Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Cinzia: Buongiorno a tutti.
Marco: Marco here. Lower intermediate series, season 1, lesson 17. Don’t Make Your Italian Friends Wait! Hello and welcome to the Lower intermediate series at italianpod101.com where we study modern Italian in a fun educational format.
Cinzia: So brush up on the Italian that you started learning long ago or start learning today.
Marco: Thanks for being here with us for this lesson. Cinzia, what are we looking at in this lesson?
Cinzia: In this lesson, we will learn about the particle CI and also continue practicing using the hypothetical period.
Marco: This conversation takes place in Giulia’s car.
Cinzia: And it’s between Giulia and Manuel.
Marco: And because they are friends, they will be speaking informal Italian.
Cinzia: Listeners, I have a question.
Marco: A question?
Cinzia: Yep. I want to know when was the last time you commented.
Marco: Ah yes, great question.
Cinzia: Stop by italianpod101.com, leave us a comment or just say hi.
Marco: Okay you heard Cinzia. Let’s listen to the conversation.
DIALOGUE
Manuel: Dove ci aspetta Marcella?
Giulia: Ci aspetta in Piazza San Babila.
Manuel: È un po' tardi per incontrarla.
Giulia: Già, se fossimo andati a cenare prima, ora saremmo già arrivati.
Manuel: Hai ragione, ma non sapevo che avremmo incontrato Marcella.
Giulia: Scusami, lo sai che è la mia migliore amica. Volevo vedere anche lei stasera.
Marco: Let’s hear it slowly now.
Manuel: Dove ci aspetta Marcella?
Giulia: Ci aspetta in Piazza San Babila.
Manuel: È un po' tardi per incontrarla.
Giulia: Già, se fossimo andati a cenare prima, ora saremmo già arrivati.
Manuel: Hai ragione, ma non sapevo che avremmo incontrato Marcella.
Giulia: Scusami, lo sai che è la mia migliore amica. Volevo vedere anche lei stasera.
Marco: And now, with the translation.
Manuel: Dove ci aspetta Marcella?
Manuel: Where is Marcella waiting for us?
Giulia: Ci aspetta in Piazza San Babila.
Giulia: She's waiting in Piazza San Babila.
Manuel: È un po' tardi per incontrarla.
Manuel: It's a bit late to meet up with her.
Giulia: Già, se fossimo andati a cenare prima, ora saremmo già arrivati.
Giulia: That's right, if we had gone to dine sooner, we would have been already there.
Manuel: Hai ragione, ma non sapevo che avremmo incontrato Marcella.
Manuel: You are right, but I didn't know we would have met up with Marcella.
Giulia: Scusami, lo sai che è la mia migliore amica. Volevo vedere anche lei stasera.
Giulia: Forgive me, you know she's my best friend. I wanted to see her as well this evening.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Cinzia: Marco, it’s true. Italians often take their cars when going out.
Marco: We sure do, although I think it depends on the city.
Cinzia: How about Sanremo?
Marco: Well having a car in my city isn’t essential but well it is useful when going to France or Montecarlo. What about Napoli?
Cinzia: Well, we do have at least two cars. In our small towns, we need a car to reach the main city centers. Unfortunately transportations are not that good you know.
Marco: Yeah I can understand that. Instead if you live in Venice, you really don’t need a car. Do you?
Cinzia: Sure you don’t, but it might be nice to own a boat in Venice.
Marco: Or a Gondola.
Cinzia: Of course.
VOCAB LIST
Marco: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. The first word is
Cinzia: Aspettare.
Marco: To wait.
Cinzia: Aspettare. Aspettare.
Marco: Next word
Cinzia: Pò.
Marco: Bit, little.
Cinzia: Pò. Pò.
Marco: Next word
Cinzia: Cenare.
Marco: To have dinner, to dine.
Cinzia: Cenare. Cenare.
Marco: Next word
Cinzia: Arrivare.
Marco: To be there, get there.
Cinzia: Arrivare. Arrivare.
Marco: Next word
Cinzia: Sapere.
Marco: To know
Cinzia: Sapere. Sapere.
Marco: And last word
Cinzia: Incontrare.
Marco: To meet.
Cinzia: Incontrare. Incontrare.
VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE
Marco: And now, let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson.
Cinzia: The first word we will look at is aspettare.
Marco: And the sample sentence is
Cinzia: Sono in ritardo. Mi aspetti?
Marco: I am late. Would you wait for me?
Cinzia: The next word we will look at is pò.
Marco: And the sample sentence is
Cinzia: La questione è un pò complicata.
Marco: The matter is a bit complicated.
Cinzia: Next word cenare.
Marco: And the sample sentence is
Cinzia: Ceno normalmente alle 8.
Marco: I normally dine at 8 PM.
Cinzia: The next word we will look at is arrivare.
Marco: And the sample sentence is
Cinzia: A che ora arrivi?
Marco: At what time will you be here?
Cinzia: Next, sapere.
Marco: And the sample sentence is
Cinzia: Sai che ore sono?
Marco: Do you know what time it is?
Cinzia: Yeah what’s the time Marco?
Marco: Now it’s about...
Cinzia: It’s late. I have to go back home, sorry.
Marco: No come on. Non è tardi. It’s not late.
Cinzia: Okay.
Marco: Abbiamo quasi finito. We have nearly finished.
Cinzia: Okay because we are at the last word which is incontrare.
Marco: And the sample sentence is
Cinzia: Ieri ho incontrato Luisa.
Marco: Yesterday I met Luisa.

Lesson focus

Cinzia: And now let’s take a look at today’s grammar. The particle CI may be used in two different fashions.
Marco: The first one regards it’s used as the direct object pronoun as shown in the dialogue.
Cinzia: Dove ci aspetta Marcella?
Marco: In this case CI stands for Noi, as direct object, and it always precedes the verb it is attached to.
Cinzia: For example, the sentences Marcella aspetta noi in Piazza San Babila, and Lei ci aspetta in Piazza San Babila, are literally equivalent.
Marco: Although using the direct object noi is theoretically correct, it is normally used when we wish to stress the object over any other element of the sentence. For example, in the sentence provided by Cinzia, the fact that Marcella is waiting for us and us alone, not someone else is stressed. The second case in which we use CI concerns it’s used as a locative adverb which substitutes Là, there. Please note that the place we refer to has to be mentioned earlier in the discourse. For instance
Cinzia: Vorrei tanto visitare Venezia. Ci vuoi andare sul serio?
Marco: I would much love visiting Venice. Do you really want to go there?
Cinzia: CI as pronoun and CI as adverb are never used together within the same sentence in order to avoid confusion.
Marco: When mentioning the dinner she had with Manuel, Giulia uses a type 3 hypothetical period. This is the only if clause that refers to a past occurrence where the condition conveyed in a subordinate clause did not take place.
Cinzia: This kind of hypothetical period always refers to the past. It often, though not always, expresses regret about something that didn’t happen because its condition was not satisfied.

Outro

Marco: That just about does it for today. Okay some of our listeners already know about the most powerful tool on italianpod101.com
Cinzia: And it’s our line by line audio.
Marco: The perfect tool for rapidly improving listening comprehension
Cinzia: By listening to lines of the conversation again and again.
Marco: Listen until every word and syllable becomes clear. Basically, we break down the dialogue into comprehensible bite size sentences.
Cinzia: You can try the line by line audio in the premium learning center at italianpod101.com
Marco: A presto.
Cinzia: Ciao a tutti e grazie.

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