'Buongiorno' is the Italian 'good morning' - and like a lot of greetings, it's really two words holding hands. Pull them apart and each has a long history of its own.
Both halves of 'buongiorno' come from Latin, and once a learner can see the join, a whole set of greetings opens up from the same two pieces. The cards take the word apart, follow each half back to its root, and show why Italian keeps the greeting singular where Spanish makes it plural.
• An illustrated black-and-white word-history in comic form - stage panels, one idea to each, taking 'buongiorno' apart into its two Latin halves and following each one back
• The word-history breakdown, Latin to modern Italian, with a date at each stage the record allows
• A sources page listing where every claim comes from
• A short guide for the adult on how to use the cards
The PDF prints two ways, and you choose which suits you. The large cards - one idea to a page - are made to be laminated and clipped onto a single binder ring, so a child can handle them, turn them over and lay them out in order. You print, laminate, trim and bind these yourself; the cards are numbered, so a loose deck goes back in sequence. The single sheet at the end holds the whole word on one page - print it and it's ready, no laminating or cutting - for the pencil case or the middle of a lesson. You'll need a printer; a laminator and a ring are needed only for the deck.
Because the large cards come apart, there's more to do with them than read. Split the word into its two halves and ask what each one means, then build other greetings the same way. Hold up the English-cousin cards and sort each back to the half it came from. If you own more than one word from L'Officina Radice, clip the shared day-cards onto one ring and lay them side by side. It's the same cards, talked through and handled differently - adult-led, a few minutes at a time, never a drill.
A greeting like 'buongiorno' is usually learned whole, as a single polite noise. That's fine until a learner meets 'buonasera' or 'buon appetito' and has to start again. Seeing that it's just two ordinary words joined - 'good' and 'day' - turns one memorised greeting into a pattern that opens up the rest.
Made for secondary Italian learners at Key Stages 3 and 4, but it suits a wider range:
• Anyone who likes where words come from
• Italian learners in Key Stages 3 and 4, and GCSE students meeting 'buongiorno' and other greetings
• Home-educated children
• Learners who find vocabulary hard to hold when it's taught as isolated words - including dyslexic and working-memory profiles
• Parents brushing up their own Italian, or studying alongside a child
• Adults coming back to Italian after school
This isn't a first step into Italian. A learner should already be meeting 'buongiorno' and other greetings in lessons - the cards open up a word a child is already using, they don't introduce the language from scratch. If a child hasn't started Italian at all, this will come too early.
Related resources
• In L'Officina Radice: 'oggi' and 'mezzogiorno' are the nearest neighbours - 'mezzogiorno' shares the same 'giorno', and 'oggi' comes from the same day-family.
• For anyone who likes the links across languages: 'buenos días' (Spanish, El Taller Raíz) pairs the same two ideas, 'good' and 'day', but makes the greeting plural.
• In the Compendium: the post on why word origins help dyslexic learners with modern languages.
• Free in The Wordhord: the English cousins from the two roots - 'bonus' and 'bounty' from 'buon', 'diurnal' and 'journal' from 'giorno'.
For personal use in home education and tutoring only.
Available now as a PDF download.
'Buongiorno' is the Italian 'good morning' - and like a lot of greetings, it's really two words holding hands. Pull them apart and each has a long history of its own.
Both halves of 'buongiorno' come from Latin, and once a learner can see the join, a whole set of greetings opens up from the same two pieces. The cards take the word apart, follow each half back to its root, and show why Italian keeps the greeting singular where Spanish makes it plural.
• An illustrated black-and-white word-history in comic form - stage panels, one idea to each, taking 'buongiorno' apart into its two Latin halves and following each one back
• The word-history breakdown, Latin to modern Italian, with a date at each stage the record allows
• A sources page listing where every claim comes from
• A short guide for the adult on how to use the cards
The PDF prints two ways, and you choose which suits you. The large cards - one idea to a page - are made to be laminated and clipped onto a single binder ring, so a child can handle them, turn them over and lay them out in order. You print, laminate, trim and bind these yourself; the cards are numbered, so a loose deck goes back in sequence. The single sheet at the end holds the whole word on one page - print it and it's ready, no laminating or cutting - for the pencil case or the middle of a lesson. You'll need a printer; a laminator and a ring are needed only for the deck.
Because the large cards come apart, there's more to do with them than read. Split the word into its two halves and ask what each one means, then build other greetings the same way. Hold up the English-cousin cards and sort each back to the half it came from. If you own more than one word from L'Officina Radice, clip the shared day-cards onto one ring and lay them side by side. It's the same cards, talked through and handled differently - adult-led, a few minutes at a time, never a drill.
A greeting like 'buongiorno' is usually learned whole, as a single polite noise. That's fine until a learner meets 'buonasera' or 'buon appetito' and has to start again. Seeing that it's just two ordinary words joined - 'good' and 'day' - turns one memorised greeting into a pattern that opens up the rest.
Made for secondary Italian learners at Key Stages 3 and 4, but it suits a wider range:
• Anyone who likes where words come from
• Italian learners in Key Stages 3 and 4, and GCSE students meeting 'buongiorno' and other greetings
• Home-educated children
• Learners who find vocabulary hard to hold when it's taught as isolated words - including dyslexic and working-memory profiles
• Parents brushing up their own Italian, or studying alongside a child
• Adults coming back to Italian after school
This isn't a first step into Italian. A learner should already be meeting 'buongiorno' and other greetings in lessons - the cards open up a word a child is already using, they don't introduce the language from scratch. If a child hasn't started Italian at all, this will come too early.
Related resources
• In L'Officina Radice: 'oggi' and 'mezzogiorno' are the nearest neighbours - 'mezzogiorno' shares the same 'giorno', and 'oggi' comes from the same day-family.
• For anyone who likes the links across languages: 'buenos días' (Spanish, El Taller Raíz) pairs the same two ideas, 'good' and 'day', but makes the greeting plural.
• In the Compendium: the post on why word origins help dyslexic learners with modern languages.
• Free in The Wordhord: the English cousins from the two roots - 'bonus' and 'bounty' from 'buon', 'diurnal' and 'journal' from 'giorno'.
For personal use in home education and tutoring only.
Available now as a PDF download.
