Learn how to use the partitive
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Cinzia: Ciao a tutti! |
| Marco: Marco here! Beginner series Season 1, Lesson 33 - I went to visit some friends in Trentino. Hello and welcome to the beginner series at ItalianPod101.com, where we study modern Italian in a fun, educational format. |
| Cinzia: 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. Cinzia, what are we looking at in this lesson? |
| Cinzia: In this lesson, we will study how to use the partitive in Italian. |
| Marco: This conversation takes place in a cafe. |
| Cinzia: And it’s between Luca and Elena. |
| Marco: The speakers are friends, so they will be speaking informal Italian. |
| Cinzia: Remember commenting each day… |
| Marco: And posting in the forum are two great ways to get answers. |
| Cinzia: Community members… |
| Marco: And staff are all ready to help. |
| Cinzia: Definitely take advantage. Okay. |
| Marco: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Elena: Ciao Luca, come va? |
| Luca: Bene, grazie. E tu? Hai trascorso delle belle vacanze? |
| Elena: Sì, mi sono divertita molto. |
| Luca: Dove sei stata? |
| Elena: In montagna. Ho fatto qualche passeggiata a cavallo. |
| Luca: Davvero? E poi? |
| Elena: Poi sono andata a trovare alcuni amici in Trentino. |
| Luca: Come ti invidio! |
| Marco: Let's hear it slowly now. |
| Cinzia: Ascoltiamolo lentamente. |
| Elena: Ciao Luca, come va? |
| Luca: Bene, grazie. E tu? Hai trascorso delle belle vacanze? |
| Elena: Sì, mi sono divertita molto. |
| Luca: Dove sei stata? |
| Elena: In montagna. Ho fatto qualche passeggiata a cavallo. |
| Luca: Davvero? E poi? |
| Elena: Poi sono andata a trovare alcuni amici in Trentino. |
| Luca: Come ti invidio! |
| Marco: And now, with the translation. |
| Cinzia: E ora, con la traduzione. |
| Elena: Ciao Luca, come va? |
| Elena: Hi Luca, how is it going? |
| Luca: Bene, grazie. E tu? Hai trascorso delle belle vacanze? |
| Luca: Fine, thanks. And you? Did you spend some nice holidays? |
| Elena: Sì, mi sono divertita molto. |
| Elena: Yes, I had a lot of fun. |
| Luca: Dove sei stata? |
| Luca:Where did you go? |
| Elena: In montagna. Ho fatto qualche passeggiata a cavallo. |
| Elena: To the mountains. I did some horse riding. |
| Luca: Davvero? E poi? |
| Luca: Really? What else? |
| Elena: Poi sono andata a trovare alcuni amici in Trentino. |
| Elena: Then I went to visit some friends in Trentino. |
| Luca: Come ti invidio! |
| Luca: How I envy you! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Cinzia: Marco my dear, do you prefer beach or mountains? |
| Marco: Well, if I had to choose for my holidays, I’d rather go and spend some time to the beach. |
| Cinzia: I simply love the beach, but I think a holiday to the mountains can become a different and original holiday, don’t you think? |
| Marco: Yes, especially in Italy where during summertime, the majority of the people go al mare. Few people actually go up into the mountains. |
| Cinzia: Yes, they like spending some time in agriturismi, so dealing with nature and animals, so… |
| Marco: Yes. A lot of Italians also do trekking or they do some free climbing. |
| Cinzia: Yeah, hiking. Okay, after this, I think we can move on. |
| Marco: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Marco: Today’s first word is… |
| Cinzia: trascorrere [natural native speed] |
| Marco: to spend, pass (time) |
| Cinzia: trascorrere [slowly - broken down by syllable] trascorrere [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word… |
| Cinzia: vacanze [natural native speed] |
| Marco: holidays, vacation |
| Cinzia: vacanze [slowly - broken down by syllable] vacanze [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word… |
| Cinzia: divertirsi [natural native speed] |
| Marco: to have fun, enjoy oneself |
| Cinzia: divertirsi [slowly - broken down by syllable] divertirsi [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word is… |
| Cinzia: montagna [natural native speed] |
| Marco: mountain |
| Cinzia: montagna [slowly - broken down by syllable] montagna [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word… |
| Cinzia: passeggiata [natural native speed] |
| Marco: walk, ride |
| Cinzia: passeggiata [slowly - broken down by syllable] passeggiata [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word is… |
| Cinzia: andare a trovare [natural native speed] |
| Marco: to visit |
| Cinzia: andare a trovare [slowly - broken down by syllable] andare a trovare [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Today’s last word is… |
| Cinzia: invidiare [natural native speed] |
| Marco: to envy |
| Cinzia: invidiare [slowly - broken down by syllable] invidiare [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 trascorrere. |
| Marco: And the sample sentence is… |
| Cinzia: Ho trascorso davvero una bella vacanza. |
| Marco: "I actually spent a very nice holiday." |
| Cinzia: The next word is vacanze. |
| Marco: And the sample sentence is |
| Cinzia: Come sono andate le tue vacanze? |
