Some new developments:

• The drawings for the $25 gift certificate (it might go up to $50 after a few months — depends on how good business is!) will resume in January 2009.  All email subscribers to ILGUR.com, Parola del Giorno (Twitter subscribers are not eligible for the drawing unless they subscribe to the blog via email), and this blog are eligible to win.  Winner will receive the gift certificate directly in their email.  The only request I have is that you let me know your first name and first initial of your last name, city, state and country so that I can post the winners to the blog.  Email addresses and personal information will not be posted.
• A new store has opened up at Knowing Rome called “Il Foro Romano“!  If you’re looking for a guidebook to Rome (or Italy even) or want to learn more about Roman history, check out the store.  I’ve compiled some of my favorite products which I think are the most useful, informative, entertaining and most of all, educational.  There are sections on Rome travel, Italy travel, DVD’s and documentaries on Rome, Rome and Italian history and more.  Each of the items in the store I’ve read and/or purchased so if you have a question on a particular item, email me, and I’ll give the low down on it.
• Also don’t forget my Marketplace, which is another online store I’ve created that contains links to dozens of books, CD’s, DVD’s and more to help you in your quest to improve and better your Italian.  I’ve reviewed almost all of the products in the store and own most of them.  Check out both stores!

Italian Translation Practice visit the blog
Italian Translation Practice blog is going strong!  A number of people enjoy the challenging translations that are posted to the site each week.  We currently have over 25 examples and are adding more each week.  Please take a stab at them and publish your attempt (if you wish) to the blog for others to see and learn from.  Remember that translation is a great way to practice Italian grammar and put into practice what you’ve learned.  The goal is not to be perfect but to practice what you’ve learned, and the best way is to use the examples that we provide on the blog.

Follow Us On Twitter
Want to receive our Word of the Day on your mobile phone, chat program or RSS feed?  You can receive an abbreviated version of our Word of the Day through Twitter — our Twitter name is paroladelgiorno. If you’re new to Twitter, click here to view instructions on following us and receiving updates.

Exercises, Answer Keys and Downloads
In the past few weeks, I have been creating pdf lessons and exercises on ILGUR.com that you can print and take with you.  A few users have asked me to add more exercises.  If you have a need for exercises on a particular area of grammar, please let me know, and I will do my best to accommodate you.  Pdf downloads of the lesson can help your learning, especially when you’re on the go — waiting for the bus, on the subway, during your break between classes, your lunch break!  If you’re trying to bone up on a particular aspect of Italian grammar, what better way than to take it with you.  If a pdf is available, it will be at the bottom of the posts in the Downloads section.  I hope to create a listing of available lessons and exercises for downloads soon!

Exercises can be found for Lessons 80 (Double Object Pronouns) and Lesson 91 (Verbs That Take Indirect Objects).  More lessons will be forthcoming in the next couple of weeks.

Vocabolario
This month’s Vocabolario is dedicated to shopping!  If you have an addition, please add it as a comment:

• la bancanota bill, note
• il camerino changing room
• il/la cliente customer
• il commesso, la commessa shop assistant; sales clerk
• i contanti (pl.) cash
• la confezione regalo wrapping paper
• la folla crowd
• la merce goods, merchandise
• il regalo gift
• il pagamento payment
• il pagamento a rate payment in installments
• il pagamento in contanti payment in cash
• il reparto department (in a store)
• il resto change
• la misura size
• la taglia size
• la cassa cashier
  In Italy, you often pay at the la cassa and then take your scontrino to the counter to place your order.
• la cassa d’uscita checkout
• la cassa veloce express checkout
• i soldi (pl.) money
• il saldo sale
• lo sconto discount
• lo scontrino receipt
• la spesa, lo shopping shopping
• la carta di credito credit card
• il negozio store
• il grande magazzino department store
• il prezzo price
• l’offerta offer, deal
  
• il buon affare bargain
• affollato crowded
• in vendita on sale (as in: available for purchase)
• andare a fare la spesa, andare a fare lo shopping to go shopping
• cambiare to exchange
• cambiare merce to exchange goods
• comprare to buy
• fare lo shopping to shop
• fare la spesa to shop
• pagare in contanti to pay in cash
• vendere to sell
• restituire to return (-isc- verb)

Book of the Month
November’s Book of the Month is Paola Nanni-Tate’s newest book, Easy Italian Step-by-Step.  It amazes me how no matter how advanced my Italian becomes, I can always learn something from an Italian book no matter what its level.  I think that this is one of the great things about the books written by this author is that she knows her audience well.  Like her other publications, this book is no different.  The book is well-organized, starting off with the most basic of Italian (definite articles, gender, number) and progressing slowly to more complex constructions (subjunctive, imperfect, double object pronouns).  One of the best chapters is Nanni-Tate’s explanation of the subjunctive, how it is conjugated, and how it is used with plentiful lists of expressions and conjunctions and other scenarios which might trigger the use of this mood.  Also included in this book are reading comprehension exercises which include lists of great new words that you can add to your vocabulary.  Don’t think of this book as a mere desktop reference — you can seriously gain a decent foundation.  If you’re looking for a less expensive alternative to something such as Prego, then this book is definitely for you.

Blog of the Month: Hai Sentito
One of my favorite Italian blogs is Hai Sentito (Have you heard?).  This is a unique blog that posts interesting news throughout Italy and the World.  It’s a great way to increase your vocabulary by reading about stories you might have encountered in your own language as well as reading about news and current events that take place.  The blog is also full of photos, polls and videos which can all help in improving your Italian along with lists of comments and related articles.  Reading comments by others in Italian can help you learn new words and colloquial expressions as well as see what the average Italian thinks about things that are going on in their country and around the world.

From My Readers…
From My Readers is a new section of the newsletter which will focus on a question asked by a reader of my blogs. I received an email from a frequent visitor to my blog, Parola del Giorno. She asked if it was possible for me to provide audio files for the words that I choose. While it is not possible yet (but it’s in the works), my advice is to check out DOP: http://www.dizionario.rai.it. DOP is an Italian dictionary maintained by RAI which “speaks” — simply look up a word and then hear how it is pronounced. A written pronuncation is also available along with the spoken one.  The voices used are not electronic (as far as I can tell) and are clear, crisp and easy to understand.  Until Parola del giorno is more “vocal”, this is the next best thing to hearing your words pronouced.  This is a great tool — be sure to add it to your bookmarks.

I also received a few emails asking about where to buy audiobooks.  Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find a reliable supplier of these in the United States.  Your best bet for locating Audiobooks is from an online Italian bookseller (or an Italian brick-and-mortar store if you’re physically in Italy).  Remember, when searching Italian sites, the Italian word for audio book is audiolibro.  On IBS.it, you can do a search of all available audiobooks by typing the word audiolibro in the search field.  This same type of search will work on other Italian book sites, too!  Check out this post on Audiobooks for more details and some audiobook suggestions.

Common Italian Errors
When studying Italian, it’s important to know that even Italian native speakers make mistakes, too.  Every language has its words and phrases that are often misused or misspelled.  A friend of mine recently turned me onto this page from Mozilla.it — an Italian association that supports Mozilla and makes it more user-friendly for Italian.  This page has lists of common errors that are often made by Italian speakers — maybe you’ve picked up some of these errors?  The page has lists of commonly misspelled words as well as more correct forms of common verbs, nouns and expressions.  Check out the page for yourself!