Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

Ciao a tutti! Sono Consuelo. Hi, everybody! I’m Consuelo.
Welcome back to ItalianPod101.com’s Italiano in tre minuti, the fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Italian.
In the last lesson, we covered the question può farmi una foto? which we use for asking "can you take my picture?" Today we are going to learn what to say and what questions to ask whenever you are in doubt about the meaning of a word.
Obviously, this doesn’t mean that you have to leave your dictionary at home, but don’t forget that you can use the Italian language itself to learn in a more fun and interactive way.
So if you have the chance to talk with some Italians who know a bit of English, why don’t you try to say come si dice ___ in italiano? "How do we say __ in Italian?"
(One more time slowly: Come si dice, here add the word, in italiano?)
For example, let’s take the word mailbox:
Come si dice mailbox in italiano?
The person will respond cassetta delle lettere, si dice, and then we say, cassetta delle lettere.
When the person you are talking to doesn’t know the word in English, you can point at the object saying:
Come si dice questo in italiano? How do we say this in Italian?
(One more time slowly: Come si dice questo in italiano?)
Italian people generally speak very quickly, but in case you catch the word and you don’t know the meaning, please use the phrase cosa significa? "What does it mean?"
For example: Cosa significa angolo? "What does angolo mean?"
(One more time slowly: Cosa significa angolo?)
The right answer is: angolo significa means "corner."
Significa comes from the verb significare, "to mean."
Whenever you don’t understand the meaning or the sense of a word or a sentence, just say non capisco, "I don’t understand," followed by puoi ripetere per favore? "Can you repeat, please?"
(One more time slowly: puoi ripetere per favore?)
For instance, you are with your Italian friends and someone says:
Background changes: on the street
Voice over of a guy: andiamo tutti all’enoteca!
You know andiamo, which means "let’s go," and you know tutti, which mea ns "everybody," but you don’t know enoteca.
What would you say?
Consuelo: Scusa, non capisco, puoi ripetere?
Voice over of the guy: enoteca.
Consuelo: (breaking in syllables)E-no-te-ca, cosa significa enoteca?
Voice over of the guy: Enoteca significa winebar. Allora vieni?
Consuelo: Certo! Volentieri, andiamo!
Now it’s time for Consuelo’s tips
Italians speak very quickly, so if you want to ask someone to speak slowly, you should say può parlare lentamente? when referring to Lei, and puoi parlare lentamente? when referring to tu. Lentamente means "slowly." Don’t forget to add per favore, "please," at end of the sentence!
In the next lesson, we are going to learn how to get away with words or sentences we can’t read or pronounce in Italian and we'll find out what sentences are the right ones to use in this situation.
So don’t miss our next Italiano in tre minuti lesson!
Ciao alla prossima lezione!!

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