Welcome to the Bandiera Rossi Project

Bandiera Rossi is an easy-to-use vocabulary building tool for people 
with a basic understanding of Italian grammar and usage.

To use the DICTIONARY module for quick word lookup, enter a few characters of a word,  
and a list of words matching that string will be listed.  
Click on a  word for a definition...

Note: If the word is a COGNATE, 
(that is, a word in Italian that is very similarly spelled in English), No definition may be given.  

For any definition displayed, each word within the definition is a clickable link and will yield a 
definition of its own.  This will allow the user to recursively search for the 
meaning of a words without resorting to an English language translation.  
It is my belief that to "learn the language" you must begin to THINK in Italian, 
and  reaching for an English/Italian dictionary will not help.  

Rather, Bandiera Rossi, or "Little Red Flags" (bad grammar, but a convenient play on my last name!) 
allows you to remain "in Italian" for the entire time you are using the DICTIONARY.   
This allows you to 'Think in Italian' even though you may  have a tiny vocabulary.  
Imagine a typical Italian child learning to speak,
surly they think in Italian even with a vocabulary of 50 words!

To Add a Word to the dictionary*, 
click the link on Definition Builder link at the www.TantoAbruzzo.com web site, 
and follow the examples there.  Enter the word as it will be searched, the phonetic description, 
and an English translation using the follow syntax:  Separate each syllable with a period, 
and use a caret [^] before the syllable with emphasis.  

Note that we use the phonetic spelling assuming Italian pronunciation rules, 
NOT English Phonetics!!!.  This is not an English translation dictionary!!!
You should already be trying to pronounce words
 thinking in terms of Italian pronunciation!

Bouna Fortuna, and I hope you enjoy using Bandiera Rossi

*If a word already exist in Bandiera Rossi, you may add another definition, but you cannot change the word attributes.   If there is an error in the word attributes, use the EDIT function available from the MAIN MENU.