Learn how to form the imperfect tense of Italian verbs
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Marco: Hello, and welcome to ItalianPOD101.com, where we study modern Italian in a fun, educational format! |
| Consuelo: So, brush up on the Italian that you started learning long ago, or start learning today. |
| Marco: Thanks for being here with us for this lesson, Consuelo, what are we looking at in this lesson? |
| Marco: In today's class, we will focus on the imperfect tense, imperfetto. |
| Consuelo: This conversation takes place in a restaurant. |
| Marco: It's between Melissa, Ilaria, and Alessio. |
| Consuelo: They will be speaking informal Italian. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Melissa: Posso aprire i regali? |
| Ilaria: Certo! |
| Melissa: Apro prima la lettera. Ah un buono omaggio per l'estetista! Perfetto, sempre ben accetto! |
| Ilaria: E' quello accanto all'ufficio! |
| Melissa: Ah bene, comodo. E qui cosa c'è? Ah, un porta banana di plastica! Molto utile! Grazie! |
| Alessio: Sì, porti le banane nella borsa e le ammacchi sempre, a volte ti vedo mangiare una banana nera! |
| Melissa: E' vero, sai quando stavo in America non mangiavo quasi mai la frutta! |
| Alessio: Quando stavi in America non parlavi neanche italiano, adesso sei proprio brava. |
| Melissa: Grazie, lo ha detto anche la nonna. |
| English Host: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Melissa: Posso aprire i regali? |
| Ilaria: Certo! |
| Melissa: Apro prima la lettera. Ah un buono omaggio per l'estetista! Perfetto, sempre ben accetto! |
| Ilaria: E' quello accanto all'ufficio! |
| Melissa: Ah bene, comodo. E qui cosa c'è? Ah, un porta banana di plastica! Molto utile! Grazie! |
| Alessio: Sì, porti le banane nella borsa e le ammacchi sempre, a volte ti vedo mangiare una banana nera! |
| Melissa: E' vero, sai quando stavo in America non mangiavo quasi mai la frutta! |
| Alessio: Quando stavi in America non parlavi neanche italiano, adesso sei proprio brava. |
| Melissa: Grazie, lo ha detto anche la nonna. |
| English Host: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Melissa: Posso aprire i regali? |
| Marco: Can I open the presents? |
| Ilaria: Certo! |
| Marco: Certainly! |
| Melissa: Apro prima la lettera. Ah un buono omaggio per l'estetista! Perfetto, sempre ben accetto! |
| Marco: First, I'll open the letter. Ah, a gift voucher for the beautician! Perfect, always gladly welcome! |
| Ilaria: E' quello accanto all'ufficio! |
| Marco: It's the one near the office! |
| Melissa: Ah bene, comodo. E qui cosa c'è? Ah, un porta banana di plastica! Molto utile! Grazie! |
| Marco: Ah nice, convenient. And what do we have here? Ah, a plastic banana holder! Very useful! Thanks! |
| Alessio: Sì, porti le banane nella borsa e le ammacchi sempre, a volte ti vedo mangiare una banana nera! |
| Marco: Yes, you carry bananas in the bag and you always bruise them. I sometimes see you eat a black banana! |
| Melissa: E' vero, sai quando stavo in America non mangiavo quasi mai la frutta! |
| Marco: It's true; you know, when I was in the United States, I barely ate fruit! |
| Alessio: Quando stavi in America non parlavi neanche italiano, adesso sei proprio brava. |
| Marco: When you were in the United States, you also didn't speak Italian, and now you are really good. |
| Melissa: Grazie, lo ha detto anche la nonna. |
| Marco: Thank you, grandmother also said so. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Marco: Melissa got very useful gifts! |
| Consuelo: "Sì," especially the gift voucher for the beautician. |
| Marco: Girls like these kinds of presents. I should keep that in mind. |
| Consuelo: A massage in a beauty salon can really be a good idea for a gift! |
| Marco: And what about the banana guard? |
| Consuelo: That's useful as well! Especially for those used to eating bananas often. I think I'd need one! |
| Marco: Good to know; now we know what to give you for your birthday! |
| Consuelo: Hey, but my birthday is in six months! |
| Marco: "Lo so, lo so." "I know!" Eh eh! |
| Consuelo: The "buono omaggio" would be better though. |
| Marco: I knew it! |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Marco: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| The first word we shall see is: |
| Consuelo: certo [natural native speed] |
| Marco: certainly, sure |
| Consuelo: certo [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Consuelo: certo [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Consuelo: lettera [natural native speed] |
| Marco: letter |
| Consuelo: lettera [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Consuelo: lettera [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Consuelo: buono omaggio [natural native speed] |
| Marco: gift voucher |
| Consuelo: buono omaggio [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Consuelo: buono omaggio [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Consuelo: estetista [natural native speed] |
| Marco: beautician |
| Consuelo: estetista [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Consuelo: estetista [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Consuelo: plastica [natural native speed] |
| Marco: plastic |
| Consuelo: plastica [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Consuelo: plastica [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Consuelo: ammaccare [natural native speed] |
