Learn about the Porta Latina, one of the most beautiful gates in Rome
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Cinzia: Ciao a tutti. |
| Marco: Marco here. Lower intermediate series, season 2, Lesson 4. If We Have Time, We Can Go Shopping in Milan. Hello and welcome to the lower intermediate series, season 2 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 begin studying the Italian subjunctive mood. |
| Marco: This conversation takes place at the supermarket. |
| Cinzia: And it’s between Manuel and Giulia. |
| Marco: They are friends. Therefore they will be speaking informally. Now if you are listening on an iPod |
| Cinzia: Or an iTouch or iPhone |
| Marco: Click the center button of the iPod or tap the screen on an iTouch or iPhone to see the notes for this lesson while you listen. |
| Cinzia: Read along while you listen. |
| Marco: This technique will help you remember faster. Okay let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Manuel: Per finire prenderei del gelato. |
| Giulia: Mi dispiace, ma credo che io debba andare ora. |
| Manuel: Sono già le undici? |
| Giulia: Sì. Mi dispiace. |
| Manuel: Non ti preoccupare, penso che tu mi abbia aiutato molto oggi. |
| Giulia: È stato divertente! |
| Manuel: Sì molto divertente! Grazie! |
| Giulia: Ciao! |
| Manuel: Ciao! |
| Marco: Let’s here it slowly now. |
| Manuel: Per finire prenderei del gelato. |
| Giulia: Mi dispiace, ma credo che io debba andare ora. |
| Manuel: Sono già le undici? |
| Giulia: Sì. Mi dispiace. |
| Manuel: Non ti preoccupare, penso che tu mi abbia aiutato molto oggi. |
| Giulia: È stato divertente! |
| Manuel: Sì molto divertente! Grazie! |
| Giulia: Ciao! |
| Manuel: Ciao! |
| Marco: And now, with the translation. |
| Manuel: Per finire prenderei del gelato. |
| Manuel: Lastly, I’d get some ice cream. |
| Giulia: Mi dispiace, ma credo che io debba andare ora. |
| Giulia: I’m sorry, but I think I have to leave now. |
| Manuel: Sono già le undici? |
| Manuel: It’s already eleven? |
| Giulia: Sì. Mi dispiace. |
| Giulia: Yes, I’m sorry. |
| Manuel: Non ti preoccupare, penso che tu mi abbia aiutato molto oggi. |
| Manuel: Don’t worry; I think you’ve helped me a lot today. |
| Giulia: È stato divertente! |
| Giulia: It was fun! |
| Manuel: Sì molto divertente! Grazie! |
| Manuel: Yes, a lot of fun! Thanks! |
| Giulia: Ciao! |
| Giulia: Bye! |
| Manuel: Ciao! |
| Manuel: Bye! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Cinzia: Che mal di testa! |
| Marco: You have a headache?! |
| Cinzia: Non io, ma i nostri poveri studenti che ora devono studiare il congiuntivo. |
| Marco: I agree. The Italian subjunctive tense can be quite a headache for English speakers. |
| Cinzia: Ma saperlo usare è molto importante. |
| Marco: Being able to use well, the Italian subjunctive can show people that you have really mastered Italian. |
| Cinzia: Specialmente dato che non tutti gli italiani lo sanno usare. |
| Marco: Exactly. It’s not uncommon to hear people making mistakes. This also happens on TV. |
| Marco: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Marco: The first word we shall see is |
| Cinzia: Gelato. |
| Marco: Ice cream. |
| Cinzia: Gelato. Gelato |
| Marco: And the next word is |
| Cinzia: Credere. |
| Marco: To believe, think, consider. |
| Cinzia: Credere. Credere |
| Marco: And next we have |
| Cinzia: Dovere. |
| Marco: To have to, must. |
| Cinzia: Dovere. Dovere |
| Marco: And the next word is |
| Cinzia: Undici. |
| Marco: Eleven. |
| Cinzia: Undici. Undici. |
| Marco: Next we have |
| Cinzia: Aiutare. |
| Marco: To help, aid, assist. |
| Cinzia: Aiutare. Aiutare. |
| Marco: And finally |
| Cinzia: Divertente. |
| Marco: Funny, fun, amusing. |
| Cinzia: Divertente. Divertente. |
| Marco: Let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Cinzia: The first word we will look at is gelato. |
| Marco: And the sample sentence is |
| Cinzia: Il gelato italiano è il più buono. |
| Marco: Italian Gelato is the best. |
