Learn how to use the imperfect tense of Italian verbs to describe a physical, mental, or emotional state
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Consuelo: Hello everyone! I'm Consuelo, and welcome to ItalianPOD101.com. |
| Ruggero: With us, you'll learn to speak Italian with fun and effective lessons. |
| Consuelo: We also provide you with cultural insights... |
| Ruggero: ...and tips you won't find in a textbook. |
| Ruggero: In today's class, we continue focusing on how to employ the imperfetto tense. |
| Consuelo: This conversation takes place in the office. |
| Ruggero: It's between Ilaria and Melissa. |
| Consuelo: In this conversation, they will be speaking informal Italian. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Melissa: Ilaria ho saputo della tua promozione, complimenti. |
| Ilaria: Grazie. Ieri quando mi hanno chiamato in sala riunioni ero un po' preoccupata. Di solito mi chiamavano per altre questioni. |
| Melissa: Invece ti hanno dato una bella notizia. Te lo meriti, con tutta l'esperienza che hai. |
| Ilaria: In effetti, ormai sono già sette anni che lavoro qui, ho cominciato quando avevo ventitré anni. |
| Melissa: Chissà io quando avrò mai un aumento. |
| Ilaria: Continua a impegnarti, poi i risultati arrivano subito. |
| Melissa: Anche perché ho deciso di rimanere di più in Italia. |
| Ilaria: Benissimo, oggi è il giorno delle belle notizie! |
| English Host: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Melissa: Ilaria ho saputo della tua promozione, complimenti. |
| Ilaria: Grazie. Ieri quando mi hanno chiamato in sala riunioni ero un po' preoccupata. Di solito mi chiamavano per altre questioni. |
| Melissa: Invece ti hanno dato una bella notizia. Te lo meriti, con tutta l'esperienza che hai. |
| Ilaria: In effetti, ormai sono già sette anni che lavoro qui, ho cominciato quando avevo ventitré anni. |
| Melissa: Chissà io quando avrò mai un aumento. |
| Ilaria: Continua a impegnarti, poi i risultati arrivano subito. |
| Melissa: Anche perché ho deciso di rimanere di più in Italia. |
| Ilaria: Benissimo, oggi è il giorno delle belle notizie! |
| English Host: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Melissa: Ilaria ho saputo della tua promozione, complimenti. |
| Ruggero: Ilaria, I heard about your promotion; congratulations. |
| Ilaria: Grazie. Ieri quando mi hanno chiamato in sala riunioni ero un po' preoccupata. Di solito mi chiamavano per altre questioni. |
| Ruggero: Thank you. Yesterday when they called me in the conference room, I was a bit worried. They usually called me for other matters. |
| Melissa: Invece ti hanno dato una bella notizia. Te lo meriti, con tutta l'esperienza che hai. |
| Ruggero: Instead, they gave you good news. You deserve it with all the experience you have. |
| Ilaria: In effetti, ormai sono già sette anni che lavoro qui, ho cominciato quando avevo ventitré anni. |
| Ruggero: Actually, it's already seven years that I've worked here; I started when I was twenty-three years old. |
| Melissa: Chissà io quando avrò mai un aumento. |
| Ruggero: Who knows when I will ever have a raise. |
| Ilaria: Continua a impegnarti, poi i risultati arrivano subito. |
| Ruggero: Continue to apply yourself; then the results come quickly. |
| Melissa: Anche perché ho deciso di rimanere di più in Italia. |
| Ruggero: Also, because I've decided to stay in Italy more. |
| Ilaria: Benissimo, oggi è il giorno delle belle notizie! |
| Ruggero: Excellent, today is the day of good news! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Ruggero: Someone got a promotion! |
| Consuelo: Yep! Ilaria got a "promozione," which is definitely good news. |
| Ruggero: So the Italian word for "raise" is "aumento." |
| Consuelo: Yep, "l'aumento." From the verb "aumentare." |
| Ruggero: Oh, "to increase" or "to raise." |
| Consuelo: Melissa also has good news; she figured out she wants to stay longer in Italy. |
| Ruggero: I'm sure we'll know later why she made this decision. |
| Consuelo: That was a day of "le belle notizie!" |
| Ruggero: "Good news!" |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Ruggero: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| The first word we shall see is: |
| Consuelo: promozione [natural native speed] |
