Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Cinzia: Buongiorno a tutti.
Marco: Marco here! Beginner series Season 1, Lesson 32 - Find the Right Balance Between Italian Pizza and Italian Nightlife!
Cinzia: Hello, everyone! I’m Cinzia and welcome to ItalianPod101.
Marco: With us, you’ll learn to speak Italian with fun and effective lessons.
Cinzia: We also provide you with cultural insights.
Marco: And tips you won’t find in a textbook.
Cinzia: In this lesson, you will learn about idiomatic expressions and the usage of the preposition "di."
Marco: This conversation takes place at university.
Cinzia: And it is between Peter and Anna.
Marco: The speakers are friends, therefore, they will be speaking informal Italian.
Cinzia: Listeners, I have a question.
Marco: A question?
Cinzia: Yep. I want to know when was the last time you commented.
Marco: Oh yes, great question!
Cinzia: So stop by ItalianPod101.com, leave us a comment or just say hi.
Marco: Okay, you heard Cinzia. Let’s listen to the conversation.
DIALOGUE
Peter: Eri in giro ieri sera?
Anna: No, ieri sono rimasta a casa.
Peter: A casa? Come mai?
Anna: Si, non avevo voglia di uscire.
Peter: E cosa hai fatto?
Anna: Niente di speciale, ho ordinato una pizza e guardato un film.
Peter: Io invece ho incontrato Luca, ma sono tornato presto.
Marco: One more time, slowly..
Peter: Eri in giro ieri sera?
Anna: No, ieri sono rimasta a casa.
Peter: A casa? Come mai?
Anna: Si, non avevo voglia di uscire.
Peter: E cosa hai fatto?
Anna: Niente di speciale, ho ordinato una pizza e guardato un film.
Peter: Io invece ho incontrato Luca, ma sono tornato presto.
Marco: Once again, this time, with a translation.
Cinzia: E ora, con la traduzione.
Peter: Eri in giro ieri sera?
Peter: Were you hanging around last night?
Anna: No, ieri sono rimasta a casa.
Anna: No, yesterday I stayed in.
Peter: A casa? Come mai?
Peter: At home? How come?
Anna: Si, non avevo voglia di uscire.
Anna: Yeah, I was not in the mood for going out.
Peter: E cosa hai fatto?
Peter: What did you do then?
Anna: Niente di speciale, ho ordinato una pizza e guardato un film.
Anna: Nothing special, I ordered a pizza and watched a movie.
Peter: Io invece ho incontrato Luca, ma sono tornato presto.
Peter: Instead I met Luca, but I went back home early.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Cinzia: So, niente di speciale is an expression you can hear very often.
Marco: Yes, indeed, especially if the people talking are youngsters.
Cinzia: Oh, right! So, I guess you don’t use it.
Marco: Actually, I do. You were hinting at my age.
Cinzia: Who, me? No!
Marco: Well, I’m not that much older than you, am I?
Cinzia: Okay, okay, okay. On with the vocabulary now.
Marco: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson.
VOCAB LIST
Marco: Today’s first word is…
Cinzia: giro [natural native speed]
Marco: circle, round
Cinzia: giro [slowly - broken down by syllable] giro [natural native speed]
Marco: Next word is…
Cinzia: essere in giro [natural native speed]
Marco: to hang around
Cinzia: essere in giro [slowly - broken down by syllable] essere in giro [natural native speed]
Marco: Next word…
Cinzia: rimanere a casa [natural native speed]
Marco: to stay in
Cinzia: rimanere a casa [slowly - broken down by syllable] rimanere a casa [natural native speed]
Marco: Next word…
Cinzia: avere voglia [natural native speed]
Marco: to be in the mood for
Cinzia: avere voglia [slowly - broken down by syllable] avere voglia [natural native speed]
Marco: Next word…
Cinzia: ordinare [natural native speed]
Marco: to order
Cinzia: ordinare [slowly - broken down by syllable] ordinare [natural native speed]
Marco: Next word is…
Cinzia: invece [natural native speed]
Marco: instead
Cinzia: invece [slowly - broken down by syllable] invece [natural native speed]
Marco: Today’s last word is…
Cinzia: tornare a casa [natural native speed]
Marco: to go back home
Cinzia: tornare a casa [slowly - broken down by syllable] tornare a casa [natural native speed]
VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE
Marco: Let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson.
Cinzia: The first word we will look at is giro.
Marco: And the sample sentence is…
Cinzia: Facciamo un giro?
Marco: "Shall we take a walk?"
Cinzia: Next, we have an expression, essere in giro.
Marco: And the sample sentence is…
Cinzia: Siamo stati in giro tutta la notte.
Marco: "We've been hanging around all night long."
Cinzia: Next, we have another expression, rimanere a casa.
Marco: And the sample sentence is…
Cinzia: Rimango a casa tutto il giorno oggi.
Marco: "Today I will stay in all day."
Cinzia: Next, we have one more expression, avere voglia.
Marco: Sample sentence, Cinzia.
Cinzia: Non ho voglia di lavorare!
Marco: I'm not in the mood for working!
Cinzia: Next, we have a verb, ordinare.
Marco: And the sample sentence is…
Cinzia: Ordiniamo un antipasto?
Marco: "Shall we order an appetizer?"
Cinzia: Yeah, why not.
Marco: Now?
Cinzia: Yeah.
Marco: It’s mid-afternoon.
Cinzia: Which is in Italian?
Marco: metà pomeriggio
Cinzia: Ah! Okay, maybe you’re right. Well, okay, let’s take a look at the next word, which is invece.
Marco: And the sample sentence is…
Cinzia: Invece di perdere tempo, lavora!
Marco: "Work instead of wasting time!"
Cinzia: Next, we have an expression.
Marco: Very nice expression, actually.
Cinzia: tornare a casa
Marco: And the sample sentence is…
Cinzia: Torno a casa tardi stasera.
Marco: "Tonight I'll be back (home) late."
Cinzia: And now, let’s take a look at today’s grammar.

