Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Cinzia: Buon giorno! Mi chiamo Cinzia.
Marco: Marco here. Newbie Series, season 1, lesson 8 - A Gender Mistake You Can’t Afford to Make!
Cinzia: Hello and welcome to the Newbie Series of ItalianPod101.com. We are glad you could join us again.
Marco: We will be guiding you through basic grammar and vocabulary.
Cinzia: And don't forget we’re going to discuss different aspects of the language, culture, and customs that you find in Italy.
Marco: Excellent. The focus of this lesson is on Italian indefinite articles.
Cinzia: This conversation takes place in the countryside during a picnic.
Marco: And it is is between Laura Rossi and John Smith.
Cinzia: They are friends, therefore they will be speaking informal Italian.
DIALOGUE
Laura: John vuoi una mela?
John: Si grazie. Tu vuoi un panino?
Laura: No grazie, sono piena.
John: Vuoi un bicchiere di vino?
Laura: Si grazie.
Marco: one more time, slowly.
Laura: John vuoi una mela?
John: Si grazie. Tu vuoi un panino?
Laura: No grazie, sono piena.
John: Vuoi un bicchiere di vino?
Laura: Si grazie.
Marco: Once again, this time, with the translation.
Laura: John vuoi una mela?
Marco: John, would you like an apple?
John: Si grazie. Tu vuoi un panino?
Marco: Yes, thank you. Do you want a sandwich?
Laura: No grazie, sono piena.
Marco: No thanks, I’m full.
John: Vuoi un bicchiere di vino?
Marco: Do you want a glass of wine?
Laura: Si grazie.
Marco: Yes, thank you.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Marco: So Cinzia, picnics, when was the last time you went to a picnic?
Cinzia: It was such a long time ago!
Marco: Really? So you are that old! Aren't you?
Cinzia: What??? Are you joking Marco?
Marco: Yes, yes, I'm joking!
Cinzia: Ah! Ok... What about you Marco? When was your last picnic?
Marco: Last picnic, last picnic... I think at Easter, few years ago...
Cinzia: Oh! You are meaning the picnic of pasquetta?
Marco: Yes, pasquetta, where the majority of Italians prepare their picnic baskets and go out for a picnic in the countryside.
Cinzia: Oh my god! Yeah, it's such a fun thing!
Marco: It is a fun thing, but I don't know if I am not lucky, but every time I go, it rains! Or sometimes it also...
Cinzia: Ahah! Yeah, I know, it happened to me as well!
Marco: It is supposed to be the middle of spring, but that day it always rains!
Cinzia: Yes, it's unbelievable. At Easter always rains!
Marco: Oh! And before we forget... Cinzia, what is pasquetta?
Cinzia: Oh pasquetta is a wonderful thing, a wonderful habit we have, usually we party pasquetta on the monday after Easter, so we have a lot of food, after the big Easter lunch.
Marco: So yes, many family use the leftovers of the feast of the day before, or some other families make something new, something fresh like cold rice salad...
Cinzia: Or lasagna...
Marco: Ok, I'll stick with my apple then and let's go on.
Cinzia: Ok!
VOCAB LIST
Marco: Let us take a look at today’s vocabulary.
Marco: First
Cinzia: una [natural native speed]
Marco: a, an
Cinzia: una [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Cinzia: una [natural native speed]
Marco: Next word
Cinzia: mela [natural native speed]
Marco: apple
Cinzia: mela [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Cinzia: mela [natural native speed]
Marco: Next word
Cinzia: un [natural native speed]
Marco: a, an
Cinzia: un [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Cinzia: un [natural native speed]
Marco: Next word
Cinzia: panino [natural native speed]
Marco: sandwich
Cinzia: panino [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Cinzia: panino [natural native speed]
Marco: Next word
Cinzia: piena [natural native speed]
Marco: full
Cinzia: piena [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Cinzia: piena [natural native speed]
Marco: Next word
Cinzia: bicchiere [natural native speed]
Marco: glass
Cinzia: bicchiere [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Cinzia: bicchiere [natural native speed]
Marco: Next word
Cinzia: vino [natural native speed]
Marco: wine
Cinzia: vino [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Cinzia: vino [natural native speed]
Marco: Now our listeners might have noticed that una and un, both are translate into English as “a; an”.
Cinzia: Yes, Marco. You’re right, but listeners, be careful, una is for mela, which is feminine. Instead, un is for panino, which is masculine.
Marco: We should see it in more details in the grammar section.
VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE
Cinzia: Let’s have a look at the usage for some of the words. The first word we will look at is una.
Marco: [Cinzia, can you give us an example sentence please?
Cinzia: Voglio una pesca.
Marco: I want a peach. Uhm... good Italian peach!
Cinzia: Oh my god! Don't make me think about the peaches in Italy! They are so sweet!
Marco: So juicy!
Cinzia: Yes.
Marco: Which is your favourite?
Cinzia: My favourite type of peaches is called pesche noci, which is a kind of peache very very hard and it's yellow inside, and it's very very sweet.
Marco: Ok, pesca noce... What can that be in English? Yes, we have the answer in the comments, so go read them!
Cinzia: The next vocabulary word is mela.
Marco: Let’s have an example
Cinzia: La mela verde.
Marco: The greenapple.
Cinzia: Next word is un.
Marco: One example please.
Cinzia: Francesco Totti è un calciatore.
Marco: Francesco Totti is a soccer player. And that is really apparent isn't it. Who doesn't know Francesco Totti?
Cinzia: So yeah, Francesco Totti, the striker for ROMA
Marco: Yes, we all know him, he's a very funny guy.
Cinzia: Yes, he is, especially when he speaks Roman dialect.
Marco: Ahaha! Sometimes you wonder
Cinzia: Ahaha! Yeah true!
Cinzia: The next word we will see is panino.
Marco: And the example is?
Cinzia: Mangio un panino.
Marco: “I eat a sandwich/panino.” We are hungry, aren't we?
Cinzia: I really would like a panino now!
Marco: Come on come on, the sooner we finish, the sooner we eat a nice panino!
Cinzia: Yes, the next word we will see is piena.
Marco: One example please.
Cinzia: La bottiglia è piena.
Marco: The bottle is full.
Cinzia: The last word for today is [bicchiere.
And the example is [Vorrei un bicchiere di Coca-Cola.
Marco: I’d like a glass of Coke.
Cinzia: This wraps it up for the vocabulary usage.

