Learn useful phrases to use at the post office
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Ciao! Hello and welcome back to Italian survival phrases brought to you by ItalianPod101.com, this course is designed to equip you with the language skills and knowledge to enable you to get the most out of your visit to Italy. You will be surprised at how far a little Italian will go. |
| Now, before we jump in, remember to stop by ItalianPod101.com and there, you will find the accompanying PDF and additional info in the post. If you stop by, be sure to leave us a comment. |
| My dear listeners, today we're going to take a trip to the post office. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Now, the post office in Italy is ufficio postale. |
| ufficio postale |
| The corporate colour is yellow and outside the post office you find the writing - Poste Italiane. |
| So today we're going to work on getting your postcards, letters and packages home. The expression we need to accomplish this is "I'd like to send this to" and then the desired destination. For today's lesson, we'll use Buenos Aires. |
| In Italian, “I would like to send this to Buenos Aires" is Vorrei inviare questo a Buenos Aires. |
| Vorrei inviare questo a Buenos Aires. |
| Let’s break it down by syllable: Vorrei inviare questo a Buenos Aires. |
| Now let's hear it once again: Vorrei inviare questo a Buenos Aires. |
| The first word vorrei means “I would like." |
| Let's break down this word and hear it one more time: vorrei |
| Vorrei |
| This is followed by inviare, which in English is “to send." |
| Inviare |
| Inviare |
| Then you have questo, a demonstrative adjective meaning “this." |
| So we have Vorrei inviare questo |
| Vorrei inviare questo. |
| Finally we have a which means “to” followed by the name of the city you are sending to. And now all together we have - Vorrei inviare questo a Buenos Aires. Literally this means “I would like to send this to Buenos Aires.” |
| Let's take a look at the next words. We were talking about packages, letters and postcards so let’s try to send a postcard! |
| “Postcard” in Italian is cartolina. |
| cartolina |
| Let’s break it down by syllable: cartolina |
| Now let's hear it once again: cartolina |
| “I would like to send this postcard to Buenos Aires” in Italian is vorrei inviare questa cartolina a Buenos Aires. |
| vorrei inviare questa cartolina a Buenos Aires. |
| Let’s break it down by syllable: vorrei inviare questa cartolina a Buenos Aires. |
| Now let's hear it once again: vorrei inviare questa cartolina a Buenos Aires. |
| Notice the position of questa cartolina which means "this postcard." |
| Now let’s try “letter” which in Italian is lettera. |
| Lettera |
| “I would like to send this letter to Buenos Aires” in Italian is Vorrei inviare questa lettera a Buenos Aires. |
| Vorrei inviare questa lettera a Buenos Aires. |
| So as you can notice we simply substitute the word for “letter” lettera with the Italian word for “postcard” cartolina, introduced in the previous phrase. |
| Now let’s go and try to send a package. In Italian “I would like to send this package to Buenos Aires” is Vorrei inviare questo pacco a Buenos Aires. |
| Vorrei inviare questo pacco a Buenos Aires. |
| “Package” in Italian is pacco. |
| Let's break down this word and hear it one more time: pacco |
| Pacco |
| So all together we have vorrei inviare questo pacco a Buenos Aires. |
| Now the package requires a closer look which we’ll do in the next lesson. |
| If you already have your letter or your postcards ready for sending you don’t need to look for a post office. You just need to find a mailbox or a letterbox which in Italy you can recognize by its dark red colour. You find them throughout the neighbourhoods all over the country. You can see the sign poste and a notice with the time-table for collection, ultimo ritiro, and then the time and the days of collection. |
| Ultimo means “last," |
| Ultimo |
| Ultimo |
| while ritiro means “collection." |
| Ritiro |
| Ritiro |
| So all togehter we have ultimo ritiro. |
Outro |
| Okay, to close out this lesson, we'd like you to practice what you've just learned. I'll provide you with the English equivalent of the phrase and you're responsible for shouting it aloud. You have a few seconds before I give you the answer, so buona fortuna, which means “good luck” in Italian. |
| “I would like to send this to Buenos Aires.” - Vorrei inviare questo a Buenos Aires. |
| Vorrei inviare questo a Buenos Aires. |
| Vorrei inviare questo a Buenos Aires. |
| “I would like to send this postcard to Buenos Aires.” - Vorrei inviare questa cartolina a Buenos Aires. |
| Vorrei inviare questa cartolina a Buenos Aires. |
| Vorrei inviare questa cartolina a Buenos Aires. |
| “I would like to send this letter to Buenos Aires.” - Vorrei inviare questa lettera a Buenos Aires |
| Vorrei inviare questa lettera a Buenos Aires |
| Vorrei inviare questa lettera a Buenos Aires |
| “I would like to send this package to Buenos Aires.” - Vorrei inviare questo pacco a Buenos Aires. |
| Vorrei inviare questo pacco a Buenos Aires. |
| Vorrei inviare questo pacco a Buenos Aires. |
| That’s going to do it for today. Remember to stop by ItalianPod101.com and pick up the accompanying PDF. If you stop by, be sure to leave us a comment. Ciao ciao! |
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