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CHAPTER 2

I booked a table, ordered dinner and then paid the bill. What did you do?

I booked a table, ordered dinner and then paid the bill. What did you do?

The first chapter has shown you that you can learn how to create full and complex sentences in Italian with relative ease. It also began to show you how to convert huge numbers of English words into Italian and then start using them straight away.

We will be doing more of both here, which will allow you to make enormous strides with your Italian in an incredibly short space of time.

Let’s begin by carrying out a second Word Robbery…

Time to steal some words!

Word Robbery Number 2

The second group of words we are going to steal are words that end in “ion” and “ation”. Words that end in “ation” in English usually end in “azione” in Italian. Take a look:

Words such as:

decoration	decorazione
cooperation	cooperazione
imagination	immaginazione
preparation	preparazione
donation	donazione
domination	dominazione
association	associazione
innovation	innovazione
irritation	irritazione

There are more than 1250 “ion” words in English and they are related to similar words in Italian, as you can see above; we can start using these in Italian right now.

Adding them to the words we’ve already stolen so far, we have now reached a total of 2000 words stolen – and we’re only on Chapter 2!

Words stolen so far 2000

We’ve now carried out our second Word Robbery and have gained more than a thousand words ending in “ion” and “ation”, and it only took us thirty seconds to “learn” them.

Now, words ending “ation” in English actually come with yet another benefit. Not only can we steal them to use in Italian in the way shown above, but we can also utilise them to make the past tense in Italian.

Let me show you how.

Let’s take “preparazione” (preparation) as an example.

Now, the first thing you’re going to do with this “preparazione” is to cut off the “azione” at the end. Do this now – what are you left with?

prepar

(prep-are)

Good. Now, onto the end of this, I want you to add the “ato” from the end of the English word “tomato”. So again, I simply want you to take “prepar” and add an “ato” onto the end of it.

What word does that give you?

preparato

(prep-are-art-oh)

This means “prepared”.

Let’s try doing this again, this time with the word “decorazione”. Once more, cut off the “azione” from the end of the word and replace it with the “ato” you find at the end of the English word “tomato”.

Doing this, what do you get?

decorato

(deck-or-art-oh)

This means “decorated”.

Now, you will find that there is always an exception to any rule and, in this, an important exception is the word “reservation”. Italians do not like to make reservations as we do, instead an Italian will make a “prenotation” with the idea being that someone will pre-note the thing they want – a table, a room, and so on – rather than reserve it.

So, given that English words ending in “ation” end in “azione” in Italian, how do you think you would say “reservation” (literally “prenotation”) in Italian?

prenotazione

(pray-no-tatz-ee-oh-nay)

And now that we know what “reservation” is in Italian, we can once again cut the “azione” from the end and add the “ato” from “tomato” in its place. This will give us the Italian for “reserved” (literally “pre-noted”). So, cut off the “azione” from “prenotizione”, replace it with “ato” and tell me what “reserved” or “pre-noted” is in Italian:

prenotato

(pray-no-tart-oh)

Now again, what is “I have” in Italian?

Ho

(o)

So, how would you say “I have reserved” (literally “I have pre-noted”)?

Ho prenotato

(o pray-no-tart-oh)

And “I reserved” / “I pre-noted”?

Ho prenotato

(o pray-no-tart-oh)

And “I did reserve” / “I did pre-note”?

Ho prenotato

(o pray-no-tart-oh)

(Once again, just in case you’d forgotten, you get three English past tenses for the price of one in Italian!)

Now again, how would you say “prepared” in Italian?

preparato

(prep-are-art-oh)

How would you say “I have prepared”?

Ho preparato

(o prep-are-art-oh)

And “I prepared”?

Ho preparato

(o prep-are-art-oh)

And “I did prepare”?

Ho preparato

(o prep-are-art-oh)

“The dinner” in Italian is:

la cena

(la chain-er)

So, how would you say “I have prepared the dinner”, “I prepared the dinner”, “I did prepare the dinner”?

Ho preparato la cena.

(o prep-are-art-oh la chain-er)

And again, what is “reserved” (literally “pre-noted”) in Italian?

prenotato

(pray-no-tart-oh)

Italians actually use this word to mean both “reserved” and “booked”. So, how would you say, “I have reserved” / “I have booked” / “I have pre-noted”?

