Il nuovo salvalingua

A recent book that I've read that you might enjoy reading and may also benefit from is the book, Il nuovo salvalingua, written by Valeria Della Valle and Giuseppe Patota, two professors at the Universita degli Studi di Roma La Sapienza and the Universita degli Studi di Siena, respectively.

Published in 2007, this book seeks to help users avoid some of the pitfalls of the Italian language. As the subtitles says, the book is full of "easy rules for avoiding errors of the spoken and written language". It is laid out from "A" to "Z" with various entries that highlight common misconceptions of the Italian language and attempts to help its readers to avoid simple yet sometimes grave errors. The audience of the book is clearly for native speakers, but I believe that this book could and can be useful to anyone learning Italian, even non-Italians!

I learned a lot about Italian grammar from this book - some of the most useful sections are the ones on Italian punctiation, the subjunctive, word spellings and irregular plurals. I also learned the gender of qualcosa and when it is feminine and when it is used in the masculine. Do you know the differences between grosso and grande? What about the use of gratis? Did you know that the verb, spegnere, has another form in Tuscany?

These are all useful and interesting points of Italian grammar worth exploring. I found the book so interesting that I read it in its entirety in one sitting. The book is completely in Italian (remember, it's for an Italian audience), but it is written clearly and concisely, and I think that even beginner's would have no trouble following the explanations given by the authors.