Dialogue

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Vocabulary

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Lesson Notes

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Consuelo: Ciao
Marco: Marco here. Absolute Beginner Season 1 Lesson 10: How to Pass the Time in Italy. Hi, my name is Marco and I’m joined here by Consuelo.
Consuelo: Ciao
Marco: Ciao. In today’s class, we will focus on the present indicative of verbs ending in -ire.
Consuelo: This conversation takes place on a street.
Marco: The conversation is between Melissa and Alessio.
Consuelo: The speakers are friends. Therefore, they will be speaking informally.
Marco: Let’s listen to the conversation.

Lesson conversation
Melissa: Che bella gioielleria! A che ora apre?
Alessio: Mmm. Alle undici, sono le dieci e trenta. Perché non beviamo un caffè mentre aspettiamo?
Melissa: D'accordo! Buona idea, comunque io oggi preferisco un tè.
Alessio: Come preferisci, andiamo al bar!
Marco: Let’s here it slowly now.
Melissa: Che bella gioielleria! A che ora apre?
Alessio: Mmm. Alle undici, sono le dieci e trenta. Perché non beviamo un caffè mentre aspettiamo?
Melissa: D'accordo! Buona idea, comunque io oggi preferisco un tè.
Alessio: Come preferisci, andiamo al bar!
Marco: And now with a translation.
Melissa Che bella gioielleria! A che ora apre?
Marco What a beautiful jewelry store! At what time does it open?
Alessio Mmm. Alle undici, sono le dieci e trenta. Perché non beviamo un caffè mentre aspettiamo?
Marco Mmm. At eleven; it's ten-thirty. Why don't we drink a cup of coffee while we're waiting?
Melissa D'accordo! Buona idea, comunque io oggi preferisco un tè.
Marco Okay! Good idea; however, today I prefer a cup of tea.
Alessio Come preferisci, andiamo al bar!
Marco As you prefer, let's go to the bar!
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Marco: What are the opening hours of shops in Italy?
Consuelo: It depends on whether it is a big city or not. In the main tourist cities, shops usually open at ten-thirty or eleven in the morning and close at eight-thirty in the evening. In small towns, they usually close one or two hours for a lunch break, but in both cases, they're always closed on Monday mornings.
Marco: Ah okay. And what about the restaurants?
Consuelo: You know, Marco, Italians usually have lunch around one o'clock p.m. and dinner about eight o'clock p.m., so restaurants remain open from noon to three o'clock p.m. and from seven-thirty to eleven-thirty p.m.
Marco: That's interesting, thank you, Consuelo!
VOCAB LIST
Marco: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. The first word we shall see is?
Consuelo gioielleria [natural native speed]
Marco jewelry store (jewellery store)
Consuelo gioielleria [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Consuelo gioielleria [natural native speed]
Next:
Consuelo aprire [natural native speed]
Marco to open
Consuelo aprire [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Consuelo aprire [natural native speed]
Next:
Consuelo mentre [natural native speed]
Marco while, whilst
Consuelo mentre [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Consuelo mentre [natural native speed]
Next:
Consuelo aspettare [natural native speed]
Marco to wait
Consuelo aspettare [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Consuelo aspettare [natural native speed]
Next:
Consuelo idea [natural native speed]
Marco idea, thought
Consuelo idea [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Consuelo idea [natural native speed]
Next:
Consuelo preferire [natural native speed]
Marco to prefer
Consuelo preferire [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Consuelo preferire [natural native speed]
KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES
Marco: Consuelo, which word are we studying today?
Consuelo: That's the Italian expression "d'accordo."
Marco: The English equivalent is "okay" or "all right."
Consuelo: If you only say "d'accordo," that means "okay or all right," but if you add the verb "essere," meaning "to be," it takes the meaning of "to agree" with someone and it is followed by the preposition "con," meaning "with."
Marco: For example?
Consuelo: If you ask me "perché non mangiamo una pizza?" meaning "Why don't we eat a pizza?" I could just answer "d'accordo," meaning "okay."
Marco: But if we want to use the word with the meaning of agreement, what should we say?
Consuelo: "Sono d'accordo con te."
Marco: "I agree with you."
Consuelo: Exactly!