Ho prenotato

(o pray-no-tart-oh)

“A table” in Italian is:

un tavolo

(oon tav-oh-loe)

So, how would you say “I have reserved a table” / “I have booked a table”?

Ho prenotato un tavolo.

(o pray-no-tart-oh oon tav-oh-loe)

“For you” in Italian is:

per Lei

(pair lay)

How would you say “I have reserved a table for you” / “I have booked a table for you”?

Ho prenotato un tavolo per Lei.

(o pray-no-tart-oh oon tav-oh-loe pair lay)

And again, what was “the dinner” in Italian?

la cena

(la chain-er)

And what was “for you”?

per Lei

(pair lay)

So, if “per Lei” means “for you”, what do you think is the word for “for” in Italian?

per

(pair)

Now, to say “for dinner” in Italian, you will literally say “for the dinner”. How do you think you would say that?

per la cena

(pair la chain-er)

Alright, how would you say “I have reserved a table for dinner” / “I have booked a table for dinner”?

Ho prenotato un tavolo per la cena.

(o pray-no-tart-oh oon tav-oh-loe pair la chain-er)

So, as you can see, those “ation” / “azione” words we stole at the beginning of this chapter really are very useful. Not only do they give you a way to begin to access more than a thousand words immediately – words like “preparation” (preparazione), “decoration” (decorazione), “cooperation” (cooperazione), and so on – but these “ation” words also give you access to the past tense in Italian. This is because, by simply cutting off the “ation” / “azione” from the end of the word and then adding the “ato” from “tomato” in its place, you can create hundreds of past tense words in Italian; words such as “preparato” (prepared), “decorato” (decorated) or, in a more unusual example, “prenotato” (pre-noted), meaning “reserved”.

Let’s try another somewhat unusual one now.

What would “ordination” be in Italian?

ordinazione

(or-din-atz-ee-oh-nay)

And so, cutting off the “azione” and replacing it with the “ato” from “tomato”, what would “ordained” be in Italian?

ordinato

(or-din-art-oh)

Now, you are probably asking yourself “why on earth am I being taught the words for ‘ordination’ and ‘ordained’?”

Well, the word “ordination” / “ordinazione” refers to “the granting of holy orders” and, even more literally, means something simpler still like “ordering”.

When you cut off the “ation” / “azione” from the end of it and add the “ato” from tomato in its place, you end up with the Italian word that means “ordered”.

Now that you know this, how would you say in Italian “I have ordered”, “I ordered”, “I did order”?

Ho ordinato

(o or-din-art-oh)

And how would you say “I ordered dinner” (you will say literally “I have ordered the dinner”)?

Ho ordinato la cena.

(o or-din-art-oh la chain-er)

“The coffee” in Italian is:

il caffè

(eel ka-fe)

So how would you say “I ordered coffee” (again, you will literally say “I have ordered the coffee”)?

Ho ordinato il caffè.

(o or-din-art-oh eel ka-fe)

And once again, how would you say “for you”?

per Lei

(pair lay)

And so how would you say “I ordered the coffee for you”?

Ho ordinato il caffè per Lei.

(o or-din-art-oh eel ka-fe pair lay)

Good, now can you recall how to say “I visited”?

Ho visitato

(o visit-art-oh)

How about “I spent”?

Ho passato

(o pass-art-oh)

“I reserved” / “I booked”?

Ho prenotato

(o pray-no-tart-oh)

“I prepared”?

Ho preparato

(o prep-are-art-oh)

“I ordered”?

Ho ordinato

(o or-din-art-oh)

“Paid” in Italian is:

pagato

(pag-art-oh)

So, how would you say “I have paid”, “I paid”, “I did pay”?

Ho pagato

(o pag-art-oh)

Do you remember what “we have” is from the “Building Blocks” section in Chapter 1? If not, don’t worry, it’s:

Abbiamo

(ab-ee-arm-oh)

So, with this in mind, how would you say “we have paid”, “we paid”, “we did pay”?

Abbiamo pagato

(ab-ee-arm-oh pag-art-oh)

And do you remember what “you have” is in Italian?

Ha

(a)

So, how would you say “you have paid”?

Ha pagato

(a pag-art-oh)

“The bill” in Italian is literally “the account”, which is:

il conto

(eel kon-toe)

So, how would you say “you have paid the bill”?

Ha pagato il conto.

(a pag-art-oh eel kon-toe)

How about “we have paid the bill”?

Abbiamo pagato il conto.

(ab-ee-arm-oh pag-art-oh eel kon-toe)

And “I have paid the bill”?

Ho pagato il conto.

(o pag-art-oh eel kon-toe)

Again, how would you say “I booked a table”?

Ho prenotato un tavolo.

(o pray-no-tart-oh oon tav-oh-loe)

What about “I ordered the dinner”?

Ho ordinato la cena.

(o or-din-art-oh la chain-er)

And how about “I paid the bill”?

Ho pagato il conto.

(o pag-art-oh eel kon-toe)

Let’s now try making a list out of these things. Start by saying “I booked a table, ordered the dinner, paid the bill.” Take your time working it out in your head, bit by bit – there really is no rush. So again “I booked a table, ordered the dinner, paid the bill”:

Ho prenotato un tavolo, ordinato la cena, pagato il conto.

(o pray-no-tart-oh oon tav-oh-loe, or-din-art-oh la chain-er, pag-art-oh eel kon-toe)

Let’s add “then” into this sentence to make it sound more natural. “Then” in Italian is:

poi

(poy)

First try simply saying “then paid the bill”. How would you say that?

poi pagato il conto

(poy pag-art-oh eel kon-toe)

And what was “and” in Italian?

e

(ay)

Right, now say “and then paid the bill”.

e poi pagato il conto

(ey poy pag-art-oh eel kon-toe)

Okay. Let’s try to put this all together and say “I booked a table, ordered the dinner and then paid the bill.”

Ho prenotato un tavolo, ordinato la cena e poi pagato il conto.

(o pray-no-tart-oh oon tav-oh-loe, or-din-art-oh la chain-er ey poy pag-art-oh eel kon-toe)

Not a bad sentence. Let’s make it bigger still.

What is “you have” in Italian?

Ha

(a)

And what is “prepared”?

preparato

(prep-are-art-oh)

So, how would you say “you have prepared”?

Ha preparato

(a prep-are-art-oh)

If you want to say “what have you prepared?” in Italian, one very typical way to express this is to literally say “what thing you have prepared?”

“What thing” in Italian is:

Che cosa

(ke koe-ser)

Again, how would you say “you have prepared” in Italian?

Ha preparato

(a prep-are-art-oh)

And how would you say “what thing”?

Che cosa

(ke koe-ser)

To say “what have you prepared?”, you can simply say “what thing you have prepared?” Let’s do that now. Again, what is “what thing”?

Che cosa

(ke koe-ser)

And what is “you have prepared”?

Ha preparato

(a prep-are-art-oh)

So, how would you say “what thing you have prepared?”?

Che cosa ha preparato?

(ke koe-ser a prep-are-art-oh)

Literally this means “what thing you have prepared?”, but it means not only “what have you prepared?”, it also means “what did you prepare?” Just as before, even though it’s a question, you still get more than one English past tense for the price of one in Italian.

Let’s just make sure you’ve understood this 100%. How would you say “what have you prepared?”?

Che cosa ha preparato?

(ke koe-ser a prep-are-art-oh)

And “what did you prepare”?

Che cosa ha preparato?

(ke koe-ser a prep-are-art-oh)

So, they’re the same!

And how do you think would you say “what have you reserved?” / “what did you reserve?” (literally “what thing you have reserved (pre-noted))”?

Che cosa ha prenotato?

(ke koe-ser a pray-no-tart-oh)

The word for “done” in Italian is:

fatto

(fat-oh)

So, how would you say “what have you done?” / “what did you do?” (literally “what thing you have done?”)?

Che cosa ha fatto?

(ke koe-ser a fat-oh)

And once more, how would you say “I reserved a table” / “I booked a table”?

Ho prenotato un tavolo.

(o pray-no-tart-oh oon tav-oh-loe)

And how would you say “I ordered the dinner”?

Ho ordinato la cena.

(o or-din-art-oh la chain-er)

And remind me, what was the word for “then” in Italian?

poi

(poy)

And the word for “and”?

e

(ay)

So, now say “and then paid the bill”.

e poi pagato il conto

(ey poy pag-art-oh eel kon-toe)

Let’s put those bits together again and say “I booked a table, ordered the dinner and then paid the bill.”

Ho prenotato un tavolo, ordinato la cena e poi pagato il conto.

(o pray-no-tart-oh oon tav-oh-loe, or-din-art-oh la chain-er ey poy pag-art-oh eel kon-toe)

And let’s add the final bit onto it all. Again, how would you say “what thing?”