| Ruggero: promotion |
| Consuelo: promozione [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Consuelo: promozione [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Consuelo: sala riunioni [natural native speed] |
| Ruggero: meeting room |
| Consuelo: sala riunioni [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Consuelo: sala riunioni [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Consuelo: preoccupato [natural native speed] |
| Ruggero: worried |
| Consuelo: preoccupato [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Consuelo: preoccupato [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Consuelo: questione [natural native speed] |
| Ruggero: matter |
| Consuelo: questione [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Consuelo: questione [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Consuelo: meritare [natural native speed] |
| Ruggero: to deserve, merit |
| Consuelo: meritare [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Consuelo: meritare [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Consuelo: esperienza [natural native speed] |
| Ruggero: experience |
| Consuelo: esperienza [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Consuelo: esperienza [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Consuelo: aumento [natural native speed] |
| Ruggero: raise |
| Consuelo: aumento [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Consuelo: aumento [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Consuelo: risultato [natural native speed] |
| Ruggero: result |
| Consuelo: risultato [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Consuelo: risultato [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Ruggero: Let's have a closer look at the usuage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Ruggero: Consuelo, what word are we studying today? |
| Consuelo: Today we're studying the word "risultato." |
| Ruggero: "Result," "outcome," "issue." |
| Consuelo: We use "risultato" also in mathematics. |
| Ruggero: Ah, okay. If I'm not wrong, "risultato" has also the meaning of "score." |
| Consuelo: True, the so-called "punteggio." As in "i risultati degli esami." |
| Ruggero: "Exam marks." "Risultati" is the plural form. |
| Consuelo: Or "i risulati delle partite." |
| Ruggero: "Results of matches." |
| Consuelo: We often use this noun with the verb "ottenere." |
| Ruggero: "To obtain," "to get." For example... |
| Consuelo: "Ottenere dei buoni o cattivi risultati." |
| Ruggero: "To get good or bad results or effects." |
| Consuelo: We also use this word in the expression "Come risultato di." |
| Ruggero: "As a result of." |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Consuelo: Let's take a look at today's grammar point. |
| Ruggero: In today's class, we continue focusing on how to employ the "imperfetto" tense. |
| Consuelo: In the previous lesson, we covered two different ways to employ the "imperfetto" tense, which were when talking about habits in the past and when indicating two or more past parallel actions. |
| Ruggero: In today's class, we continue analyzing other uses for this tense. |
| Consuelo: Yes, because "imperfetto" is also used when describing physical, mental, and emotional states in the past. |
| Ruggero: In addition, we use it also when describing feelings, people, objects, the landscape, situations, age, time, and weather, always in a past discourse. For example? |
| Consuelo: "Ieri mi sentivo un po' stanco." |
| Ruggero: "Yesterday I felt a bit tired." |
| Consuelo: In the dialogue, Ilaria says, "Ero un po' preoccupata." |
| Ruggero: "I was a little bit worried." |
| Consuelo: The next sample sentence is "La settimana scorsa faceva bel tempo." |
| Ruggero: "Last week there was nice weather." |
| Consuelo: Or "Ieri sera ho mangiato la pizza, era molto buona." |
| Ruggero: "Last night I ate pizza; it was very good." |
| Consuelo: In today's conversation, Ilaria adds, "Ho cominciato quando avevo ventitré anni." |
| Ruggero: "I started when I was twenty-three years old." |
| Consuelo: Furthermore, there are certain time expressions in Italian that frequently require the "imperfetto" tense when talking about the past. |
| Ruggero: Such as? |
| Consuelo: "Anni fa." |
