Learn how to leave a message
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Eric: Hi everyone, and welcome back to ItalianPod101.com. This is Business Italian for Beginners Season 1 Lesson 22 - Leaving a Message for a Colleague. Eric Here. |
| Ofelia: Ciao, I'm Ofelia. |
| Eric: In this lesson, you’ll learn How to Leave a Message. The conversation takes place at an office. |
| Ofelia: It's between Linda and Paolo. |
| Eric: The speakers are acquaintances of the same age, so they will use informal Italian. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Linda: Elena non è nel suo ufficio. |
| Paolo: Posso lasciarle un messaggio? |
| Linda: Certo, dimmi. |
| Paolo: Dille che il consulente ha mandato i risultati. |
| Paolo: E che dovrebbe richiamarlo entro questa settimana. |
| Linda: Glielo dico appena ritorna. |
| Paolo: Grazie, ho un appuntamento importante, quindi oggi non sono raggiungibile per tutto il giorno. |
| Eric: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Linda: Elena non è nel suo ufficio. |
| Paolo: Posso lasciarle un messaggio? |
| Linda: Certo, dimmi. |
| Paolo: Dille che il consulente ha mandato i risultati. |
| Paolo: E che dovrebbe richiamarlo entro questa settimana. |
| Linda: Glielo dico appena ritorna. |
| Paolo: Grazie, ho un appuntamento importante, quindi oggi non sono raggiungibile per tutto il giorno. |
| Eric: Listen to the conversation with the English translation |
| Linda: Elena is not in her office. |
| Paolo: Can I leave a message for her? |
| Linda: Sure, tell me. |
| Paolo: Tell her that the consultant has sent the results. |
| Paolo: And that she should call him back by this week. |
| Linda: I'll let her know, as soon as she is back. |
| Paolo: Thank you, I have an important appointment, so today I'm not available all day long. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eric: Ofelia, what are the most common means of business communication in Italy? |
| Ofelia: Italians use all means of communication or mezzi di comunicazione. |
| Eric: Is fax still used? |
| Ofelia: Yes, usually you can see a fax number in the company contact info, but recently it has become more common to send invoices and other types of documents by e-mail. |
| Eric: And what about the use of the telephone? |
| Ofelia: As for telephone calls, often you will see both an office phone and a mobile phone number on a business card. |
| Eric: Are there any do’s and dont’s we should know about? |
| Ofelia: When calling, remember that Italians usually take a lunch-break around 12.30 and usually they don't like to be bothered during that time. |
| Eric: So keep that in mind, listeners. Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Eric: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Ofelia: lasciare [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to let go, to leave |
| Ofelia: lasciare[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ofelia: lasciare [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Ofelia: messaggio [natural native speed] |
| Eric: message |
| Ofelia: messaggio[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ofelia: messaggio [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Ofelia: dire [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to say, to tell |
| Ofelia: dire[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ofelia: dire [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Ofelia: consulente [natural native speed] |
| Eric: consultant |
| Ofelia: consulente[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ofelia: consulente [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Ofelia: appena [natural native speed] |
| Eric: just, as soon as |
| Ofelia: appena[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ofelia: appena [natural native speed] |
| Eric: And last.. |
| Ofelia: raggiungibile [natural native speed] |
| Eric: can be reached, reachable |
| Ofelia: raggiungibile[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ofelia: raggiungibile [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Eric: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Ofelia: raggiungibile |
| Eric: meaning "reachable" |
| Ofelia: This adjective comes from the verb raggiungere, "to reach," and it ends in -bile. |
| Eric: You can potentially create a similar adjective from any verb by adding the same ending, which carries the meaning of possibility - "can be…" But remember that the word is not always correct. |
| Ofelia: For example, let's consider leggere, "to read." You can say leggi-bile. For example, La ricevuta si è scolorita e non è più leggibile. |
| Eric: "The receipt has faded, and it can't be read anymore." Can you also give us an example using “reachable”? |
| Ofelia: Sure. For example, when you call a cell phone you can often hear the following message.. Il cliente da lei chiamato non è al momento raggiungibile. |
