INTRODUCTION |
Ciao! Hello and welcome back to Italian Survival Phrases brought to you by ItalianPod101.com, this course is designed to equip you with the language skills and knowledge to enable you to get the most out of your visit to Italy. You will be surprised at how far a little Italian will go. |
Now, before we jump in, remember to stop by ItalianPod101.com and there, you will find the accompanying PDF and additional info in the post. If you stop by, be sure to leave us a comment. |
In the last lesson, we saw how to order at the restaurant and we learned how to get the waiter’s attention and then order your meal and the beverages. |
Once you have the beverages and you finally have all the entrées you have ordered, you can start to enjoy the mouth-watering meal. |
Lesson focus
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Normally, if the waiter sees that you have finished he will come to your table and kindly ask: |
Desidera altro? “Would you like anything else?” |
Let’s break down these words: De-si-de-ra al-tro? |
As we have already seen in the last lesson, is the third singular person of the verb desiderare which in English means “to wish” and in Italian is used quite often to in place of “would you like” so you will hear it for sure in the restaurants or in the cafés from waiters or barmen in the formal level of speech. |
Altro literally means “other”, but in this specific case it is used to translate “anything else” |
Well now after a proper Italian meal made up of antipasto, primo, secondo, contorno and dessert, you should be definitely fine and finally can say: Basta così grazie, il conto per favore “I’m fine thanks, the check please”. |
Basta così is an important sentence and at the same time very particular because it could be the Italian version of “I’m fine thanks” but let’s go and see the literal meaning of the single words. Basta is a way to say “Stop” – “It’s enough” and it is followed by così which in English means “so” and then finally you have grazie “thanks”. Let’s break down these words: Ba-sta co-sì gra-zie il con-to per fa-vo-re. |
Usually you can ask for the check even without waiting for being asked from the waiter. Normally to get his attention you could just put your hand up and shout Scusi, il conto per favore “Excuse me, the check please”, and yes… shout… because it can often happen to find noisy and crowded establishments where you need the waiter to hear your voice. Then together with the shout, you know that we Italians are famous for many gestures and so we have one even to ask for the check, so you can simply mime writing with a pen on an imaginary paper while looking at the waiter. |
Outro
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Okay, to close out this lesson, we'd like you to practice what you've just learned. I'll provide you with the English equivalent of the phrase and you're responsible for shouting it aloud. You have a few seconds before I give you the answer, so buona fortuna, which means “good luck” in Italian. |
“Would you like anything else?” - Desidera altro? |
Desidera altro? |
Desidera altro? |
That’s going to do it for today. Remember to stop by ItalianPod101.com and pick up the accompanying PDF. If you stop by, be sure to leave us a comment. Ciao ciao! |
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