Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Cinzia: Ciao a tutti!
Marco: Marco here! Beginner series Season 1, Lesson 34 - How Will You Make it to Your Italian Wedding?
Cinzia: Hello, everyone! I’m Cinzia and welcome to ItalianPod101.
Marco: With us, you’ll learn to speak Italian with fun and effective lessons.
Cinzia: We also provide you with cultural insights…
Marco: And tips you won’t find in a textbook.
Cinzia: In this lesson, you will learn about irregular nouns.
Marco: The conversation takes place at Peter’s house.
Cinzia: And it’s between Peter and Anna.
Marco: The speakers are friends, therefore, they will be speaking informal Italian. Let’s listen to the conversation.
DIALOGUE
Anna: Prendiamo l'auto per andare alle nozze di tua sorella?
Peter: Vorrei, ma purtroppo è dal meccanico.
Anna: Ah! Capisco...
Peter: Possiamo andare con Elena e Luca.
Anna: Si! Perchè no!
Peter: Allora prendiamo il tram fino a casa di Luca...
Anna: Bene! Chiamo subito Elena.
Marco: Let's hear it slowly now.
Cinzia: Ascoltiamolo lentamente.
Anna: Prendiamo l'auto per andare alle nozze di tua sorella?
Peter: Vorrei, ma purtroppo è dal meccanico.
Anna: Ah! Capisco...
Peter: Possiamo andare con Elena e Luca.
Anna: Si! Perchè no!
Peter: Allora prendiamo il tram fino a casa di Luca...
Anna: Bene! Chiamo subito Elena.
Marco: And now, with the translation.
Cinzia: E ora, con la traduzione.
Anna: Prendiamo l'auto per andare alle nozze di tua sorella?
Anna: Are we taking the car to go to your sister's wedding?
Peter: Vorrei, ma purtroppo è dal meccanico.
Peter: I'd love to, but unfortunately it's at the mechanic.
Anna: Ah! Capisco...
Anna: Oh! I see...
Peter: Possiamo andare con Elena e Luca.
Peter: We can go with Elena and Luca.
Anna: Si! Perchè no!
Anna: Yeah! Why not!
Peter: Allora prendiamo il tram fino a casa di Luca...
Peter: Let's take the tram to Luca's place then...
Anna: Bene! Chiamo subito Elena.
Anna: Cool. I'll call Elena right away.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Cinzia: So you know, I’ve only been to one wedding in my whole life.
Marco: Really? I mean that’s strange. I’ve heard that in the south of Italy, weddings are a never-ending eating tour.
Cinzia: Oh, yeah, that is so true. Actually, you start eating at lunch time, such as 1:00 PM and you don’t finish ‘til 9:00 in the evening.
Marco: Oh, wow! That's tough. And you keep eating all that time?
Cinzia: Yeah, of course. With the right poses, but yeah, we eat, dance, sing. It’s like a huge never-ending party.
Marco: Oh, whoa, whoa! But let’s move on now! Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson.
VOCAB LIST
Marco: Today’s first word is…
Cinzia: auto [natural native speed]
Marco: car
Cinzia: auto [slowly - broken down by syllable] auto [natural native speed]
Marco: Next word…
Cinzia: nozze [natural native speed]
Marco: wedding
Cinzia: nozze [slowly - broken down by syllable] nozze [natural native speed]
Marco: Next word…
Cinzia: purtroppo [natural native speed]
Marco: unfortunately
Cinzia: purtroppo [slowly - broken down by syllable] purtroppo [natural native speed]
Marco: Next word…
Cinzia: meccanico [natural native speed]
Marco: mechanic
Cinzia: meccanico [slowly - broken down by syllable] meccanico [natural native speed]
Marco: Next word…
Cinzia: tram [natural native speed]
Marco: tram, streetcar
Cinzia: tram [slowly - broken down by syllable] tram [natural native speed]
Marco: I just love Milan’s tram.
Cinzia: Oh, the orange ones.
Marco: Yes, yes, always so rickety going (chugga, chugga, chugga, chugga).
Cinzia: Yeah, they remind me like old times, no?
Marco: Yes, they do, although I’ve never actually driven inside Milan with my own car, but I guess being behind these things can actually be boring. It goes so slow.
Cinzia: Well, yes, they go slow and…but most of the times, they have their own lane.
Marco: Yes, they have a reserved lane only for themselves.
Cinzia: Yes.
Marco: And finally, we have a preposition.
Cinzia: Which is…
Cinzia: fino a [natural native speed]
Marco: to, till, until, as far as
Cinzia: fino a [slowly - broken down by syllable] fino a [natural native speed]
VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE
Marco: Let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson.
Cinzia: The first word we will look at is auto.
Marco: And the sample sentence is…
Cinzia: Prendiamo la tua auto?
Marco: "Shall we take your car?"
Cinzia: The next word is nozze.
Marco: Sample sentence, Cinzia.
Cinzia: "Le nozze di Figaro" è il titolo di un'opera di Mozart.
Marco: "'Le nozze di Figaro' is the title of an opera by Mozart."
Cinzia: Do you know Le nozze di Figaro, Marco?
Marco: I know, I heard about it. I think I’ve certainly heard it, but I don’t know the tune. I mean I don’t have it in my head now. So, if anybody out there loves Le nozze di Figaro, write us a comment!
Cinzia: The next word we will look at is meccanico.
Marco: And the sample sentence is…
Cinzia: Ho portato la mia moto dal meccanico.
Marco: "I brought my motorbike to the mechanic."
Cinzia: The next word is tram.
Marco: And the sample is…
Cinzia: Questo tram va a Piazza del Popolo.
Marco: "This tram goes to Piazza del Popolo."
Cinzia: Lastly, fino a.
Marco: And the sample sentence is…
Cinzia: Andiamo fino a casa di Mario.
Marco: “Let’s go to Mario’s home.” And now, let’s take a look at today’s grammar.

