Learn to ask "How are you?"
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| Introduction |
| Becky: Welcome to ItalianPod101.com. This is 3-Minute Italian Season 1, Lesson 4 - How are you? In this lesson, you’ll learn how to ask and answer the question How are you? in Italian. |
| Body |
| Becky: Here's the informal way to ask 'How are you?' in Italian. |
| Ofelia: [Normal] Come stai? |
| Becky: First is a word meaning 'how' |
| Ofelia: [Normal] come [Slow] come |
| Becky: Next is the word meaning 'you are' |
| Ofelia: [Normal] stai [Slow] stai |
| Becky: Note the rising intonation. Listen again to the informal question meaning 'How are you?' |
| Ofelia: [Slow] Come stai? [Normal] Come stai? |
| Becky: Now, imagine you're speaking to someone you don’t know well. Here's the formal way to ask, 'How are you?' |
| Ofelia: [Normal] Come sta? |
| Becky: First is a word meaning 'how' |
| Ofelia: [Normal] come [Slow] come |
| Becky: Last is the word meaning 'you are (polite)' |
| Ofelia: [Normal] sta [Slow] sta |
| Becky: Note the rising intonation again here. Listen again to the formal question meaning 'How are you?' |
| Ofelia: [Slow] Come sta? [Normal] Come sta? |
| Becky: Here's a response meaning 'I'm fine. Thank you.' |
| Ofelia: [Normal] Sto bene, grazie. |
| Becky: First is a word meaning 'I am' |
| Ofelia: [Normal] sto [Slow] sto |
| Becky: Next is the word meaning 'good, well' |
| Ofelia: [Normal] bene [Slow] bene |
| Becky: Last is the word meaning 'thank you' |
| Ofelia: [Normal] grazie [Slow] grazie |
| Becky: Listen again to the response, 'I'm fine. Thank you.' |
| Ofelia: [Slow] Sto bene, grazie. [Normal] Sto bene, grazie. |
| Becky: Here's a response meaning, 'Not so well.' |
| Ofelia: [Normal] Non tanto bene. |
| Becky: First is a word meaning 'not' |
| Ofelia: [Normal] non [Slow] non |
| Becky: Last is the phrase meaning 'so well' |
| Ofelia: [Normal] tanto bene [Slow] tanto bene |
| Becky: Listen again to the response, 'Not so well.' |
| Ofelia: [Slow] Non tanto bene. [Normal] Non tanto bene. |
| Cultural Insight |
| Becky: Now it's time for a quick cultural insight. |
| Ofelia: Please use this question only when you meet someone after a while, for example, after more than one week. A more casual way to ask to someone you meet often would be come va? instead. Come va? is easy and it works in both formal and informal situations. |
Outro |
|---|
| Becky: And that’s all for this lesson. Don’t forget to check out the lesson notes, and we’ll see you in the next lesson! |
| Ofelia: Ciao! |
20 Comments
HideListeners! How are you? Try to answer this question in Italian.
Hi Noor,
good job, thanks for your comment!
Valentina
Team ItalianPod101.com
Tanto bene, grazie! E lei?
Ciao E,
glad to hear! 👍
Grazie per il tuo commento (thanks for your comment).
Valentina
Team ItalianPod101.com
Io sto tanto bene!
Grazie
Ciao Karl,
Maybe you meant "sto bene" 😉
Thank you for your positive feedback! I'm glad you're having fun, that's the key to learning.
Cheers,
Valentina
Team ItalianPod101.com
Sto tanto! Domani io arrivero in Roma.
Vorrei parlare con le madrelingue!
I really appreciate this site and all the podcasts/videos. It makes learning a language so fun, I could do this all day, every day.
Hi Chris,
Thank you for the positive feedback.
Grazie mille!
Ofelia
Team ItalianPod101.com
That was a very useful lesson especially for an absolute beginner like me, as it put words into context, both grammatically and culturally. None of the other sites/apps I use do that. Grazie!
Hi d s,
Thank you for the cute post!
If you have any questions, please let us know.
Sincerely,
Cristiane
Team ItalianPod101.com
❤️️❤️️❤️️