| Cinzia: The next word we will look at is credere. |
| Marco: And the sample is |
| Cinzia: Credo tu abbia ragione. |
| Marco: I believe you are right. |
| Cinzia: The next word we will look at is dovere. |
| Marco: And the sample sentence is |
| Cinzia: Devo proprio andare, scusami. |
| Marco: I really have to go, sorry. |
| Cinzia: The next word we will look at is undici. |
| Marco: And the sample sentence is |
| Cinzia: Sono già le undici? |
| Marco: It’s already eleven? |
| Cinzia: Next we have aiutare. |
| Marco: And the sample is |
| Cinzia: Grazie per l’aiuto. |
| Marco: Thanks for the help. |
| Cinzia: And today’s last word is divertente. |
| Marco: So the last sample sentence is |
| Cinzia: Lo spettacolo è stato davvero divertente. |
| Marco: The show was very amusing. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Marco: Let’s take a look at today’s grammar point. The Italian subjunctive mood comprises four different tenses. |
| Cinzia: Presente. |
| Marco: Present. |
| Cinzia: Passato. |
| Marco: Perfect. |
| Cinzia: Imperfetto. |
| Marco: Imperfect. |
| Cinzia: Trapassato. |
| Marco: Pluperfect. In order to differentiate these tenses from those of the indicative mood, the word Congiuntivo, subjunctive, always precedes them thus stating the mood they belong to. |
| Cinzia: How do we choose the appropriate subjunctive tense? We have to follow the tense agreement rules provided. Don’t worry. We will explain them in detail. |
| Marco: Yes and please note that there are only two possible combinations. First, contemporaneity between the main and secondary clause. Second, anteriority of the action of secondary clause as compared to the one under main clause. |
| Cinzia: We express this last combination using either the futuro semplice, |
| Marco: Simple future, |
| Cinzia: When the verb of the main clause is conjugated in the present indicativo, or the condizionale passato, |
| Marco: Past conditional, |
| Cinzia: When the verb of the main clause is conjugated in any past tense. |
| Marco: Instead, we use the congiuntivo presente, |
| Cinzia: Present subjunctive, |
| Marco: When the verb of the main clause is conjugated in the presente indicativo, |
| Cinzia: Present indicative, |
| Marco: And the action of the secondary clause takes place simultaneously as we should see in the first, second and fourth samples. |
| Cinzia: Credo che io debba andare ora. |
| Marco: I think I have to leave now. |
| Cinzia: Sebbene lei sia giovane, ha molta esperienza. |
| Marco: Even though she is young, she is very experienced. |
| Cinzia: Nonostante abbiate molto tempo non riuscite a completare il lavoro. |
| Marco: Even though you have plenty of time, you can’t finish the job. We shall now see the present subjunctive conjugation of essere, to be, and avere, to have. |
| Cinzia: Essere |
| Marco: To be. |
| Cinzia: Che io sia |
| Marco: I am. |
| Cinzia: Che tu sia |
| Marco: You are. |
| Cinzia: Che lui/lei sia |
| Marco: He/she/it is. |
| Cinzia: Che noi siamo |
| Marco: We are. |
| Cinzia: Che voi siate |
| Marco: You are. |
| Cinzia: Che loro siano |
| Marco: They are. |
| Cinzia: Avere |
| Marco: To have. |
| Cinzia: Che io abbia |
| Marco: I have. |
| Cinzia: Che tu abbia |
| Marco: You have. |
| Cinzia: Che lui/lei abbia |
| Marco: He/she/it has. |
| Cinzia: Che noi abbiamo |
| Marco: We have. |
| Cinzia: Che voi abbiate |
| Marco: You have. |
| Cinzia: Che loro abbiano |
| Marco: They have. |
Outro |
| Marco: That just about does it for today. Premium members, use the review track to perfect your pronunciation. |
| Cinzia: Available in the premium section of the website. |
| Marco: The learning center |
| Cinzia: And through iTunes via the premium feed. |
| Marco: The review track gives you vocabulary and phrases followed by a short pause so you can repeat the words aloud. |
| Cinzia: The best way to get good fast. |
| Marco: Okay, arrivederci. |
| Cinzia: Ciao. |
9 Comments
HideCredo che questa lezione sia difficile!
