Today my grandson and I talked about what he, his brother, his mom and dad, and I eat and drink. He made up corndog for his little brother, using cane for dog and we looked up mais for corn on the internet. He promptly realized that that was a made-up word and we agreed Italians probably would not know what a cane di mais was. I also noted him “figuring out” how to say things, using the sort of rule-getting some teachers feel is essential to learning. IOW, some people probably do analysis just as part of their personality, their approach to things (4%ers?). My grandson is very much that sort of kid.
We are doing really well with the Italian.