| Ruggero: "Years ago." |
| Consuelo: "Di solito." |
| Ruggero: "Usually." |
| Consuelo: "Generalmente." |
| Ruggero: "Generally." |
| Consuelo: "Normalmente." |
| Ruggero: "Normally." |
| Consuelo: "Sempre." |
| Ruggero: "Always." |
| Consuelo: "Il lunedì, il martedì" and so on. |
| Ruggero: "On Mondays," "on Tuesdays," and so on. |
| Consuelo: "Quando." |
| Ruggero: "When." For instance? |
| Consuelo: In today's conversation, Ilaria says, "Di solito mi interpellavano per altre questioni." |
| Ruggero: "Usually, they used to consult me for other issues." |
| Consuelo: Or "Anni fa giocavo a tennis." |
| Ruggero: "Years ago, I used to play tennis." |
| Consuelo: And lastly, "Normalmente Marina pranzava in ufficio." |
| Ruggero: "Normally, Marina used to have lunch in the office." |
Outro |
| Ruggero: That just about does it for today. |
| Consuelo: Listeners, can you understand Italian TV shows, movies or songs? |
| Ruggero: 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. |
| Ruggero: Line-by-line audio. |
| Consuelo: Listen to the lesson conversations Line-By-Line, and learn to understand natural Italian fast! |
| Ruggero: It's simple really. |
| Consuelo: With a click of a button, listen to each line of the conversation. |
| Ruggero: Listen again and again, and tune your ear to natural Italian. |
| Consuelo: Rapidly understand natural Italian with this powerful tool. |
| Ruggero: Find this feature on the lesson page under Premium Member resources at ItalianPod101.com. |
9 Comments
HideCan you get tired of Italian food?
Hi Michael De Vere,
Good point. However, in this case it's better to use "te lo meriti".
If Melissa used only "te la meriti", that would just mean "you deserve such a news", which is not what she means.
"Lo" in this context means "this, what has happen, both the promotion and the news".
I hope this makes it clear!
Ofelia
Team ItalianPod101.com
Hello, why does Mellissa say - Te lo meriti? I would expect Te la meriti as both promozione and bella notiza are feminine? Grazie...
Hi everyone!
Thank you for posting!
@Ken Here is the first sentence "Congratulazioni! Dobbiamo festeggiare (i tuoi risultati)! Perchè non andiamo fuori a cena stasera?" For the rest of the sentences, if you are a Premium Plus subscriber you can ask your Italian tutor to check after your translations! :thumbsup:
Grazie,
Ofelia
Team ItalianPod101.com
I have made this suggestion many times over the years but no one seems to change the format. I would like to have the Italian for the sentences in the introductions that begin with "and you say in Italian ...." I am at the stage where I enjoy trying to write them in Italian. Would you please translate the following for me so I can check my sentences against the "real thing"? Grazie in anticipo.
1."Congratulations! We must celebrate your good results. Why don't we go out to eat tonight!" You respond in Italian, "Thank you, and yes, dinner is good. But let's try something different tonight. Are there any Asian places around here?" 2. " Asian food when you're in Italy? Ah, you're kidding me , of course. We'll feast on some delicious pasta tonight, my friend."
3. "Haven't you ever heard that carbohydrates are bad for you? We're supposed to enjoy everything in moderation." Your roommate responds in Italian, "Do you remember where you are? Italy is not the land of moderation. If you want moderation, then maybe you should go to an Asian country instead!"
I realize that I am asking a lot, but your help is greatly appreciated. Thanks again.
Prego Edmar!
Chiara
Team ItalianPod101.com
Ti ringrazio Chiara.
Hi Edmar,
good sentences. Just notice:
sentence 2: insegnare implies 'lezione' so no need to specify it.
Anni fa insegnavo pianoforte.
sentence 3: no need to use the pronoun'ne' . you need a direct pronoun.
Prima facevamo le nostre prove del coro il martedi, ma ora le (= le prove) facciamo il lunedi.
Chiara
Team ItalianPod101.com
L'altro ieri facevo proprio tempo brutto. I was really a bad weather the day before yesterday.
Anni fa insegnavo i lezioni di pianoforte. Years ago, I was teaching piano lessons.
Prima facevamo le nostre prove del coro il martedi ma ora ne facciamo il lunedi.
Before we are doing our choir practice during tuesday but doing it now on monday.