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 gender – 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. |
172 Comments
HideIo sono italiano e tu?
Ciao Andra,
you can also say "italo-americano" 😉
Thanks for posting!
Valentina
Team ItalianPod101.com
Si, sono italiano americano!!
Hi Johann M. Vento,
thanks for studying with us!
Don't hesitate to leave a comment if you have any questions.
Valentina
Team ItalianPod101.com
It was really helpful to review the rules about noun and adjective capitalization. I learned for the first time how to ask someone's nationality in formal voice.
Ciao Fanny,
I'm not sure I understand your question.
"he" is masculine, "she" is feminine.
You can learn more about that in this video: https://www.italianpod101.com/lesson/absolute-beginner-questions-answered-by-marika-5-nouns-masculine-or-feminine/?lp=141
Let me know if that answers your question!
Valentina
Team ItalianPod101.com
Ciao tutti
I want ask about masculine and feminine. Is refer to gender, he or she?
Grazie
Hi Reem,
thanks for your question!
When addressing someone using the formal language, you should use "Lei" for both men and women. While it means "she" and is used to talk about women in informal language, it means "you" and can be used for everyone in polite language.
Please note that only applies to the personal pronoun (Lei), not to the adjectives referring to the person. So you will find:
Lei è americano? Are you American (referring to a man)
Lei è americana? Are you American (referring to a woman)
I hope this helps!
Team ItalianPod101.com
ciao a tutti !
i'm kinda confused with the formal dialogue when Alessio asked the man next to Melessa with "lei" instead of "lui"
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.
so, how could this be although he is asking a man in formal way ?
molto grazie ❤️️
Ciao Omar, ciao Ghazal,
piacere!
Thanks for posting, let us know if you have any questions.
Valentina
Team ItalianPod101.com
Mi chiamo Omar. Sono Somalo