Lesson focus
Consuelo: Let's take a look at today's grammar point.
Marco: In this lesson, we'll see the present indicative of verbs whose infinitive ends in "-ire."
Consuelo: The "presente indicativo" of third conjugation verbs follows the same patterns used for the two conjugations we previously saw.
Marco: In other words, take the infinitive of the verb.
Consuelo: For example, let’s take the case of "aprire."
Marco: Drop the ending "-ire" and you are left with "apr-."
Consuelo: Take "apr-" and add the appropriate endings.
Marco: Remember that the endings are different for each person.
Consuelo: "Io" takes "-o," "tu" takes "-i," "lui/lei" takes "-e," "noi" takes "-iamo," "voi" takes "-ite," and "loro" takes "-ono."
Marco: Let's see the regular verb "aprire," meaning "to open."
Consuelo: "Io apro."
Marco: "I open."
Consuelo: "Tu apri."
Marco: "You open."
Consuelo: "Lui/lei apre."
Marco: "He/She/It opens."
Consuelo: "Noi apriamo."
Marco: "We open."
Consuelo: "Voi aprite."
Marco: "You open."
Consuelo: "Loro aprono."
Marco: Other verbs that follow this rule are "partire," meaning "to leave," "offrire," meaning "to offer," "sentire," meaning "to hear/to listen to," and "dormire," meaning "to sleep."
Consuelo: Now it gets tricky!
Marco: Oh yes, a significant number of the third conjugation's regular verbs add the interfix!
Consuelo: It's just a group of letters inserted between the stem of the verb and the ending.
Marco: This interfix is "-isc-" in all the six persons, except for the first and second plural persons.
Marco: In all the remaining cases, they follow the standard conjugation. To better explain this, let's see the verb "preferire," meaning "to prefer."
Consuelo: "Io preferisco"
Marco: "I prefer"
Consuelo: "tu preferisci"
Marco: "you prefer"
Consuelo: "lui/lei preferisce"
Marco: "he/she/it prefers"
Consuelo: "noi preferiamo"
Marco: "we prefer"
Consuelo: "voi preferite"
Marco: "you prefer"
Consuelo: "loro preferiscono"
Marco: "they prefer"
Consuelo: This rule applies exclusively to the present indicative, present subjunctive, and imperative.
Marco: Unfortunately, as far as grammar is concerned, there is no general rule to distinguish the verbs that need the interfix "-isc-" from those that follow the standard conjugation.
Consuelo: What to do, what to do?
Marco: The most efficient method to figure it out is to consult a good dictionary and start using them right away!
Consuelo: Not a bad idea.
Marco: Finally, here are some of the most widely used third conjugation irregular verbs…
Consuelo: "Uscire"
Marco: "to go out," "to exit,"
Consuelo: "venire"
Marco: "to come,"
Consuelo: "morire"
Marco: "to die," "to pass away,"
Consuelo: "udire"
Marco: "to hear,"
Consuelo: "divenire"
Marco: "to become,"
Consuelo: "aprire"
Marco: "to open,"
Consuelo: "mentire"
Marco: "to lie," and
Consuelo: "salire"
Marco: "to go upward," "to climb"That’s just about does it for today. Before we go, we want to tell you about a way to drastically improve your pronunciation.
Consuelo: The voice recording tool.
Marco: Yes, the voice recording tool in the premium learning center.
Consuelo: Record your voice with a click of a button.
Marco: And then play it back just as easily.
Consuelo: So record your voice and then listen to it.
Marco: Compare it to the native speakers.
Consuelo: And adjust your pronunciation.
Marco: This will help you improve your pronunciation fast.

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