Lesson focus

Cinzia: In today’s dialogue, we found in Anna's line the structure niente di speciale to translate the English "nothing/anything special."
Marco: As you can see, in Italian, we use the preposition di "of" to convey many different cases.
Cinzia: Yes, for example…
Marco: To indicate possession.
Cinzia: Il libro di Maria.
Marco: Maria's book.
Cinzia: To indicate what an object is made of.
Marco: Il tavolo di legno.
Cinzia: The wooden table.
Marco: To indicate origin using the verb essere + di, followed by the name of the city.
Cinzia: Cristiano è di Napoli.
Marco: Cristiano is from Napoli. Then, with certain verbs that express feelings.
Cinzia: Innamorarsi di qualcuno.
Marco: To fall in love with someone.
Cinzia: Vergognarsi di qualcosa.
Marco: To be ashamed of something.
Cinzia: Pentirsi di qualcosa.
Marco: To regret something. And the last case is, in many particular grammatical constructions. For example…
Cinzia: Di sera
Marco: “In the evening”
Cinzia: Di notte
Marco: “At night”
Cinzia: D'estate
Marco: “During the summer/In the summer time”
Cinzia: Or nulla di speciale
Marco: “Nothing special”
Cinzia: Niente di particolare
Marco: Nothing particular.
Cinzia: Today’s next topic is the word giro. This word in Italian can have many different meanings and it can be used in several different cases. First of all, let's take a look at its different English translations.
Marco: Its translations can be circle, turn, tour, excursion, stroll, walk (if it’s by foot), drive, ride (if it’s by car, motorbike, bike, etc.).
Cinzia: Yes, exactly. But now, let’s see which are the typical Italian expressions in which the word giro is used. In the dialogue, we have seen in Peter's line - Eri in giro ieri sera?
Marco: “Were you hanging around last night?” So essere in giro can be used to translate the idiomatic expression "hanging around." Then we have…
Cinzia: fare un giro
Marco: “to go for a walk; a drive; a ride”
Cinzia: fare il giro di
Marco: “to go round”
Cinzia: andare in giro
Marco: “to go about, walk around”
Cinzia: guardarsi in giro
Marco: “to look around”
Cinzia: And then, one of my favorite ones - prendere in giro qualcuno.
Marco: “pull somebody’s leg”
Cinzia: And then nel giro di un mese
Marco: “in a month's time”
Cinzia: essere nel giro
Marco: to belong to a circle
Cinzia: What about giro turistico?
Marco: Ah, very common, very common. It means “sightseeing tour.”
Cinzia: And one more, giro guidato.
Marco: “a guided tour.”

Outro

Marco: That just about does it for today. A presto.
Cinzia: See you soon!

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