| Marco: to bruise |
| Consuelo: ammaccare [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Consuelo: ammaccare [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Consuelo: frutta [natural native speed] |
| Marco: fruit |
| Consuelo: frutta [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Consuelo: frutta [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Consuelo: nonna [natural native speed] |
| Marco: grandmother |
| Consuelo: nonna [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Consuelo: nonna [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Marco: Let's have a closer look at the usuage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Marco: Consuelo, what expression are we studying today? |
| Consuelo: Today we're studying the expression "sempre ben accetto." |
| Marco: "Always welcome." |
| Consuelo: "Accetto" with a double "-c" and a double "-t" is the past participle of the verb "accettare." |
| Marco: "To accept." So the literal translation should be "well accepted." |
| Consuelo: Yes, "welcome" is "benvenuto," but in cases like today's conversation, it is preferred to use "ben accetto." |
| Marco: For example? |
| Consuelo: "Un nuovo amico è sempre ben accetto." |
| Marco: "A new friend is always welcome." |
| Consuelo: "I complimenti sono sempre ben accetti." |
| Marco: "Compliments are always welcome." |
| Consuelo: What if something is "unwelcome," Marco? |
| Marco: Oh, that should be "male accetto." |
| Consuelo: True, but we don't use "male accetto" that much. |
| Marco: No? |
| Consuelo: We say "non è bene accetto." For example, "Un vicino di casa rumoroso non è mai ben accetto." |
| Marco: Ah, okay, "A loud neighbor is never welcome." So true! |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Consuelo: Let's take a look at today's grammar point. |
| Marco: The "imperfetto" tense is a past tense used to describe habitual actions and states of being in the past. |
| Consuelo: In English, it corresponds to "used to," "would," or "was + -ing." |
| Marco: "Imperfetto" is a highly regular tense, and it is pretty easy to form. |
| Consuelo: You just have to drop the "-re" of the infinitive and add the same set of endings to verbs of all the three conjugations. The endings are "-vo," "-vi," "-va," "-vamo," "-vate," and "-vano." |
| Marco: I repeat, you add the same endings for "-are," "-ere," and "-ire" verbs. So in the dialogue, we had the verb "to speak." |
| Consuelo: "Parlare." "Io parla-vo." |
| Marco: "I spoke." |
| Consuelo: "Tu parlavi." |
| Marco: "You spoke." |
| Consuelo: "Lui, lei parlava." |
| Marco: "He, she, it spoke." |
| Consuelo: "Noi parlavamo." |
| Marco: "We spoke." |
| Consuelo: "Voi parlavate." |
| Marco: "You spoke." |
| Consuelo: "Loro parlavano." |
| Marco: "They spoke." In the next lesson, we'll explain in detail the different usages for "imperfetto." For the moment, though, let's just hear some examples using this tense. |
| Consuelo: In today's conversation, Melissa said, "Quando stavo in America non mangiavo quasi mai la frutta." |
| Marco: "When I was in the United States, I barely ate fruit." |
| Consuelo: "Mentre la mamma preparava la cena io facevo i compiti." |
| Marco: "While Mom was preparing dinner, I was doing my homework." |
| Consuelo: "I miei amici non leggevano fumetti." |
| Marco: "My friends didn't read comics." |
| Consuelo: "Quando ero bambina guardavo sempre i cartoni animati." |
| Marco: "When I was a child, I always used to watch cartoons." |
| Consuelo: "Ero" is the "imperfetto" of the verb "essere." |
| Marco: Please look up at the grammar section of the lesson notes to find out the entire conjugation for this verb. |
| Consuelo: Only "essere" and a few more verbs are irregular at the "imperfetto." |
| Marco: What are the other irregular verbs? |
| Consuelo: The verbs "bere," "dire," and "fare" have irregular stems in the "imperfetto." |
| Marco: For example? |
| Consuelo: For "bere," meaning "to drink," the "imperfetto" is "io bev-evo." |
| Marco: "I drank." |
| Consuelo: For the verb "dire," meaning "to say," it is "io dic-evo." |
| Marco: "I said." |
| Consuelo: The same is true for the verb "fare," which means "to do." It is "io fac-evo." |
| Marco: "I did." |
| Consuelo: Please remember to look at the lesson notes. |
| Marco: And keep practicing conjugating verbs at the "imperfetto" tense. |
| Consuelo: As we already mentioned, we'll cover all the different uses for this tense in the next lesson. |
Outro |
| Marco: That just about does it for today. |
| Consuelo: Listeners, can you understand Italian TV shows, movies or songs? |
| Marco: How about friends and loved ones? conversations in Italian? |
| Consuelo: If you want to know what's going on, we have a tool to help. |
| Marco: Line-by-line audio. |
| Consuelo: Listen to the lesson conversations Line-By-Line, and learn to understand natural Italian fast! |
| Marco: It's simple really. |
| Consuelo: With a click of a button, listen to each line of the conversation. |
| Marco: Listen again and again, and tune your ear to natural Italian. |
| Consuelo: Rapidly understand natural Italian with this powerful tool. |
| Marco: Find this feature on the lesson page under Premium Member resources at ItalianPod101.com. |
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