{"id":797,"date":"2011-07-14T10:01:38","date_gmt":"2011-07-14T10:01:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/?p=797"},"modified":"2011-07-28T20:57:53","modified_gmt":"2011-07-28T20:57:53","slug":"farfallina-bella-bianca","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/farfallina-bella-bianca\/","title":{"rendered":"Farfallina Bella Bianca"},"content":{"rendered":"

Learning a foreign language is hard work when you\u2019re an adult! It\u2019s always a humbling experience when, having diligently studied Italian for many years, you travel to Italy only to hear a group of four year olds playing together and speaking much better Italian than you! Non \u00e8 giusto!<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Well obviously those children have had the natural advantage of growing up surrounded by the sound and rhythm of Italian from day one. Children absorb language unconsciously, and at that stage don\u2019t technically know the difference between a noun and an adverb, or how to conjugate the subjunctive. These are all things they will learn later on at school. <\/span>Unfortunately for us poor old adults who set out to learn a second language in an evening class, or from a book, we have to do more or less the whole process back to front!<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the earliest ways in which children begin to learn their mother tongue is through filastrocche<\/strong> (nursery rhymes). A couple of days ago I heard my friend Adriana singing this popular filastrocca<\/strong> <\/span>to her 14 month old son Luca:<\/p>\n

Farfallina bella bianca<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

vola vola mai si stanca<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

vola in qua, vola in l\u00e0 <\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

poi si posa su un bel fior<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Rather than translate it for you I\u2019m going to do a grammatical analysis:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Farfallina<\/strong> (little butterfly) is a feminine singular noun. It is composed of farfalla<\/strong> (butterfly) plus the feminine suffix \u2013ina<\/strong>, meaning \u2018small\u2019 or \u2018little\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

bella <\/strong>(beautiful) and bianca<\/strong> (white) are both adjectives in the feminine singular form and refer to the noun farfalla<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

vola<\/strong> (fly) <\/em>is the third person singular of the present tense of the verb volare <\/strong>(to fly): \u2018he \/ she \/ it flies\u2019. In this case vola <\/strong>means la farfalla<\/em> vola <\/strong>(the butterfly flies)<\/span><\/p>\n

mai <\/strong>is an adverb which can mean \u2018ever\u2019 or \u2018never\u2019. Here it means \u2018never\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

si stanca<\/strong> is the third person singular of the present tense of the reflexive verb stancarsi<\/strong> (\u2018to get tired\u2019, literally \u2018to tire oneself\u2019). In this case the reflexive pronoun si<\/strong> refers to the farfallina<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

in qua \/ in l\u00e0:<\/strong> the adverbs qua <\/strong>(here) and l\u00e0 <\/strong>(there) are interchangeable with qui<\/strong> (here) and l\u00ec<\/strong> (there). We choose which form to use according to personal preferences, local traditions, and how they sound in a particular context. For example, in this case: in qui \/ in l\u00ec <\/strong>would sound ugly to an Italian person, so we use in qua \/ in l\u00e0<\/strong> instead<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

poi<\/strong> is an adverb which in this case means \u2018then\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

si posa <\/strong>is the third person singular of the present tense of the reflexive verb posarsi<\/strong> (\u2018to settle\u2019 – literally \u2018to place oneself\u2019 or \u2018to put oneself\u2019)<\/span><\/p>\n

su <\/strong>is a preposition meaning \u2018on \/ above \/ over \/ onto \/ about\u2019. In this case it means \u2018on\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

un <\/strong>is the masculine form of the indefinite article \u2018a\u2019 or \u2018an\u2019. If you would like to revise the use of the indefinite article, see my old post:\u00a0 Articles-articles-articles<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

bel<\/strong>\u00a0 is the masculine singular form of the adjective bello<\/strong> (nice). This adjective behaves in a particular way when it precedes a noun. You can find out more about it in my old post: Buono o bello?<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

fior <\/strong>is a masculine singular noun. It should really be written fiore <\/strong>(flower), but in poems and songs we often drop the final \u2013e <\/strong>to make certain words fit (e.g. cuor <\/strong>instead of cuore<\/strong>, \u2018heart\u2019; amor<\/strong> instead of amore<\/strong>, \u2018love\u2019).<\/span><\/p>\n

Now you should have all the information you need to translate it for yourselves, su, forza!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Learning a foreign language is hard work when you\u2019re an adult! It\u2019s always a humbling experience when, having diligently studied Italian for many years, you travel to Italy only to hear a group of four year olds playing together and speaking much better Italian than you! Non \u00e8 giusto!\u00a0 Well obviously those children have had…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[58887,58889,58888],"class_list":["post-797","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-culture","category-grammar","tag-italian-adjectives","tag-italian-bel-bello","tag-italian-indefinite-article"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=797"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":823,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797\/revisions\/823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}