Dialogue

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Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

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.
How many times have you been in one of your trips with your camera trying to immortalize particular moments. In Italy it can happen so often that not only a landscape can arouse your curiosity, but also many people!

Lesson focus
So I know you don’t want to renounce to your marvelous album in Italy, that’s why today we will cover some phrases related to the one we saw in the previous lesson: “Can you take my picture?” Può scattarmi una foto?
Può scattarmi una foto?
But now you would like to ask for permission: “Can I take your picture?” which in Italian is Posso scattarle una foto?
The first word posso means “can I." This is followed by scattarle, which in Italian is “take a picture of you” (formal).
Scattarle comes from the verb scattare, literally to “set off," translated here as “to take a picture," and le at the end of the word is referred to “you” formal and literally means “you – to you” formal.
Then you have una “a” indefinite article feminine followed by foto “picture."
So to recap here, we have Posso scattarle una foto?
Literally this means “Can I take a picture of you?”
If you are able to socialize immediately and you feel Italian people can all be like friends, or even if you simply meet some young people you can use Posso scattarti una foto? “Can I take your picture?”
In this sentence, what has changed is the verb. In place of scattarle you have scattarti which means “take a picture of you” (informal), so le changes into ti. And all together we have Posso scattarti una foto?
Let's break down this word: scattarti
And now, hear it one more time: scattarti
Once I went to the Festival di San Remo which is the Italian music festival, very famous and very esteemed by the Italian people, and there I met Matteo and Thomas, the two components of the group Zero Assoluto and I asked them: Posso scattarvi una foto? “Can I take your picture?” (of you two or more people). So as you can see we just changed the verb as in the previous sentence. In place of scattarti “take a picture of you” (you second person singular), this time we used scattarvi “take a picture of you” (you second person plural).
Let's break down this word: scattarvi
And now, hear it one more time: scattarvi
And all together we have Posso scattarvi una foto?
What if you are in a museum or an art gallery, or in a shop and you want to try and ask: “Can I take a picture here?” which in Italian is Posso scattare una foto qui? The first word posso comes from potere “can” and means “can I."
Let's break down this word and hear it one more time: posso
posso
It is followed by scattare “take a picture” which now you know very well. Then you have una foto “a picture,” and finally, you have qui "here" qui.
So all together, Posso scattare una foto qui?

Outro
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.
“Can I take your picture?” (formal) - Posso scattarle una foto?
Posso scattarle una foto?
Posso scattarle una foto?
“Can I take your picture?” (informal) - Posso scattarti una foto?
Posso scattarti una foto?
Posso scattarti una foto?
“Can I take your picture?” (plural) - Posso scattarvi una foto?
Posso scattarvi una foto?
Posso scattarvi una foto?
“Can I take a picture here?” - Posso scattare una foto qui?
Posso scattare una foto qui?
Posso scattare una foto qui?
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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