Lesson focus

Marco: Historically speaking, Italian irregular nouns belong in large measure to three linguistic groups.
Cinzia: Grammatically speaking, irregular nouns are divided into four categories.
Marco: Sostantivi invariabili, "invariable nouns" (they don't change from singular to plural).
Cinzia: Then difettivi del singolare, "singular defective" (they are used only in their plural form).
Marco: Difettivi del plurale, "plural defective" (they are used only in their singular form)
Cinzia: And the so-called sovrabbondanti, "overabundant" (they have multiple plural forms).
Marco: In this lesson we will focus on the first two categories. The remaining two will be studied in the next lesson.
Cinzia: Let’s take a look at the first category, sostantivi invariabili "invariable nouns."
Marco: Remember that they don't change from singular to plural. Nouns that belong to this category are…
Cinzia: Feminine compound nouns used in their contracted form, such as automobile that becomes auto in its abbreviated form.
Marco: So, we have…
Cinzia: l'auto - le auto
Marco: "cars"
Cinzia: So, as you can see, the plural doesn’t change.
Marco: Then we have feminine nouns ending in -ie.
Cinzia: -ie
Marco: For example…
Cinzia: la specie - le specie
Marco: "species"
Cinzia: la serie - le serie
Marco: "series"
Cinzia: Then we have feminine nouns ending in -i.
Marco: “-i”
Cinzia: For example, l'analisi - le analisi
Marco: "analysis"
Cinzia: Or la crisi - le crisi.
Marco: "Crisis". Also in its category, we can find masculine nouns ending in -a.
Cinzia: -a, il vaglia - i vaglia
Marco: "draft, order"
Cinzia: Also, we have monosyllabic nouns such as il re - i re
Marco: "king"
Cinzia: And la gru - le gru
Marco: "Crane." Furthermore, we have nouns ending with a consonant.
Cinzia: il camion - i camion
Marco: "truck"
Cinzia: il tram - i tram
Marco: "tram, streetcar"
Cinzia: And finally for this category, we have nouns ending with tonic syllables.
Marco: For example
Cinzia: il caffé - i caffé
Marco: "coffee" (the drink)
Cinzia: Yes, remember this because we say - Quanti caffè vuoi?
Marco: “How many coffees do you want?” And one more example, Cinzia.
Cinzia: la virtù - le virtù
Marco: "Virtue." Now, let’s say the difettivi del singolare "singular defective" (they are only used in their plural form).
Cinzia: In this category, we can find nouns referring to objects formed by two equal parts.
Marco: For example…
Cinzia: gli occhiali
Marco: "eye-glasses"
Cinzia: Or le bretelle
Marco: "suspenders"
Cinzia: Or i pantaloni
Marco: "trousers"
Cinzia: This word can be used and sometimes, it can be found even the word pantalone.
Marco: Yes, we can hear il pantalone. For example - Il pantalone blu ti sta bene, “Blue trousers fit you well.”
Cinzia: Please remember that if you wanna speak correctly, pantaloni is the one.
Marco: And also remember that Pantalone (written with a capital P) is actually the name of an Italian traditional mask.
Cinzia: Yes. Like Arlecchino, Colombina and so on.
Marco: So many.
Cinzia: Yes, and then what do we have?
Marco: In this category, we also have nouns referring to a plurality of objects and realities. For example…
Cinzia: i dintorni
Marco: "surroundings, neighborhood"
Cinzia: Or le stoviglie
Marco: "tableware"
Cinzia: And finally for this category, we have nouns coming from Latin plural words.
Marco: For example…
Cinzia: le nozze
Marco: "wedding"
Cinzia: le tenebre
Marco: "darkness"
Cinzia: le ferie
Marco: "vacations, paid holidays"
Cinzia: Yay!
Marco: Yeah.
Cinzia: No.
Marco: Nice, paid holidays, but…
Cinzia: Not for us.

Outro

Marco: I can only say one thing, that just about does it for today! Grazie e ciao a tutti!
Cinzia: Thank you listeners! Bye-bye!

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