Romance Languages
What is the difference between Spanish and ITalian?
5 Answers
nizhoni1 has said it all.
Since Latin was spoken in Rome, Italian is seemingly closer to Latin then Spanish by a very small margin. However, Romainian is the the closest of modern languages to Latin. Portugese is farther from Latin, as it comes directly from Spanish. Then we have French, which is probably just as far from Latin as Portugese.
And then there are some who will say that this is all debatable.
I study both Italian and Spanish, and aside from the grammatical points: in Spanish haber is the only auxiliary verb used to form compound tenses whereas in Italian (and also French) both the verbs essere (to be) and avere (to have) and used to construct the perfect, pluperfect and other compound tenses. Their use all depends on whether the verb is intransitive (does not take a direct object e.g. I go) or reflexive - in either of these cases it will take essere in the perfect tense.
The two languages have quite different pronunciation rules although in both you have the "rolled r's." In Italian ci is pronouns "chi" like in cappuccino and ciao and ce is pronounces "che". Also chi and che in Italian have a much harder k sound.
Italian also uses grave accents, like in the word caffè, which Spanish, does not have for a short e.
I hope this has helped!
There is a language in the Swiss-German canton of Graubunden/Grissons with very few speakers called Romansch. It's surprisingly close to Latin. As in, a fly swatter is a "matamosca".
I watch many Italian movies and am often delighted to discover the similarities to Spanish, both with words and in the structure of sentences.
I'm no expert, but from my experience, I'd say there are far more similarities than differences.
Both Italian and Spanish are like music to my ears!
That is a big question Tanta.I can only comment on the common Latin root. I will let a better linguist take on the differences. Welcome to the forum.
