from pp.37-38

765 mediante through, by means of, by, attraverso. This word is also the present participle of mediare (“to mediate”) but is much more frequently used as a preposition, an example of grammaticalization. Example, imparare le parole italiane mediante / attraverso l’etimologia e la mnemonica (“learning Italian words through etymology and mnemonics”).

766 sostituire to substitute or replace. This word looks easy but note the usage; the meaning depends on the preposition used. Examples, sostituire A a B (“to substitute A for B”, “to use A in place of B”; think of a as “in the place of” and sostituire as “to put or use”); sostituire A con B (“to replace A with B”; sostituire means “to replace”).

769 complesso complex. From Latin complexus (“entwined”). Cognate with complex, Spanish complejo and French complexe (“complex”). Not to be confused with completare (“to complete”), completado (“completed”).

771 sole sun. From Latin solem (“sun”, accusative of Latin sol; if an Italian noun comes from Latin, it’s mostly from the accusative case of the noun). Cognate with solar, Spanish sol and French soleil (“sun”), with English sun if traced to Proto-Indo-European. This word is masculine. Obviously a false friend of English sole. Example, il sole e la luna (“the sun and the moon”).

772 appena just, barely, hardly; soon, as soon as. From Latin a + pena (“trouble”; “pain”). Cognate with Spanish apenas and French à peine (“barely”, “hardly”, “scarcely”). The root is cognate with English penalty, penal, with the root of subpoena, with the first element of peninsula. The sense of “pain”, “penalty” is connected to the literal meaning of hard-ly. In English peninsula, which is from Latin, pen- literally means “almost” so the word means “almost island”. Examples, non è troppo tardi, sono appena le 10 di sera (“it’s not too late, it’s barely 10 at night”); appena possibile (“as soon as possible”).

773 mancare to miss, to be missing (either lose or think of); to fail, to lack. From Latin mancus (“maimed”). Use a mnemonic such as “a maimed man lacks a limb”. The two meanings “to miss” and “to lack” are closely connected. Examples, mi manca mia mamma (“I miss my mom”, literally “to me my mom is missing”); vi manca il tempo (“you don’t have time”, literally “to you time is lacking”); Giovanni manca da casa da diversi giorni (“Giovanni has been missing from home for several days”).

777 stampa (n.) printing, press; (adj.) printing, press. Cognate with English stamp. But this word does not mean “postage stamp” (which would be francobollo in Italian) or “stamp as a mark” (timbro in Italian). Examples, conferenza stampa (“press conference”); comunicato stampa (“press release”); ufficio stampa (“public relations office”, literally “press office”); la stampa è stata inventata da Gutenberg (“printing was invented by Gutenberg”).

778 dipendente employee; subordinate. Cognate with English (adj.) dependent, (n.) dependant. But the primary meaning of Italian dipendente is “employee”. Think of an employee as a subordinate, relative to the manager. As a mnemonic, you can have a nowadays morbidly backward view that an employee is a dependant of his boss. This word can be of either gender depending on the person referred to.

784 sperare to hope, to expect. From Latin sperare (“to hope”, “to expect”). Cognate with Spanish esperar and French espérer (“to hope”, “to expect”). This word is not cognate with English expect, which nevertheless can be used as a mnemonic; think of Italian prefix s- as English ex-. Examples, spero di sì / no (“I hope so / not”; note preposition di); spero che ti piaccia (“I hope you like it”).

785 essi they, them, loro. 817 esso it, questo, quello. From Latin ipse (“him-/her-/it-self”). Cognate with Spanish ese, eso (“that”). You may have seen the Latin phrase ipso facto (“by that very fact”, literally “fact itself”) in English. These two Italian words, esso and essi, are more literary than questo, quello, loro. Alternative, use English is as a mnemonic to remember esso as if you’re saying it is ...; essi is just a simple plural of esso.

789 guida guide, guidance; driving. 1270 guidare to guide, to lead; to drive. Note these two words have the meaning of “driving”, “to drive”. Think of the car as something you guide to navigate. Italian word condurre could also mean “to drive” but that’s not its primary meaning. Examples, lui / lei è una guida turistica (“he / she is a tourist guide”; the grammatically feminine gender of guida determines the gender of its preceding article and following adjective, but guida can denote a person of either biological gender, just like persona); guidare un’auto / una macchina (“to drive a car”); guida un team di 5 persone (“he leads a team of 5 people”).