Learn how to discuss your language abilities
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| Hi, everyone! I'm Felice Angelini. |
| Ciao a tutti, sono Felice Angelini. |
| Welcome to another Italian Whiteboard Lesson! |
| In this lesson, we'll learn how to discuss our language abilities in Italian. |
| Let's get started! |
| Let's first look at how to say some popular languages in Italian. We have... |
| inglese |
| “English” |
| [SLOW] inglese |
| inglese |
| spagnolo |
| “Spanish” |
| [SLOW] spagnolo |
| spagnolo |
| cinese |
| "Chinese" |
| [SLOW] cinese |
| cinese |
| francese |
| "French" |
| [SLOW] francese |
| francese |
| portoghese |
| "Portuguese" |
| [SLOW] portoghese |
| portoghese |
| italiano |
| "Italian" |
| [SLOW] italiano |
| italiano |
| tedesco |
| "German" |
| [SLOW] tedesco |
| tedesco |
| giapponese |
| "Japanese" |
| [SLOW] giapponese |
| giapponese |
| arabo |
| "Arabic" |
| [SLOW] arabo |
| arabo |
| coreano |
| "Korean" |
| [SLOW] coreano |
| coreano |
| russo |
| "Russian" |
| [SLOW] russo |
| russo |
| Let's now look at the dialogue. A man needs help translating something from English to Italian. He walks into a coffee shop and asks the barista if she speaks English. |
| A: Ciao, parli inglese? |
| “Hi, do you speak English?” |
| B: Sì, parlo inglese. |
| “Yes, I speak English.” |
| In this lesson, we'll focus on how to say, "Yes, I speak… language," as heard in the second line of the dialogue. Let's see a few more examples. |
| Sì, parlo italiano. “Yes, I speak Italian.” |
| Sì, parlo cinese. “Yes, I speak Chinese.” |
| Sì, parlo tedesco. “Yes, I speak German.” |
| Sì, parlo francese. “Yes, I speak French.” |
| Now let's look at the sentence pattern. |
| Sì, parlo [LANGUAGE]. |
| “Yes, I speak [LANGUAGE].” |
| First, we have Sì, "yes," which answers a yes-or-no question. If you're not answering such a question, you don't need to say it. |
| Next, we have parlo, "I speak." |
| Note: In this sentence, parlo is a shortened form of io parlo, "I speak." In Italian, io, "I," is usually omitted, as it's understood from context. |
| Parlo is from the verb parlare, meaning "to speak." |
| Last, we have the name of the language. |
| Remember that in Italian the names of languages are not capitalized. |
| Finally, I'd recommend you another sentence pattern. |
| For example, if you have just started studying Italian recently, you can reply - Sì, parlo un po' di [language]. |
| “Yes, I speak a little of [language].” |
| Perfect solution when introducing yourself. |
| For example: Ciao! Sono Felice, parlo inglese, un po' di francese, e giapponese. |
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