Learn how to form the present tense of first conjugation Italian verbs
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Cinzia: Buon giorno! Mi chiamo Cinzia. |
| Marco: Marco here. Newbie Series, season 1, lesson 11 - But I Just Paid My Credit Card Bill! |
| Cinzia: Buon giorno a tutti! My name is Cinzia. And I’m joined here by Marco. Ciao, Marco. Come Va? |
| Marco: Va tutto bene! Hello and welcome to the Newbie Series of ItalianPod101.com, which focuses on the basics for anyone starting to learn the Italian language. |
| Cinzia: So please join us with this lesson at ItalianPod101.com. |
| Marco: The focus of this lesson is asking the price of goods, and the conjugation of -are verbs in the presente indicative tense. |
| Cinzia: This conversation takes place in an Italian clothes shop. |
| Marco: And it is between John and a Salesclerk. |
| Cinzia: The speakers will be speaking formal Italian. |
| DIALOGUE |
| John: Mi scusi, quanto costa questa maglietta? |
| Commessa: Costa quindici euro. |
| John: E quanto costano questi pantaloni? |
| Commesso: I pantaloni costano venti euro. |
| John: La ringrazio, li compro entrambi. |
| Marco: Let’s hear it slowly now. |
| John: Mi scusi, quanto costa questa maglietta? |
| Commessa: Costa quindici euro. |
| John: E quanto costano questi pantaloni? |
| Commesso: I pantaloni costano venti euro. |
| John: La ringrazio, li compro entrambi. |
| Marco: And now, with the translation. |
| John: Mi scusi, quanto costa questa maglietta? |
| Marco: Excuse me, how much does this t-shirt cost? |
| Commessa: Costa quindici euro. |
| Cinzia: It costs fifteen euros. |
| John: E quanto costano questi pantaloni? |
| Marco: And how much do these pants cost? |
| Commesso: I pantaloni costano venti euro. |
| Cinzia: The pants cost twenty euros. |
| John: La ringrazio, li compro entrambi. |
| Marco: Thank you, madam. I'll purchase them both. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Cinzia: So Marco, do you go often shopping? |
| Marco: Yes, I like shopping, especially when there's big discounts in Italy. |
| Cinzia: What do you like buying? |
| Marco: Well... pants... not bad, t-shirts, boring, shoes... fun! |
| Cinzia: Shoes... yeah! |
| Marco: You like shoes? |
| Cinzia: Yes, I love shoes, and I love bags! |
| Marco: But Cinzia, can you actually afford our Italian high-class brands? |
| Cinzia: You mean for example Prada, Dolce e Gabbana, Valentino... |
| Marco: Yeah, things like those... |
| Cinzia: Of course not, Marco! I really prefer local markets, and with them you're always sure your style is unique! |
| Marco: Very true, we have so many small markets in Italy. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Marco: Let's take a look at today’s vocabulary. |
| Marco: First |
| Cinzia: quanto [natural native speed] |
| Marco: how much |
| Cinzia: quanto [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: quanto [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next, we have a verb. |
| Cinzia: costare [natural native speed] |
| Marco: to cost |
| Cinzia: costare [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: costare [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word. |
| Cinzia: questa [natural native speed] |
| Marco: this (feminine singular) |
| Cinzia: questa [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: questa [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word. |
| Cinzia: maglietta [natural native speed] |
| Marco: t-shirt |
| Cinzia: maglietta [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: maglietta [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word. |
| Cinzia: pantaloni [natural native speed] |
| Marco: pants (British English, pair of trousers) |
| Cinzia: pantaloni [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: pantaloni [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word. |
| Cinzia: comprare [natural native speed] |
| Marco: to buy, to get |
| Cinzia: comprare [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: comprare [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word. |
| Cinzia: acquistare [natural native speed] |
| Marco: to buy, to purchase |
| Cinzia: acquistare [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: acquistare [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word. |
| Cinzia: entrambi [natural native speed] |
| Marco: both (masculine plural) |
| Cinzia: entrambi [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: entrambi [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Cinzia: Let’s have a look at the usage for some of the words. The first word we will look at is quanto. |
| Marco: Cinzia, can you give us an example sentence please? |
| Cinzia: Quanto costa una mela? |
| Marco: “How much does an apple cost?” |
| Cinzia: OK. The next vocabulary we will see is the verb costare. |
| Marco: Let’s have an example |
| Cinzia: La giacca costa cento euro. |
| Marco: “The jacket costs one hundred Euros.” |
| Cinzia: Next word is questa. |
| Marco: One example please. |
| Cinzia: Questa casa è grande |
| Marco: “This house is big.” |
| Cinzia: The next word we will see is a verb comprare. |
