Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

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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