Learn the Italian adjectives that you can use to refer to various ethnicities
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Consuelo: Ciao |
| Marco: Marco here. Absolute Beginner Season 1 Lesson 4: By Chance, You Weren’t Italian, Are You? Hello and welcome back to the ItalianPod101.com, the fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Italian. I’m joined in the studio by… |
| Consuelo: Hello, everyone. Consuelo here. |
| Marco: In today’s class, we will focus on asking about someone’s nationality. |
| Consuelo: This conversation takes place at the bar. |
| Marco: The conversation is between Melissa, Alessio, and other friends. |
| Consuelo: In the first conversation, they will be speaking informal Italian. In the second conversation, they’ll use formal Italian. |
| Marco: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Marco: Informal. |
| Alessio: Io sono italiano e tu? |
| Melissa: Io non sono italiana, sono americana. |
| Alessio: (rivolto all'amica di Melissa) E tu? Anche tu sei americana? |
| Amica: No, io sono spagnola. |
| Marco: Formal |
| Alessio: Io sono italiano, e Lei? Di che nazionalità è? |
| Melissa: Sono americana. |
| Alessio: (rivolto al signore accanto a Melissa) E Lei? E' americano? |
| Amico: No, non sono americano. Sono francese. |
| Marco: Let’s hear it slowly now. |
| Marco: Informal. |
| Alessio: Io sono italiano e tu? |
| Melissa: Io non sono italiana, sono americana. |
| Alessio: (rivolto all'amica di Melissa) E tu? Anche tu sei americana? |
| Amica: No, io sono spagnola. |
| Alessio: Io sono italiano, e Lei? Di che nazionalità è? |
| Melissa: Sono americana. |
| Alessio: (rivolto al signore accanto a Melissa) E Lei? E' americano? |
| Amico: No, non sono americano. Sono francese. |
| Marco: And now with the translation. |
| Alessio Io sono italiano e tu? |
| Marco I am Italian, and you? |
| Melissa Io non sono italiana, sono americana. |
| Marco I'm not Italian, I'm American. |
| Alessio (rivolto all'amica di Melissa) E tu? Anche tu sei americana? |
| Marco (talking to Melissa's friend) And you? Are you also American? |
| Amica No, io sono spagnola. |
| Marco No, I'm Spanish. |
| Alessio Io sono italiano, e Lei? Di che nazionalità è? |
| Marco I am Italian, and you? What nationality are you, madame? |
| Melissa Sono americana. |
| Marco I'm American. |
| Alessio (rivolto al signore accanto a Melissa) E Lei? E' americano? |
| Marco (talking to the man next to Melissa) And you? Are you American, sir? |
| Amico No, non sono americano. Sono francese. |
| Marco No, I'm not American. I am French. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Consuelo: Hey, Marco, do you know the origin of the word "ciao?" |
| Marco: Mmm. I think not, but it sounds interesting… |
| Consuelo: At one time, the word "schiavo"… |
| Marco: Ah, "servant." |
| Consuelo: Yes, "servant." Can I go on with the explanation? As I was saying, "schiavo" was used as a greeting to show great respect to the person you were talking to. |
| Marco: Meaning "I am your servant." |
| Consuelo: Right. Then in north-eastern regions of Italy, "schiavo" was abbreviated first to "s-ciao" and finally to "ciao." |
| Marco: Wow! "Ciao" has a completely different meaning today, and it is also used throughout the world. |
| Consuelo: So "ciao a tutti!" |
| Marco: "Bye everyone!" Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. The first word we shall see is… |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Consuelo italiano [natural native speed] |
| Marco Italian |
| Consuelo italiano [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Consuelo italiano [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Consuelo americano [natural native speed] |
| Marco American |
| Consuelo americano [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Consuelo americano [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Consuelo nazionalità [natural native speed] |
| Marco nationality |
| Consuelo nazionalità [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Consuelo nazionalità [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Consuelo francese [natural native speed] |
| Marco French |
