Into your first book

A real book has more words and longer sentences. Learn what to do about the five things this path left out, then open the Green Hill fables and read one scene.

≈ 2 min of reading · Practise at your own pace

What’s in this chapter

Start with the Green Hill fables, which use deliberately limited language.
Read the Italian line before looking across at the English.
Look a word up if you want it, then move on.
Five things were left out on purpose; none of them blocks a sentence.

A book has more vocabulary and longer sentences. That is expected. You know what to notice: hard and soft c and g, held doubles, the ending that carries the subject, the describing word behind the thing, the welded short words, and the storytelling past.

Five things left out on purpose

A real book uses a few things this path left out. None of them blocks a sentence, so here is what to do when one turns up.

What you will see	What to do about it
ne and ci	Tiny words for “of it” and “there”. Step over them.
gli, le, lo in front of a verb	Small words like mi. What they point at is usually in the line before.
a verb after che“that” ending in -sse or -ia	The subjunctive. It means what the plain verb means; read through it.
Lei with a capital letter	The polite “you”. Same word as “she”; the capital is the clue.
del, della	di — “of” — welded onto the article like nel. Split it.

When you're ready

Into the reading room

Try your first book.

Open Twelve Tales from the Green Hill and read one scene with the English beside it.

Books open inside a Zaban account, so you’ll be asked to log in first.

Go back a chapter

A new reading: try it before revealing help

The same four animals, and this time the pronunciation and the English begin hidden. Read each line aloud, say what you think happened, then reveal it. Aim for the scene.

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