first syllable. The accented version of the word però is the one you’ll usually see because it’s such a common word.

Sembra banale, però mi aiuta.

It seems banal, but it helps me.

Caption 35, Amiche - Filosofie

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Però is one word you’ll use often in casual conversation. And with that long ò at the end, you can buy yourself some time while thinking of what to say next.

Without the accent, we’re talking about un pero (a pear tree)! Note that names of fruit trees frequently end in o (with no accent) whereas the fruit itself ends in a, like la pera (the pear), la mela (the apple), la ciliegia' (the cherry). A proposito (speaking of which), Marika explains this here and here.

We also have to pay attention to which way an accent is facing, but fortunately, this applies primarily to accents on “e.” On “o,” “ a,” “i,” and “u,”  the accent is almost always “grave,” meaning down-facing from left to right. One of the most basic accents to remember is the grave accent on è, the third person conjugation of the basic verb essere (to be). This particular conjugation is extremely common, but for foreign ears, can easily be confused with e with no accent. Hearing and pronouncing the difference between e (and) and è (to be) is one thing, but writing it is another, so Scribe is a great chance to assimilate this aspect of Italian spelling.

Another important word that has an accent is perché (because, why). This is an acute or upward facing accent from left to right, which indicates a closed e. However you pronounce the é in perché, people will usually understand you, but if you’re writing, you need to get it right. Think of perché in its question form: why. The accent goes up (to the right), just like the inflection of a question.

The other place accents crop up is in the future tense. There will usually be an accent on the last vowel of the word in the first and third person singular. Let’s look at the irregular but very common verb venire (to come).

lui/lei verrà (he/she/it will come)
io verrò (I will come)

the verb andare (to go):

io andrò  (I will go)
lui/lei andrà (he/she/it will go)

And essere (to be):

io sarò (I will be)
lui/lei sarà (he/she/it will be)

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Be on the lookout for these accents when playing Scribe and when watching videos in general. You'll start to recognize them and become more comfortable with them sooner than you think. 

See part 2 of this lesson here.