Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Consuelo: Buongiorno a tutti.
Marco: Marco here. Upper intermediate, season 1, Lesson #19. Do You Like To Complain in Italian?
Consuelo: Hello everyone. I am Consuelo and welcome to italianpod101.com.
Marco: With us, you will learn to speak Italian with fun and effective lessons.
Consuelo: We also provide you with cultural insights.
Marco: And tips you won’t find in a textbook. In today’s class, we will focus on the negative pronouns nessuno, niente and nulla.
Consuelo: This conversation takes place on a plane.
Marco: And it’s between Claudia and a passenger.
Consuelo: They will be speaking formal Italian.
Marco: Let’s listen to the conversation.
DIALOGUE
Passeggero: Mi scusi signorina.
Claudia: Sì, mi dica!
Passeggero: Avete del succo di mirtillo?
Claudia: No signore, mi dispiace, abbiamo solo succo d'arancia o di mela, oppure del tè freddo...
Passeggero: No, allora non mi porti niente, grazie.
Claudia: Ah, come preferisce.
Passeggero: Senta, avete delle riviste sul giardinaggio?
Claudia: Purtroppo no, tutte le riviste che abbiamo sono sul catalogo.
Passeggera: Sì, ho visto, niente di interessante.
Claudia: Ah, mi dispiace.
Passeggero: Almeno avete delle ciabatte? Mi fanno male i piedi!
Claudia: No signore.
Passeggero: Ma gli altri le hanno!
Claudia: Non so, probabilmente le hanno portate, ma non si preoccupi tra meno di venti minuti atterriamo.
Passeggero: Meno male! Niente di buono da bere, nulla di interessante da leggere e nessuno che ti vuole aiutare! La prossima volta cambio sicuramente compagnia!
Claudia: Faccia come crede!
Marco: Let’s here it slowly now.
Passeggero: Mi scusi signorina.
Claudia: Sì, mi dica!
Passeggero: Avete del succo di mirtillo?
Claudia: No signore, mi dispiace, abbiamo solo succo d'arancia o di mela, oppure del tè freddo...
Passeggero: No, allora non mi porti niente, grazie.
Claudia: Ah, come preferisce.
Passeggero: Senta, avete delle riviste sul giardinaggio?
Claudia: Purtroppo no, tutte le riviste che abbiamo sono sul catalogo.
Passeggera: Sì, ho visto, niente di interessante.
Claudia: Ah, mi dispiace.
Passeggero: Almeno avete delle ciabatte? Mi fanno male i piedi!
Claudia: No signore.
Passeggero: Ma gli altri le hanno!
Claudia: Non so, probabilmente le hanno portate, ma non si preoccupi tra meno di venti minuti atterriamo.
Passeggero: Meno male! Niente di buono da bere, nulla di interessante da leggere e nessuno che ti vuole aiutare! La prossima volta cambio sicuramente compagnia!
Claudia: Faccia come crede!
Marco: And now, with the translation.
Passeggero: Mi scusi signorina.
Passenger: Excuse me, Miss.
Claudia: Sì, mi dica!
Claudia: Yes, may I help you?
Passeggero: Avete del succo di mirtillo?
Passenger: Do you have some blueberry juice?
Claudia: No signore, mi dispiace, abbiamo solo succo d'arancia o di mela, oppure del tè freddo...
Claudia: No, sir, I'm sorry, we have only orange or apple juice or some iced tea...
Passeggero: No, allora non mi porti niente, grazie.
Passenger: No, then don't bring me anything, thanks.
Claudia: Ah, come preferisce.
Claudia: Ah, as you prefer.
Passeggero: Senta, avete delle riviste sul giardinaggio?
Passenger: Listen, do you have some magazines about gardening?
Claudia: Purtroppo no, tutte le riviste che abbiamo sono sul catalogo.
Claudia: Unfortunately, no. All the magazines we have are in the catalog.
Passeggera: Sì, ho visto, niente di interessante.
Passenger: Yes, I saw nothing interesting.
Claudia: Ah, mi dispiace.
Claudia: Ah, I'm sorry.
Passeggero: Almeno avete delle ciabatte? Mi fanno male i piedi!
Passenger: Do you have some slippers at least? My feet hurt!
Claudia: No signore.
Claudia: No, sir.
Passeggero: Ma gli altri le hanno!
Passenger: But the others have them!
Claudia: Non so, probabilmente le hanno portate, ma non si preoccupi tra meno di venti minuti atterriamo.
Claudia: I'm not sure; they probably brought them, but don't worry. We are landing in less than twenty minutes.
Passeggero: Meno male! Niente di buono da bere, nulla di interessante da leggere e nessuno che ti vuole aiutare! La prossima volta cambio sicuramente compagnia!
Passenger: Thank goodness! Nothing good to drink, nothing interesting to read, and nobody who wants to help you! Next time, I'm surely changing company!
Claudia: Faccia come crede!
Claudia: Do as you please.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Marco: Consuelo, the old man was a very trying passenger. Don’t you think?
Consuelo: I think so.
Marco: There are always people complaining like that during a flight.
Consuelo: Right but I don’t think about them because basically I sleep all the time.
Marco: It is probably the best thing to do but tell me something. Why does this annoying man talk to Claudia using voi?
Consuelo: Do you mean when he asks questions by saying avete?
Marco: Yes why use avete with voi. I thought he would have used Lei, in the courtesy form.
Consuelo: Ah no. When we are talking to the staff of a place or a company, we usually use voi, in the sense of you and the people working for you or with you in the company.
Marco: Ah I see. This is very good to know. Thank you.
Consuelo: A typical example is on a plane but also at a travel agency, at a restaurant and so on.
Marco: So is it wrong to use Lei in these cases?
Consuelo: Mmm...No Marco, it is not a mistake. It is just a correct and natural way of speaking to use voi.
Marco: I got it. Thank you for the information.
VOCAB LIST
Marco: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. The first word we shall see is
Consuelo: Mirtillo.
Marco: Blueberry.
Consuelo: Mirtillo. Mirtillo.
Marco: And next we have
Consuelo: Giardinaggio.
Marco: Gardening.
Consuelo: Giardinaggio. Giardinaggio.
Marco: And next we have
Consuelo: Purtroppo.
Marco: Unfortunately.
Consuelo: Purtroppo. Purtroppo.
Marco: And next we have
Consuelo: Catalogo.
Marco: Catalogue.
Consuelo: Catalogo. Catalogo
Marco: And the next word is
Consuelo: Ciabatte.
Marco: Slippers.
Consuelo: Ciabatte. Ciabatte
Marco: And the next word is
Consuelo: Compagnia.
Marco: Company.
Consuelo: Compagnia. Compagnia.
Marco: The next word is
Consuelo: Fare.
Marco: To do, to make, to build.
Consuelo: Fare. Fare.
Marco: And today’s last word is
Consuelo: Credere.
Marco: To believe.
Consuelo: Credere. Credere.
VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE
Marco: Consuelo, what word are we studying today?
Consuelo: Today we are studying the word “almeno”.
Marco: At least.
Consuelo: Marco, this word is very good to know because it is usually used when complaining.
Marco: We all know how Italians like complaining.
Consuelo: Purtroppo hai ragione. Unfortunately you are right.
Marco: So let’s see some examples with almeno.
Consuelo: Okay. Marco, Ti stai annoiando? Almeno cerca di non sbadigliare. Marco, are you getting bored? At least try not to yawn.
Marco: Hey, hey non è vero. It’s not true. And you, almeno sii seria durante la lezione. At least, be serious during the lesson.
Consuelo: I am a serious person.
Marco: Sure? Listeners, I was not yawning. Consuelo, what’s that sii that we have just heard?
Consuelo: That’s the imperative form of the verb essere, meaning to be.
Marco: I think I need a review of the imperative.
Consuelo: Yes. Almeno questa volta, studia seriamente. At least this time, study seriously.
Marco: Consuelo, please stop it.