| Eric: ..which means "The person you are calling can not be reached at the moment." Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Eric: In this lesson, you'll learn How to Leave a Message. |
| Ofelia: In some circumstances, you’ll need to ask someone to give a message on your behalf. |
| Eric: Let’s see first how to ask for the favor and then how to practically leave the message. Let’s get started. |
| Ofelia: In the dialogue, Paolo makes clear that he wants to leave a message by saying, Posso lasciarle un messaggio? |
| Eric: which means “Can I leave a message for her?” |
| Ofelia: The pattern is always the same, the modal verb potere, meaning “can,” is followed by an infinitive verb, in this case lasciarle un messaggio, |
| Eric: meaning “to leave her a message.” Let’s see how Paolo leaves his message. |
| Ofelia: He says Dille che il consulente ha mandato i risultati. E che dovrebbe richiamarlo entro questa settimana. |
| Eric: “Tell her that the consultant has sent the results, and that she should call him back this week.” |
| Ofelia: The core structure of this sentence is the verb dire meaning “to say,” in the imperative form, di’, “you tell,” followed by the conjunction che, “that.” |
| Eric: Let’s analyze the imperative, “tell her” |
| Ofelia: di’, “you tell,” is followed by the pronoun le, becoming dille “tell her.” |
| Eric: You always need to attach the pronoun to the end of the verb, when it is in the infinitive, imperative, or the gerundive form. |
| Ofelia: Remember to change the pronoun to the right one, if you are referring to a man or to a different subject. |
| Eric: For example, considering the same sentence from the dialogue, if you were referring to a man and talking about more than one consultant, what should you say? |
| Ofelia: You should say, Digli che i consulenti hanno mandato i risultati. E che dovrebbe richiamarli entro questa settimana. |
| Eric: What if we need to use formal Italian? |
| Ofelia: If you need to use formal Italian, remember that di’, meaning “you tell,” should change to dica, “you tell (polite),” and you should possibly add per favore, “please.” |
| Eric: So let’s see how to change the same sentence. |
| Ofelia: Per favore le dica che il consulente ha mandato i risultati. E che dovrebbe richiamarlo entro questa settimana. |
| Eric: “Please tell her that the consultant has sent the results, and that she should call him back this week.” Notice how the position of the pronoun changes, because in the case of the *formal* imperative, the pronoun always precedes the verb. |
| Ofelia: Right, here is another example – Per favore gli dica che a luglio torneremo in Italia. |
| Eric: This means “Please tell him that we will go back to Italy in July." Finally, what about the subordinate clause? |
| Ofelia: The rules to conjugate the verbs in the subordinate clause are similar to the ones for reported speech. |
| Eric: When the verb in the main sentence is in the present or future tense, the verb maintains the same tense and the same mood in the dependent clause. Ok, let’s wrap up this lesson with a couple of sample sentences. |
| Ofelia: Digli che la settimana prossima sarò fuori città. |
| Eric: "Tell him that next week I'll be out of town." |
| Ofelia: Le dica che la richiamo io. |
| Eric: "Tell her that I will call back." |
Outro |
| Eric: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! |
| Ofelia: A presto! |
7 Comments
HideTry to leave a message for someone in the comments!
Hi Tim,
thanks for your question.
Italian possessive adjectives agree in gender (masculine/feminine) and in number (singular/plural) with the noun they refer to, not with the "owner".
In English, it would be HER office because it refers to the person owning the office (here, a woman).
In Italian, it's "SUO ufficio" because the possessive refers to "ufficio" (office), which is masculine.
Here's a different example:
Paolo è nella sua macchina = Paolo is in his car
Paolo is a man, but the car is feminine in Italian, so you need to use "sua".
I hope this clears things up! Let us know if you still have doubts.
Valentina
Team ItalianPod101.com
Why in the dialogue are they saying Elena non é nel suo ufficio? Since Elena is a women, wouldn’t it be sua?
Hi Heba,
Thank you for confirming!
Buon studio!
Ofelia
Team ItalianPod101.com
Hello Ofelia,
I can see the left arrow of "Hide" or "Show" on the right side of each section - no problem.
Thanks
Hi Heba,
You can "Hide" or "Show" each section.
Can you see a little arrow on the right side of each section (Dialogue, Vocabulary, ...)?
If you can't, please try to log out and log in again.
If you are referring to something else, please let us know.
I hope this helps.
Grazie,
Ofelia
Team ItalianPod101.com
Hello,
I can't find the "Preview" section after the interface of the website has been change!
Would you please add a preview button at the top of the page next to "Dialogue, Vocabulary, lesson note ...etc.
Thanks