Learn the key pattern to ask for clarification
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| Let's take a closer look at the conversation. |
| Do you remember how Giuseppe introduces himself? |
| "Nice to meet you. I'm Giuseppe." |
| Piacere, sono Giuseppe. |
| First is piacere, meaning "A pleasure." Piacere. Piacere. |
| Piacere is actually a shortened form of Piacere di conoscerla, meaning "It's a pleasure to meet you." Piacere di conoscerla. |
| Giuseppe uses the shortened version, Piacere, in his introduction. This version can be used in many contexts and is appropriate for both informal and formal situations. |
| Next is Sono Giuseppe. I'm Giuseppe. |
| First is Sono. "[I] am." Sono. Sono. |
| Note, here sono is a shortened form of io sono, "I am." In Italian, io, "I," is usually omitted, as it's understood. |
| Sono is from the verb, essere, "to be." Essere. |
| Next is the name, Giuseppe. Giuseppe. Giuseppe. |
| Note: Giuseppe only uses his given name. Sasha and Giuseppe are young adults in an informal situation, so he only uses his given name. |
| Together, it's Sono Giuseppe. "I'm Giuseppe." Sono Giuseppe. |
| All together, it's Piacere, sono Giuseppe. "Nice to meet you. I'm Giuseppe." |
| Piacere, sono Giuseppe. |
| Sasha can't catch his name. |
| Do you remember how she asks, |
| "Excuse me. Can you repeat that? |
| Scusa, puoi ripetere? |
| First is Scusa. "Excuse me." Scusa. Scusa. |
| Note: Scusa is the informal form of "Excuse me." Scusa. In this conversation, Giuseppe and Sasha are of similar age, so the informal scusa is more natural. |
| Scusi, "Excuse me," is the formal form. |
| Next is puoi, "[you] can." Puoi. Puoi. |
| Note: "you" is understood from the context. |
| Puoi is from the verb, potere, "to be able." Potere. |
| Next is ripetere. "Repeat." Ripetere. Ripetere. |
| Ripetere is a verb, meaning "to repeat," in its infinitive form. |
| Together, puoi ripetere literally means, "[you] can repeat," but in this context, it translates as, "can [you] repeat?" Puoi ripetere. |
| All together, Scusa, puoi ripetere? Literally, "Excuse me, [you] can repeat," but translates as "Excuse me, can you repeat [that]?" |
| Scusa, puoi ripetere? |
| Note [that] is added to translation so that the English sounds more natural, but there is no corresponding word in the Italian question. |
| Finally, do you remember how Giuseppe says, "I'm Guiseppe." Hint, you've heard it before. |
| Sono Giuseppe. "I'm Giuseppe." |
| Sono Giuseppe. |
| In this lesson, you learned how to ask for clarification in an informal situation: |
| Scusa, puoi ripetere? |
| Excuse me, can you repeat that? |
| To ask for clarification in a formal situation: |
| Scusi, può ripetere? |
| Excuse me, can you repeat that? |
| Scusi, può ripetere? |
| Note the two changes in the formal form. First, Scusi, replaces Scusa. |
| Scusi, "Excuse me, formal form." Scusi. Scusi. |
| Second, Può, replaces puoi. |
| Può, "[you] can" when using formal Italian. Può. Può. |
| Può is the third person singular form of the verb potere, "to be able." |
| The third person singular is used for formal situations when addressing a single person. |
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