| Marco: And the example is? |
| Cinzia: Compro tre mele. |
| Marco: “I buy three apples.” |
| Cinzia: Next we have a verb acquistare. |
| Marco: One example, please. |
| Cinzia: Voi acquistate bei vestiti. |
| Marco: “You purchase nice clothing.” |
| Cinzia: The last word for today is entrambi. Siete entrambi carini. |
| Marco: “You are both good-looking.” |
| Cinzia: Ok then, this wraps it up for the vocabulary usage. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Marco: The verb costare, “to cost”, works in Italian exactly like its English equivalent |
| Cinzia: It is conjugated according to the gender and number of the noun it refers to. |
| Marco: John asks the clerk about the cost of a maglietta (“t-shirt”, feminine singular noun), using costa, the third singular person of the verb costare in the presente indicative tense |
| Cinzia: When he refers to pantaloni (“pants”, masculine plural noun), he uses costano, the third person plural of the verb costare. |
| Marco: The presente indicativo conjugation is realized by taking the verb’s stem (that is what we are left with when we take out the ending -are of the infinitive) and adding the an appropriate ending. |
| Cinzia: The following is the conjugation of -are verbs in the presente indicative tense. For example, comprare. |
| Io compr-o “I buy” |
| Tu compr-i “You buy” |
| Egli/lei compr-a “He/she/it buys” |
| Noi compr-iamo “We buy” |
| Voi compr-ate “You buy” |
| Loro compr-ano “They buy” |
Outro |
| Cinzia: That just about does it for today's lesson. |
| Marco: Make sure you check out the Grammar Point in this lesson's PDF, which you can pick up at Italianpod101.com. |
| Cinzia: There's a wealth of student resources there, just waiting for you. |
| Marco: So have a nice day! |
| Cinzia: Buona giornata! |
20 Comments
HideHave you ever gone shopping in Italy? What was your experience like?
Ciao Bill,
your sentences are almost perfect. Just remember that you don't need articles with singular family members (mia sorella, mio fratello), unless you are adding extra information (la mia sorella minore = my little sister, il mio cugino americano).
On Fridays -> "il venerdì"
Grazie per il tuo commento!
Valentina
Team ItalianPod101.com
Non mangio carne ogni giorno. Tu mangi carne ogni giorno?
No, anch'io non mangio carne ogni giorno. E la mia sorella non mangia carne agni giorno.
Il tuo fratello mangia carne?
Sì, mangia carne ogni giorno. E i miei genitori mangiano carne ogni giorno.
Mangiate carne domani?
Sì, mangiamo carne domani.
Le frasi non sono così facile. Vanno bene?
I wanted to write "on Fridays" instead of "ogni giorno" but I don't know how to say that. Could you help me?
Hi Nadia,
The gender doesn't influence the present tense conjugation, so for the third person we only use "costa" and for the third plural person we only use "costano."
Keep up the good work!
Ofelia
Team ItalianPod101.com
Hi there.
I'd like to please ask a question about the conjugation of the verb costare, as I'm not clear on which conjugation to use when.
The lesson states, "we conjugate it according to the gender and number of the noun it refers to."
The lesson says, Quanto costa questa maglietta? Use Costa - when referring to singular, feminine item (maglietta).
Is it correct to say, costo - if referring to a singular masculine item? eg - quanto costo questo libro? (how much is this book?)
is it correct to say, costana - if referring to plural feminine items - eg quanto contana questi mele? (how much are these apples?)
Thanks for your clarification.
Hi everyone,
@Antonio, grazie! By the way, you don't need to add "anche io" before "a presto"!
@Anna-Karin, if one of the element is masculine, you should always use the masculine. You can use the feminine, only when ALL the elements are feminine (for ex. "maglietta" and "gonna")
Ciao,
Ofelia
Team ItalianPod101.com
Hi!
I love all this lessons :heart::heart::heart:
But now I have a question.
How come, that you can use the word entrambi (masculine plural), when maglietta is feminine???
/Anna-karin
Ofelia,
grazie mile!!
anchio a presto [not sure if that's correct grammar but I'm trying!]
Antonio
Ciao Antonio!
Thank you for your question.:smile:
"Li" means "them" and refers to "maglietta" and "pantaloni" and is not related with formality.
Marco doesn't say "io", because in Italian it is not always necessary to express the subject: it is already contained in the verb "compro".
I hope this can help!
If you have other questions, please ask us!
A presto-
Ofelia
Team ItalianPod101.com
Hi Marco. Your last statement in the dialogue "li compro entrambi" ... I have a simple question: Why use li and not io if this is formal? Thanks :)
Anthony [Antonio]
Hi Jafar,
"La ringrazio" is another way to say thank you in Italian.
"La ringrazio" is the formal for one person - "Vi Ringrazio" is the formal for more than one person.
"Ti ringrazio" is the informal for one person - "Vi Ringrazio" is the informal for more than one person.
Look at it in this way: 'Io ringrazio lei or a lei', as a result: 'la ringrazio'.
Keep in mind saying 'grazie' isnt wrong, but saying 'la ringrazio' just makes it more polite or honorific if you like.
Cheers!