Lesson focus

Marco: As in English, also in Italian there are articles.
Cinzia: And just as the nouns we have seen in the last lesson they can be singular, plural, masculine or feminine.
Marco: This is because they are bound to nouns and must therefore agree with their gender and number.
Cinzia: This is both bad news, as there are more things to remember...
Marco: ... and good news, for as we shall see the articles help us understand what gender and also number the following nouns are.
Cinzia: There are two main kinds of articles; the indefinite articles, which have the same meaning as in English “an”.
Marco: and the definite articles, that correspond to “the”. We shall see these latter ones in following lessons. Now we have a detailed explanation in the pdf. But let’s make it more simple for our listeners.
Marco: The rules should be actually the following. You should use un before masculine nouns starting with a consonant. Let’s have an example.
Cinzia: un libro “a book”; and a vowel…
Marco: Let’s have an example.
Cinzia: un abito “a dress”
Marco: And we use uno before masculine nouns starting with
Cinzia: y, z, s, gn, ps, pn + consonant.
Marco: Let’s have an example.
Cinzia: uno yogurt “a yogurt”, uno zio "an uncle", uno stagno "a pond", uno gnomo "a gnome", uno psichiatra "a psychiatrist", uno pneumatico "a tire".
Cinzia: And i + other vowel:
Marco: Let’s have an example.
Cinzia: uno iettatore “a jinx”... What's this Marco? Uno iettatore, come on!
Marco: Well, nothing else came to mind! What else can we have with i + other vowel masculine? Well, in short it's a very rare case, so don't worry about it too much!
Cinzia: Ok!
Marco: Now concerning the feminine case, use una before all feminine nouns starting with consonant.
Cinzia: una mela “an apple”, una sedia “a chair”.
Marco: And finally use un’ before all feminine nouns starting with vowel
Cinzia: un’amica “a female friend”
Marco: My advice for our listeners is please listened to this part a couple of time or better yet get the pdf, because it is complex, but I think after a couple of times of seeing it, you can actually master it. What do you think Cinzia?
Cinzia: I think our listeners are very very brave, and very very smart, so they can do it, I trust them.
Marco: I'm sure they can! And lastly please remember that, since indefinite articles refer to unspecified nouns category.
Cinzia: they can never be used with proper nouns, such as Laura and John for instance.
Marco: Please keep this in mind!

Outro

Marco: This is the end of today's lesson.
Cinzia: Be sure to check out the vocabulary lists with audio in the Learning Center at ItalianPod101.com. Also, ask us a question in the forum, or leave us a comment.
Marco: See you soon!
Cinzia: Ci vediamo presto! Ciao!

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