Basque or Slovene?

A surprising statement on the back of Colloquial Basque. “By the end of this rewarding course you will be able to communicate confidently and effectively in Slovene in a broad range of everyday situations. “

Italian tongue twister

Trentatré Trentini entrarono a Trento, tutti e trentatré, trotterellando Meaning: thirty-three people from Trento (northern Italy) entered Trento, all thirty-three trotting. I first came across this tongue twister in the mid 1990s in an excellent BBC Italian course Italianissimo. Sadly, this no longer seems to be available.

Scandinavian language challenge day 6

Today I worked through the first chapter of Norwegian in three months. This chapter introduces: articles and nounsplurals of nounssubject pronounsthe verbs to be and to haveeveryday expressionsother words Articles and nouns There are two genders: common and neuter, though sometimes common gender is split into masculine and feminine colloquially (and especially in Nynorsk). The…… Continue reading Scandinavian language challenge day 6

Scandinavian language challenge day 3

Today, I started the Norwegian part of my Scandinavian language challenge. I am using Norwegian in Three Months (1989), published by Dorling Kindersley under the Hugo imprint. This book contains an introduction preface, a guide to pronunciation (and spelling), 12 chapters, a key to the exercises, an appendix on Norwegian spelling, a mini-dictionary and an…… Continue reading Scandinavian language challenge day 3

Scandinavian language challenge day 2

I am continuing the Scandinavian language challenge I started yesterday. Today, I started Swedish. I am using Swedish in Three Months (1998), published by Dorling Kindersley under the Hugo imprint. This book contains a preface, a guide to pronunciation (and spelling), 12 chapters, reading practice (4 pages) a key to the exercises and drills, a…… Continue reading Scandinavian language challenge day 2

Scandinavian language challenge day 1

I have set myself a language challenge. I will work through basic introductory language courses on Danish, Swedish and Norwegian, working each day on one of the languages. I’ve picked these languages because: I first started looking at these 3 languages (together with several other languages) around 45 years ago when I first got into…… Continue reading Scandinavian language challenge day 1