ekÆsine

This is my first post and I'd just like to say a big HI! to everyone here. There is something I need help with and I'll try to keep this as short as I can. I want to tell someone who I've worked with for half a year how I feel about her. I am pretty sure I haven't made this obvious to her yet, but I'm an idiot in these kinds of things so who knows. There's a chance I might have to leave the job in the near future and I was thinking I could tell her on my last day if have the nerves to do it. She has this thing she does when I leave. She does a princess wave and it's very cute. She is Italian so I thought this would be a great way to tell her.

Can someone please help me understand how to say "you are a beautiful princess and I will always love you" in Italian? I'm confused because altavista.com's Babel Fish translation says the translation is "siete una principessa bella e li amerò sempre", but freetranslation.com says the translation is "lei è una bella principessa e l'amerò sempre". Which one is correct or is there a more accurate way of saying this? I also would like help with how to say it properly. I have no experience speaking Italian. Also if you think there is a more appropriate phrase similiar to this that would be better please tell me.

chiara410

"you are a beautiful princess and I will always love you"
in Italian it is
"sei una principessa bellissima e ti amerò sempre"

chiara410

sorry i forgot the pronunciation:
there's only one way to pronounce vowels in Italian:
a sounds always like the a in the word 'car'
e sounds always like e in the word 'end'
i sounds always like y in the word 'happy'
u always like o in who
o always like 'though'
this is a general rule to be applied always.

Also in Italian we pronounce every single letter we write.
So:

sei: s like in sink, e like in end, i like y in happy.
una: u like o in who, n like night, a like car
principessa: prin is like 'prince' but c sounds like ch in church.
bellissima : you have to pronounce the double letters l and s,
the sound is the same but a bit stronger. hard to explain... like double z you say in 'pizza'
amerò : sounds like a French word because there's an accent on it, so the accent is on the last letter o.
that's it.
ciao.

ekÆsine

Thanks chiara410! so you must be pretty fluent in Italian I suppose? I'm still not understanding the pronounciation for this. is it close to something like see ooh nah bell lee zee ma ah m-air oh? do you know a site where I can listens to these words?

chiara410

[so you must be pretty fluent in Italian I suppose? ]
fluent ? a bit i'm Italian really !

[do you know a site where I can listens to these words?]
no, i'm sorry i have no idea ! i wish i could record it and send you the file,
but i can't ! you might try and look for a site with Italian lessons and then look for Italian pronunciation. Actually learning to read Italian is easy
even if you don't know what the words mean. Much easier than English.

[is it close to something like see ooh nah bell lee zee ma ah m-air oh?]
sei = the sound is like the English word 'say', the only difference is
that the letter 'e' is openly pronounced 'e' in 'm-e-ssage'
una = ooh nah = yes right
bellissima = bell lee zee ma = yes you got it but the double s sound is like the sound in the word 'pass'
principessa = i'll try to write it in 'English pronunciation': princheepessa , where the last 'e' sounds like 'e' in message. and again the double 'ss' sound like 'pass'.

e ti amerò sempre :
e = this time the sound like the sound in the word 'say'
ti = tee
amerò = a like in car, m like in mine, e like in message, r like in road, ò like in
though... the accent of this word is on this last vowel ò, so it sounds a bit like a French word.
per = like in 'per se' but the ' e ' is open like in 'message'
sempre = s like in 'so' , e like in 'say', m like 'mine', p like 'park', r like 'road',
e like 'say'.

pls try and let me know!
anyway don't worry, she will understand you.
even if Italian is very badly pronounced we can understand it,
we are a nation of artists and we've got a lot of immagination, especially about expressing ourselves and understanding
good luck mate !

ekÆsine

chiara410 I really do appreciate this help. I think I understand how to say everything you're explaining to me except amerò sempre. I think its something like, ah m-air row see emp pray. m-air like in bone marrow. You say you can't record it, but is it because you don't have a microphone? if that's why would you let me send you some money or send you a package? I know that sounds a bit silly, but I really would like to get this as close to perfect as I can. as if I really spoke Italian, you know what I mean? I want to make it sound as if I mean what I say. If you decide this is something you can help me with than I would also like to send you something else as a small thank you.

Tienus

I think this website can help you in pronunciation
http://www.packback.com/books/language/italian.asp

i hope it can help you