Lesson focus

Consuelo: Let’s take a look at today’s grammar point.
Marco: In today’s lesson, we will focus on the negative pronouns.
Consuelo: Those are nessuno, niente and nulla in Italian.
Marco: Nobody, nothing and anything.
Consuelo: The negative pronouns are those that indicate the nonexistence of people or things.
Marco: In the sense they are negative. Consuelo, can you remind us how to form the negative statement of a sentence in Italian? Here you can also add some negative pronouns.
Consuelo: Okay. A phrase is usually made negative by inserting non in front of the verb.
Marco: For example:
Consuelo: Non mangio niente.
Marco: I don’t eat anything.
Consuelo: Non viene nessuno alla festa.
Marco: Nobody is coming to the party.
Consuelo: Non vuole sapere nulla.
Marco: He doesn’t want to know anything.
Consuelo: By the way, when these pronouns are placed before the verb non is omitted.
Marco: For instance:
Consuelo: Niente sarà facile d’ora in poi.
Marco: Nothing will be easy from now on.
Consuelo: Nessuno è perfetto.
Marco: Nobody is perfect.
Consuelo: Nulla gli fa paura.
Marco: Nothing scares him. Okay no non in the last sentences. What about the phrase we heard in the dialogue: niente di interessante da leggere.
Consuelo: Nothing interesting to read. That’s a very frequent construction.
Marco: Oh that’s true.
Consuelo: The pronouns niente and nulla are often followed by the preposition Di plus an adjective and Da before an infinitive.
Marco: Sounds complicated.
Consuelo: No, it is not. Listen: in questo museo non c’è niente di interessante da vedere.
Marco: In this museum, there is nothing interesting to see.
Consuelo: In questa lezione non c’è nulla di complicato da capire.
Marco: In this lesson, there is nothing complicated to understand.
Consuelo: Don’t you think?
Marco: Well said! Nothing is complicated here.

Outro

Marco: That just about does it for today. Attention perfectionists, you are about to learn how to perfect your pronunciation.
Consuelo: Lesson review order tracks.
Marco: Increase fluency and vocabulary fast with these short, effective audio tracks.
Consuelo: Super simple to use. Listen to the Italian word or phrase.
Marco: Then repeat it out loud in a loud, clear voice.
Consuelo: You will speak with confidence, knowing that you are speaking Italian like the locals.
Marco: Go to italianpod101.com and download the review order tracks right on the lesson page today.
Consuelo: Ciao, a presto.

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