Che cosa

(ke koe-ser)

And, as I mentioned earlier, “you have done” in Italian is:

Ha fatto

(a fat-oh)

So, how would you say “what have you done?” / “what did you do?” (literally “what thing you have done?”) ?

Che cosa ha fatto?

(ke koe-ser a fat-oh)

Now let’s combine absolutely everything together and (taking your time to think it out) say “I booked a table, ordered dinner and then paid the bill. What did you do?”.

Ho prenotato un tavolo, ordinato la cena e poi pagato il conto. Che cosa ha fatto?

(o pray-no-tart-oh oon tav-oh-loe, or-din-art-oh la chain-er, ey poy pag-art-oh eel kon-toe. ke koe-ser a fat-oh)

How did you find that final, complex sentence? Try it a few more times, even if you got it right, until you feel comfortable constructing it. Every time you practise building these long sentences, the naturalness and fluidity of your spoken Italian will improve and your confidence in speaking will get better along with it.

Building Blocks 2

It’s time to add some new building blocks to the mix. As before, it will be just six new ones. Here they are:

* literally “a chamber”

Once more, these new building blocks have been put into four piles below. As previously, what I want you to do is to make sentences with them, each time using one building block from the first pile, one from the second, one from the third and one from the fourth. Make as many sentences as you can!

* literally “a chamber”

Checklist 2

You have now reached your second checklist. Remember, don’t skip anything! The checklists are essential if you want what you’ve learnt to remain in your memory for the long term.

So again, cover up the English words on the right-hand side while you read through the list of Italian words on the left, trying to recall what they mean in English. If you can go through the entire list, giving the correct English meaning for each of the Italian words / expressions without making more than three mistakes in total, then you’re done. If not, then go through the list again. Keep doing this, either working from the top of the list to the bottom or from the bottom to the top (it doesn’t matter which) until you can do it without making more than three mistakes.

Okay. Ready, set, go!