| Consuelo francese [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Consuelo francese [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Consuelo spagnolo [natural native speed] |
| Marco Spanish |
| Consuelo spagnolo [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Consuelo spagnolo [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Marco: Consuelo, what word are we studying today? |
| Consuelo: Today I'll teach you some adjectives of nationality. |
| Marco: Ah, okay. In the dialogue, we heard "italiano," meaning "Italian," "americano," meaning "American," "spagnolo," meaning "Spanish," and "francese," meaning "French." Can you give us some other examples? |
| Consuelo: Sure. As we'll see in the grammar point, we have adjectives that only follow the number – those adjectives ending with "-e," such as "canadese." |
| Marco: "Canadian." |
| Consuelo: "cinese." |
| Marco: "Chinese." |
| Consuelo: Or "giapponese." |
| Marco: "Japanese." |
| Consuelo: But we also have adjectives that follow gender and number. For example, "tedesco." |
| Marco: "German." |
| Consuelo: "greco." |
| Marco: "Greek." |
| Consuelo: "coreano." |
| Marco: "Korean." Thank you, Consuelo! |
Lesson focus |
| Consuelo: Let's take a look at today's grammar point. |
| Marco: The focus of this lesson is on asking about someone's nationality. |
| Consuelo: In the dialogue, we saw how to ask about someone's nationality. The construction of "è americano?" is the same as "Are you American?" with two exceptions. |
| Marco: First, as we have seen in the previous lesson, there is no "lei." |
| Consuelo: The Italian for "you" in formal situations. |
| Marco: And the reason is that there is no need to state the subject since "è" can only indicate "lei" or "lui," but not in this context. |
| Consuelo: Second, when expressing nationalities, Italians do not use capital letters. |
| Marco: Italian does not use capitals as often as English does. Please remember the following rules… |
| Consuelo: Begin proper names, such as "Luca" or "Laura," town names, such as "Milano" or "Roma," and then countries, lakes, rivers, and so forth always with a capital letter. |
| Consuelo: Days of the week, seasons, and months always begin in a lowercase letter. |
| Marco: You should always begin words such as "English," "Italian," and "Japanese" that are always in uppercase in English with a lowercase letter in Italian: "inglese," "italiano," "giapponese." |
| Consuelo: In future lessons, we shall see Italian adjectives in more detail. For now, please remember two points. |
| Marco: First point. Italian adjectives can have feminine, masculine, singular, or plural meanings. You will realize the difference by changing the ending. |
| Consuelo: Second point. In the case of adjectives of nationality, there are only two types, one that follows both gender and number, and one that only follows number. |
| Marco: Now we will give you some examples with the adjective "italiano," meaning "Italian," and "francese," meaning "French." |
| Marco: "Italian," masculine singular |
| Consuelo: "italiano." |
| Marco: "Italian," feminine singular |
| Consuelo: "italiana." |
| Marco: "Italians," masculine plural |
| Consuelo: "italiani." |
| Marco: And finally, "Italians," feminine plural |
| Consuelo: "italiane." |
| Marco: This adjective follows both gender and number. But let's see what happens with "francese," "French." |
| Marco: "French," masculine singular and feminine singular |
| Consuelo: "francese." |
| Marco: "French," masculine plural and feminine plural |
| Consuelo: "francesi." This adjective only follows number. It does not change if the gender changes. |
| Marco: That’s just about does it for today. |
| Consuelo: Ready to test what you just learned? |
| Marco: Make this lesson’s vocabulary stick by using lesson-specific flashcards in the learning center. |
| Consuelo: There is a reason everyone uses flashcards. |
| Marco: They work. |
| Consuelo: They really do help the memorization. |
| Marco: You can get the flashcards for this lesson at… |
| Consuelo: ItalianPod101.com. |
| Marco: Okay. |
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