The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University

In addition to your textbook and your required hard-copy dictionary, here are some resources to help your diction, translations, and language enjoyment.  The websites are all free, unless otherwise indicated.

DICTION
www.treccani.it - this is an excellent resource for looking up the pronunciation of conjugated verb forms:  for example, does "[lui] aspetta" have an open or closed E? -- type the word you want to look up in the box next to "Vocabolario," and it will show that "aspetta" is from "aspettare" and will list in parenthesis some conjugations (io aspetto, ecc.) with an accent mark over the stressed vowel -- grave = open E, acute = closed E

http://www.dizionario.rai.it/index.aspx?treeID=1 - a FANTASTIC resource, which is still under construction.  On the main page, under "Scrivi la voce," type the word you want to find.  Verbs must be in the infinitive (for example:  essere), as it will not find conjugations (sono, sei) if you type those in.  Click "Cerca."  When it comes up with a list (or a single selection) corresponding to the word you were searching, click on that word.  A window pops up, and there is the option to click on a little bell icon, which enables you to listen to the word being pronounced!  There also will be listings for irregular verb conjugations, which is absolutely invaluable!

http://www.dizionario-italiano.it/ – shows stress and IPA (no syllabification and no r differentiation, but very useful for zs)--WARNING:  sometimes the IPA symbols show up as empty squares, so that is not too helpful, plus I have found at least one error while looking at this site, and certain common words are not in their database; Italian dictionary with definitions in Italian

Berton Coffin’s Phonetic Readings of Songs and Arias, pub. Scarecrow 1994:  IPA

VERB CONJUGATIONS
http://www.garzantilinguistica.it/ – extremely useful verb conjugation tables (“tavola di coniugazione dei verbi”):  enter an infinitive, and it shows you all of the conjugations for that verb in all tenses and persons; this site also has a respected Italian dictionary, synonyms and antonyms.  You must register to use it, but it is free.  This site exists in an Italian version and an English version.

http://en.wiktionary.org - type in the conjugated verb (for example, "diede"), and it gives you the infinitive and an explanation (third person singular past historic of dare)!

Colaneri, John.  501 Italian Verbs.  2^nd ed.  Barron’s Educational Series, 2001.  ISBN: 0764113488

www.treccani.it -this is an excellent resource for looking up conjugated verb forms

TRANSLATION
http://oxfordparavia.it/ – a stellar Italian-English/English-Italian dictionary that translates individual words.  If you register, which is free ("Registrazione gratuita"), you can also see additional meanings (idiomatic, etc.) and complete IPA (including stress and everything except r differentiation).  Bookmark this site now, register, and use it!

http://www.wordreference.com – this site seems to do a good job of suggesting related words or possible verbs (if you type a noun with a plural ending or a conjugated verb into other sites, it will say they do not exist, so you have to know the language well enough to put in or to find the exact root, which you do not have to do here....Unfortunately you could also get false matches if you do not critically evaluate the options shown to you.)  The site also has verb conjugation tables in a beta version.

http://dizionari.hoepli.it/Dizionario_Italiano-Inglese.aspx?idD=2

http://ultralingua.com/onlinedictionary/ – for translating individual words; please note that this site has started to charge after you use it for more than a certain number of words per day

http://dictionary.reference.com/translate/ – for translating sentences, paragraphs, or other larger units (it is not perfect, but I have found it to be consistently better than other translation sites)

www.aria-database.com – translations into English of aria texts

www.recmusic.org/lieder – translations into English and other languages of song texts

Timothy LeVan’s Masters of the Italian Art Song published by Scarecrow in 1993:  word-for-word and poetic translations

VARIOUS
Nico Castel's opera libretti translation books:  IPA, text, word-for-word and poetic translations

www.ipasource.com :  IPA and translations for which you must pay (I would much rather that you do your own!)

http://www.treccani.it/Portale/sito/comunita/scelti_nel_web/dizionari/ :  links to dialect dictionaries and other resources

MUSIC, FILMS, etc.
http://www.dizionario.rai.it/static.aspx?treeID=224 - to hear poetic readings of Italian
www.radioitalia.it – to gain access to streaming versions of an Italian radio station devoted solely to Italian music
http://www.rai.tv/dl/RaiTV/homeTv.html – to watch T.V. shows and other programs in Italian…any time you want
http://www.italica.rai.it/lingua/corso.htm - to listen, watch, read, and do exercises in Italian

These links go to external sites that are not maintained by the Peabody Institute, thus the information contained therein does not necessarily represent the official policy of the Institute.