il weekend (eel weekend)	the weekend
romantico (roe-man-teek-oh)	romantic
fantastico (fan-tass-teek-oh)	fantastic
politico (pol-ee-teek-oh)	political
illogico (ee-lodge-eek-oh)	illogical
Ho (o)	I have
visitato (visit-art-oh)	visited
Ho visitato (o visit-art-oh)	I have visited / I visited / I did visit
Roma (roam-er)	Rome
Napoli (nap-oh-lee)	Naples
Ho visitato Napoli. (o visit-art-oh nap-oh-lee)	I have visited Naples / I visited Naples / I did visit Naples.
passato (pass-art-oh)	spent
Ho passato (o pass-art-oh)	I have spent / I spent / I did spend
Ha (a)	You have
Ha passato (a pass-art-oh)	You have spent / You spent / You did spend
Abbiamo (ab-ee-arm-oh)	We have
Abbiamo passato (ab-ee-arm-oh pass-art-oh)	We have spent / We spent / We did spend
settembre (se-tem-bray)	September
il Natale (eel nat-arl-ay)	Christmas
a Roma (a roam-er)	in Rome
in Italia (een eet-al-yer)	in Italy
in Svizzera (een zvee-tser-er)	in Switzerland
Abbiamo passato il Natale in Svizzera. (ab-ee-arm-oh pass-art-oh eel nat-arl-ay een zvee-tser-er)	We have spent Christmas in Switzerland / We spent Christmas in Switzerland / We did spend Christmas in Switzerland.
Ha passato settembre in Italia. (a pass-art-oh se-tem-bray een eet-al-yer)	You have spent September in Italy / You spent September in Italy / You did spend September in Italy.
e (ay)	and
Era (air-ah)	It was
Era fantastico. (air-ah fan-tass-teek-oh)	It was fantastic.
Il tempo era fantastico. (eel-tem-poe air-ah fan-tass-teek-oh)	The weather was fantastic.
Ho passato il weekend a Roma – e wow, il tempo era fantastico. (o pass-art-oh eel weekend a roam-er ay wow, eel-tem-poe air-ah fan-tass-teek-oh)	I spent the weekend in Rome – and wow, the weather was fantastic.
preparazione (prep-are-atz-ee-oh-nay)	preparation
preparato (pray-par-ato)	prepared
prenotazione (pray-no-tatz-ee-oh-nay)	reservation
prenotato (pray-no-tart-oh)	reserved / booked
ordinato (or-din-art-oh)	ordered
pagato (pag-art-oh)	paid
fatto (fat-oh)	done
il conto (eel kon-toe)	the bill
la cena (la chain-er)	the dinner
il caffè (eel ka-fe)	the coffee
un tavolo (oon tav-oh-loe)	a table
una camera (oon-a cam-air-a)	a room
un taxi (oon taxi)	a taxi
Ho preparato la cena. (o prep-are-art-oh la chain-er)	I have prepared the dinner / I prepared the dinner / I did prepare the dinner.
Ho ordinato il caffè per la cena. (o or-din-art-oh eel ka-fe pair la chain-er)	I have ordered coffee for dinner / I ordered coffee for dinner / I did order coffee for dinner.
Ho prenotato un tavolo per Lei. (o pray-no-tart-oh oon tav-oh-loe pair lay)	I have booked a table for you / I booked a table for you / I did book a table for you.
Lei ha (lay a)	She has
Lei ha prenotato un tavolo per questa sera. (lay a pray-no-tart-oh oon tav-oh-loe pair kwest-er sair-er)	She has booked / reserved a table for this evening – She booked / reserved a table for this evening – She did book / reserve a table for this evening.
Lui ha (loo-ee a)	He has
Lui ha prenotato una camera per due persone. (loo-ee a pray-no-tart-oh oon-a cam-air-a pair doo-ay pair-soan-ay)	He has booked / reserved a room for two people – He booked / reserved a room for two people – He did book / reserve a room for two people.
Abbiamo prenotato un taxi per Lei. (ab-ee-arm-oh pray-no-tart-oh oon taxi pair lay)	We have booked a taxi for you / We booked a taxi for you / We did book a taxi for you.
Abbiamo pagato il conto. (ab-ee-arm-oh pag-art-oh eel kon-toe)	We paid the bill / We have paid the the bill / We did pay the bill.
Che cosa? (ke koe-ser)	What? / What thing?
Che cosa ha preparato? (ke koe-ser a prep-are-art-oh)	What have you prepared? / What did you prepare? (literally “What thing you have prepared?”)
Che cosa ha fatto? (ke koe-ser a fat-oh)	What have you done? / What did you do? (literally “What thing you have done?”)
Ho prenotato un tavolo, ordinato la cena e poi pagato il conto. Che cosa ha fatto? (o pray-no-tart-oh oon tav-oh-loe, or-din-art-oh la chain-er ey poy pag-art-oh eel kon-toe. ke koe-ser a fat-oh)	I booked a table, ordered dinner and then paid the bill. What did you do?

Now, do the same thing once again below, except that this time you’ll be reading through the list of English words and trying to recall the Italian. All you need to do is to be able to do one full read-through of them without making more than three mistakes in total and you’re done!