Hi Angela Silverman,
exactly ❤️️
Thanks for studying with us!
Team ItalianPod101.com
"Santa Lucia il giorno piu' corto che ci sia." (Feast of Saint Lucy, December 13) ❤️️
Hi Johnny,
Thank you for posting.
You are right: this lesson is a bit difficult.
Please keep in mind that the main topic is the subjunctive.
The subjunctive is a verb mood, which describes situations which are not certain (for example something that you just guess). In Italian subjunctive is widely used, tough you can translate it with the English simple present or simple past.
Anyway, you are right, that sentence about contemporaneity-anteriority-posteriority is not very easy and most of all it's introductory for the rest of the series.
The meaning is that the subjunctive is always in a secondary clause, which can express something which happens at the same time (contemporaneity) or happened before (anteriority) or will happen later (posteriority).
Then the lesson explains about the present subjunctive, which usually expresses something that happens at the same time, for example: Sebbene lei sia giovane, ha molta esperienza. ("Even though she is young, she is very experienced.") This means that she is young and very experienced at the same time.
I hope this helps!
I recommend to go ahead, even if something is not clear, to get used to unusual grammar little by little, and, most of all to practice! Keep up the good work!:thumbsup:
Ofelia
Team ItalianPod101.com
I am starting to get lost. Sadly, even though I have been educated as an engineer with a masters, I don't know what moods like imperfect, perfect, or pluperfect mean. Maybe a reflection on the American Education system. So, when you say...
"contemporaneity between the main and secondary clause and anteriority of the action in the secondary clause as compared to the one in the main clause. We express the posteriority of the action in the secondary clause as compared to the main clause in Italian using either the futuro semplice ("simple future") when the verb of the main clause is conjugated in the presente indicativo, or the condizionale passato ("past conditional") when the verb of the main clause is conjugated in any past tense."
...you may as well be speaking in Italian :smile:
I understand present, past and future tenses. So, when you say the present tense for essere:
I am = che io sia
I am used to understanding I am as "io sono"
or for avere,
che io abbia = I have but I always thought that was "io ho" or for you have, it was "tu hai" and not "che tu abbia".
If you can explain, it would be appreciated. Thanks.
Hi jim,
Good point!:thumbsup:
They are both correct, but "debb-" is more common than "dev-".
Keep up the good work!
Ofelia
Team ItalianPod101.com
could you tell me the meaning or derivation of 'debba' ? My dictionary has the present subjunctive of dovere as 'deva', so I am getting very confused !
Ciao LN,
don't warry the different usages of the present subjunctive is sometimes difficult also for Italian people!:lol:
"Sebbene" and "nonostante" have the same meaning and they're followed by verbs inflected in "congiuntivo". Those are pretty formal words, but they're used also in normal speech.
There is also the word "benché" but this one is more formal.
Ciao e grazie per il commento.
Consuelo:mrgreen:
Team ItalianPod101.com
Non conoscevo "sebbene", e sono contenta che impari parole nuove :grin:
Qual'è la differenza con nonostante? Qual'à il più utilizzato?
Grazie per l'aiuto
Please tell me if I made mistakes:???: