Level: Survival Phrases
Learn Italian with ItalianPod101.com. A little Italian can go such a long way! Whether you’re traveling, visiting, or sightseeing, ItalianPod101.com has all the essential travel phrases just for you! Today we cover another high frequency phrase which will be sure to be of use on your trip, vacation or travels to Italy. Today we will take a look at how to ask “Can You Speak English?” in Italian! Furthermore we offer polite Italian Phrases that are sure to make you look great! 
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This entry was posted on Monday, March 31st, 2008 at 6:30 pm and is filed under Survival Phrases . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
11 Responses to “Survival Phrases #7 - Can You Speak English?”
Monday at 6:30 pm
Parla italiano?
Monday at 11:55 pm
Un po’
Tuesday at 12:42 am
Si, anch’io parlo un po’ di italiano!!!
Tuesday at 11:48 am
Bravi!
Tuesday at 4:28 pm
Buongiorno!
Parlate svedese?
Tuesday at 10:43 pm
Purtroppo non parlo svedese!
Unfortunately I don’t speak Swedish!
Wednesday at 1:39 pm
Nemmeno io parlo svedese!
Anche se mi piacerebbe
I don’t speak swedish either, but I really like to…
Cinzia
Monday at 5:18 am
I have always wondered about what the point is to ask someone whether he/she speaks English in.. a language which is not English! Surely asking the same in English will ALWAYS elicit the right information:
puzzled look=no
smile+yes/a bit = yes
Well, Marco said it: it is nice to show you are making an effort. And it is a good way to introduce parla/parli ecc..
However, I wonder whether the real survival phrase is:
C’e’ qualcuno qui che parla inglese ?
Is there anyone here who speaks English?
that can be shortened to:
Qualcuno parla inglese qui?
An English speaker will come forward and, if none is present, the locals will be able to direct to someone who can help you.
Qualcuno ha dei commenti ?
roma55i
Tuesday at 6:25 pm
Excellent observation, I agree that the real survival situation is when you are looking around for someone that speaks your language, so in Italian you would say:
Qualcuno parla inglese qui?
Hoping to find someone.
Marco
Wednesday at 7:50 am
Okay are you guys testing to see if anyone reads the pdf notes?
It’s hard not to notice the typo on page 3, being that it doesn’t even match the audio!
“Now for a change let’s try a different language. How about Italian. “Can you speak Italian?” Parla spagnolo? The word for “Italian” is spagnolo.”
Thursday at 10:03 am
Ciao Rowena,
I corrected the PDF notes.
Grazie mille!
Consuelo
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