How Italian works

The short version

• Spelling is almost perfectly phonetic. A word you can read is a word you can say, which removes a whole category of difficulty.
• Two verbs hold up the language. Essere and avere are irregular everywhere and every compound tense is built from them. Learn both cold.
• The articles are a pronunciation rule, not a grammar rule. Once you hear why lo exists, it stops needing memorisation.
• This is a 100-word starter course, enough to read simple Italian and decide whether to carry on.