| Marco: "How were your holidays?" |
| Cinzia: The word vacanze is one of those words we Italians can use in plural, right? |
| Marco: Yes. I think it’s because we love to have vacanze, many! |
| Cinzia: Yes, many, many vacanze. We actually like thinking that we could go to many places. |
| Marco: Yes. You can hear also vacanza, but it’s more specific for some organized holiday or something you would plan. Its close. |
| Cinzia: Yes, it’s a planned trip. |
| Marco: Dove vai in vacanza? “Where are you going in vacation?” But it’s those, maybe three days, four days. |
| Cinzia: Yes. Instead, if we say “Come sono andate le tue vacanze?” means “How did your holidays go?” |
| Marco: So, a lot of time. |
| Cinzia: So now, let’s take a look at the next word, which is divertirsi. |
| Marco: And the sample sentence is… |
| Cinzia: Non mi sono divertita alla festa. |
| Marco: "I didn't enjoy the party." |
| Cinzia: The next word we will look at is montagna. |
| Marco: And the sample sentence is… |
| Cinzia: Ti piace la montagna? |
| Marco: "Do you like mountains?" |
| Cinzia: The next word we will look at is passeggiata. |
| Marco: And the sample sentence is… |
| Cinzia: Facciamo una passeggiata insieme? |
| Marco: "Shall we take a walk together?" |
| Cinzia: Next, we have an expression, andare a trovare. |
| Marco: And the sample sentence is… |
| Cinzia: Sono andata a trovare i miei genitori tre mesi fa. |
| Marco: "I visited my family three months ago." |
| Cinzia: And lastly, we have invidiare. |
| Marco: So, one last sample sentence. |
| Cinzia: Ti invidio molto. |
| Marco: "I envy you a lot." |
| Cinzia: And now, let’s take a look at today’s grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Cinzia: In Italian the partitive (some, any) is conveyed by the simple preposition di "of" + the, definite article. |
| Marco: The partitive articles can be masculine singular. |
| Cinzia: del and dello |
| Marco: Before masculine nouns starting with -z, -y or -s + consonant or the group -gn. |
| Cinzia: And dell + (apostrophe) |
| Marco: In this case, before masculine nouns starting with a vowel. |
| Cinzia: So, for example, we have Ieri ho comprato del pane al supermercato. |
| Marco: “Yesterday, I bought some bread at the supermarket.” |
| Cinzia: Now, let’s see the feminine singular partitive articles. |
| Marco: Starting with… |
| Cinzia: della |
| Marco: dell’ (with apostrophe) |
| Cinzia: Before feminine nouns starting with vowels. |
| Marco: Here are some example sentences. |
| Cinzia: Elisa ha comprato della frutta. |
| Marco: Elisa bought some fruit. |
| Cinzia: And now, let’s see the masculine plural, dei and degli. |
| Marco: In this case, before masculine nouns starting with -z, -y or -s + consonant or the group -gn. |
| Cinzia: For example, Matteo mi ha prestato dei libri. |
| Marco: Matteo lent me some books. |
| Cinzia: And finally, let’s see feminine plural partitive articles, delle. |
| Marco: Here is an example sentence using delle. |
| Cinzia: Ho visto delle scarpe bellissime in un negozio. |
| Marco: I saw some very beautiful shoes in a shop. |
| Cinzia: Another way to convey the partitive in Italian is by using qualche followed by singular nouns or alcuni / alcune followed by plural nouns. |
| Marco: In place of di + definite articles. |
| Cinzia: Please be careful because qualche and alcuni / alcune can be used only with countable things (and not with uncountable items such as zucchero, pasta, pane). |
| Marco: “Sugar, pasta, bread.” Let’s see some examples now. |
| Cinzia: Vorrei vedere qualche amico. |
| Marco: “I would like to see some friends.” |
| Cinzia: Vorrei vedere alcuni amici. |
| Marco: “I would like to see some friends.” |
| Cinzia: So, as you can notice, the meaning of the two sentences is exactly the same. The only thing that changes is that we use a singular noun after the partitive qualche and a plural noun after the partitive alcuni / alcune. |
| Marco: Instead, if you are talking about things and using uncountable nouns, you must use the partitive di + definite article. |
| Cinzia: Now, let's revise some simple and important rules in using the partitive in Italian. |
| Marco: First of all, the partitive is used only if the quantity is not specified. |
| Cinzia: Devo comprare delle banane al mercato. |
| Marco: I have to buy some bananas at the market. |
| Cinzia: Next rule, Marco. |
| Marco: The partitive is not used in negative sentences. |
| Cinzia: Mia sorella non mangia frutta. |
| Marco: My sister doesn't eat fruit. |
| Cinzia: And finally… |
| Marco: The partitive can also be expressed with qualche plus singular nouns and alcuni plus plural nouns. |
| Cinzia: Ho preparato qualche panino per il viaggio. |
| Marco: I made some sandwiches for the trip. |
| Cinzia: Abbiamo invitato alcuni amici per cena. |
| Marco: We invited some friends for dinner. |
Outro |
| Marco: That just about does it for today. Okay! Bye-bye. See you next time. |
| Cinzia: Ciao a tutti! Grazie. |
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