Spanish is my mother tongue, but after living many years in France I am more proficient in French. However most of my reading/writing/coding is done in English. Now I am learning Italian. You can intuitively understand most of it. However there are some funny traps.

False friends

Completely different words

Different preposition usage

• in fronte => delante de
• ritornare/andare in città => ir a la cuidad
• da questa parte => por esta dirección/lado
• lei è venuta da sola => ella ha venido sola
• da fare => por hacer
• da mangiare => de comer
• più forte di noi => más fuerte que nosotros
• mettere via il gelato => poner a un lado

Multiple meanings

• Anche
  • Anche lui ha tentato => Incluso él ha intentado
  • Lui anche ha tentato => Él también ha intentado
• Vincere
  • vencer => vincere il campionato
  • ganar un trofeo
  • ganar un salario => guadagnare un stipendio

Verb auxiliaries

• Essere / stare
  • Dov’è ? => donde está ?
  • Essere da solo => Estar solo
• Passato prossimo
  • L’orologio è fermato => el reloj ha parado != el reloj está parado

Why it has to be so irregular ?!

All latin languages I know have the same problem but being a native speaker you do not feel the pain that much. But if those were programming languages I think nobody would actually learn them because they are so full of WTF ?! To be usable the language must be redundant and words must be phonetically and graphically different from each other, but I think latin languages go too far in this direction.

But somehow this irregular forms give you more expresivity by changing a few letters like :

• quería verte => I wanted to see you
• quisiera verte => I would like to see you

Conjugation

• venire / vengo
• avere / Abbiamo