the weekend	il weekend (eel weekend)
romantic	romantico (roe-man-teek-oh)
fantastic	fantastico (fan-tass-teek-oh)
political	politico (pol-ee-teek-oh)
illogical	illogico (ee-lodge-eek-oh)
I have	Ho (o)
visited	visitato (visit-art-oh)
I have visited / I visited / I did visit	Ho visitato (o visit-art-oh)
Rome	Roma (roam-er)
Naples	Napoli (nap-oh-lee)
I have visited Naples / I visited Naples / I did visit Naples.	Ho visitato Napoli. (o visit-art-oh nap-oh-lee)
spent	passato (pass-art-oh)
I have spent / I spent / I did spend	Ho passato (o pass-art-oh)
You have	Ha (a)
You have spent / You spent / You did spend	Ha passato (a pass-art-oh)
We have	Abbiamo (ab-ee-arm-oh)
We have spent / We spent / We did spend	Abbiamo passato (ab-ee-arm-oh pass-art-oh)
September	settembre (se-tem-bray)
Christmas	il Natale (eel nat-arl-ay)
in Rome	a Roma (a roam-er)
in Italy	in Italia (een eet-al-yer)
in Switzerland	in Svizzera (een zvee-tser-er)
We have spent Christmas in Switzerland / We spent Christmas in Switzerland / We did spend Christmas in Switzerland.	Abbiamo passato il Natale in Svizzera. (ab-ee-arm-oh pass-art-oh eel nat-arl-ay een zvee-tser-er)
You have spent September in Italy / You spent September in Italy / You did spend September in Italy.	Ha passato settembre in Italia. (a pass-art-oh se-tem-bray een eet-al-yer)
and	e (ay)
It was	Era (air-ah)
It was fantastic.	Era fantastico. (air-ah fan-tass-teek-oh)
The weather was fantastic.	Il tempo era fantastico. (eel-tem-poe air-ah fan-tass-teek-oh)
I spent the weekend in Rome – and wow, the weather was fantastic.	Ho passato il weekend a Roma – e wow, il tempo era fantastico. (o pass-art-oh eel weekend a roam-er ay wow, eel-tem-poe air-ah fan-tass-teek-oh)
preparation	preparazione (prep-are-atz-ee-oh-nay)
prepared	preparato (pray-par-ay)
reservation	prenotazione (pray-no-tatz-ee-oh-nay)
reserved / booked	prenotato (pray-no-tart-oh)
ordered	ordinato (or-din-art-oh)
paid	pagato (pag-art-oh)
done	fatto (fat-oh)
the bill	il conto (eel kon-toe)
the dinner	la cena (la chain-er)
the coffee	il caffè (eel ka-fe)
a table	un tavolo (oon tav-oh-loe)
a room	una camera (oon-a cam-air-a)
a taxi	un taxi (oon taxi)
I have prepared the dinner / I prepared the dinner / I did prepare the dinner.	Ho preparato la cena. (o prep-are-art-oh la chain-er)
I have ordered coffee for dinner / I ordered coffee for dinner / I did order coffee for dinner.	Ho ordinato il caffè per la cena. (o or-din-art-oh eel ka-fe pair la chain-er)
I have booked a table for you / I booked a table for you / I did book a table for you.	Ho prenotato un tavolo per Lei. (o pray-no-tart-oh oon tav-oh-loe pair lay)
She has	Lei ha (lay a)
She has booked / reserved a table for this evening – She booked / reserved a table for this evening – She did book / reserve a table for this evening.	Lei ha prenotato un tavolo per questa sera. (lay a pray-no-tart-oh oon tav-oh-loe pair kwest-er sair-er)
He has	Lui ha (loo-ee a)
He has booked / reserved a room for two people – He booked / reserved a room for two people – He did book / reserve a room for two people.	Lui ha prenotato una camera per due persone. (loo-ee a pray-no-tart-oh oon-a cam-air-a pair doo-ay pair-soan-ay)
We have booked a taxi for you / We booked a taxi for you / We did book a taxi for you.	Abbiamo prenotato un taxi per Lei. (ab-ee-arm-oh pray-no-tart-oh oon taxi pair lay)
We paid the bill / We have paid the bill / We did pay the bill.	Abbiamo pagato il conto. (ab-ee-arm-oh pag-art-oh eel kon-toe)
What? / What thing?	Che cosa? (ke koe-ser)
What have you prepared? / What did you prepare? (literally “What thing you have prepared?”)	Che cosa ha preparato? (ke koe-ser a prep-are-art-oh)
What have you done? / What did you do? (literally “What thing you have done?”)	Che cosa ha fatto? (ke koe-ser a fat-oh)
I booked a table, ordered dinner and then paid the bill. What did you do?	Ho prenotato un tavolo, ordinato la cena e poi pagato il conto. Che cosa ha fatto? (o pray-no-tart-oh oon tav-oh-loe, or-din-art-oh la chain-er ey poy pag-art-oh eel kon-toe. ke koe-ser a fat-oh)

Well, that’s it, you’re done with Chapter 2! Remember, don’t try to hold onto anything you’ve learnt here. Everything you learn in earlier chapters will be brought back up and reinforced in later chapters. You don’t need to do anything or make any effort to memorise words. The book has been organised in such a way that it will do that for you. Off you go now and have a rest, please!

Between Chapters Tip!

Stop while you’re still enjoying it!

Arnold Schwarzenegger once said that the key to his bodybuilding success was that he stopped his workout each day just before it started to get boring. On the few occasions he went past that point, he found it incredibly hard to return to the gym again the next day – and he loved working out.

As you will almost certainly recall, Tip 1 suggested that you should study every day – which you definitely should do if you can. But that doesn’t mean that you should overdo it. So, if you’re not really in the mood, just do five minutes. If you are in the mood though, don’t push yourself too hard. Stop before you get to the point where it doesn’t feel fun any longer. Best to leave yourself feeling hungry for more rather than bloated and fed up!