Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Cinzia: Buon giorno! Mi chiamo Cinzia.
Marco: Marco here. Newbie Series season 1, lesson #23 - How to Handle a Difficult Situation in Italian. Buon giorno a tutti! Hello, and welcome to ItalianPod101.com. My name is Marco and I'm joined here by Cinzia! Come stai Cinzia!
Cinzia: Bene grazie, e tu, Marco?
Marco: Anch'io grazie.
Cinzia: Today we have the 23rd lesson of our newbie series!
Marco: This series focuses on the essentials of Italian for anyone who wants to start learning.
Cinzia: Yes, so join us for this lesson of Italianpod101.com.
Marco: In this lesson we will be learning how to say “there is” and “there are” in Italian.
Cinzia: This conversation takes place at Martina and Laura's place.
Marco: And it is between Paolo and Martina.
Cinzia: They are friends, therefore they will be speaking in informal Italian. Please reinforce your Italian by using the Grammar Bank of the Learning Center at Italianpod101.com.
Marco: And now, let’s get in today’s conversation.
Cinzia: Yes!
DIALOGUE
Paolo: Ci sono birre nel frigorifero?
Martina: No, ma c'è il vino rosso sul tavolo.
Paolo: E il chinotto?
Martina: No.
Paolo: Ma non c'è proprio niente!
Marco: Let’s hear it slowly now.
Paolo: Ci sono birre nel frigorifero?
Martina: No, ma c'è il vino rosso sul tavolo.
Paolo: E il chinotto?
Martina: No.
Paolo: Ma non c'è proprio niente!
Marco: And now, with the translation.
Paolo: Ci sono birre nel frigorifero?
Marco: Are there beers in the fridge?
Martina: No, ma c'è il vino rosso sul tavolo.
Marco: No, but there's the red wine on the table.
Paolo: E il chinotto?
Marco: What about chinotto?
Martina: No.
Marco: No.
Paolo: Ma non c'è proprio niente!
Marco: But there really isn't anything!
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Marco: Cinzia, Cinzia, Cinzia, what is chinotto?
Cinzia: First of all, it's something I detest!
Marco: You don't like it?
Cinzia: No, I don’t like chinotto.
Marco: But from the dialog we can understand that's maybe something to drink, right?
Cinzia: Yes, exactly! It's a drink, but it's very particular, because of its taste, which is a mix between bitter and sweet.
Marco: The first thing I notice when I see, for example, chinotto, and I would like to warn all our listeners, the colour is just like coca-cola.
Cinzia: Yes, it's like coca-cola, but the taste is completely different, do you like it?
Marco: No, I don't. My father does though.
Cinzia: Marco tell us... Is it alcoholic drink?
Marco: No, no, it's a soft drink, it's just like coke, we can say.
Cinzia: Yes.
Marco: But where does it come from?
Cinzia: It comes from a tree and the drink takes its name from the tree.
Marco: But this tree makes some special kind of fruits...
Cinzia: Yes, exactly.
Marco: That usually are only ornamental, you don't actually make juice out of it.
Cinzia: It's one of the most important ingredients of our campari!
Marco: Oh yes, campari, it's a very famous Italian amaro. An amaro is a sort of...
Cinzia: Aperitif.
Marco: Exactly, but amaro means?
Cinzia: Bitter.
Marco: So it's a bitter digestive.
Cinzia: Let's put some links about chinotto on this lesson!
Marco: Yes... So listeners check the comments section for links on chinotto for more explanation! Sorry but time is short, let's move on!
Cinzia: Yes but please tell us if you like chinotto or not.
Marco: Oh yes exactly!
VOCAB LIST
Marco: Let's take a look at today’s vocabulary.
Marco: First
Cinzia: ci sono [natural native speed]
Marco: there are
Cinzia: ci sono [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Cinzia: ci sono [natural native speed]
Marco: Next word
Cinzia: birre [natural native speed]
Marco: beers
Cinzia: birre [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Cinzia: birre [natural native speed]
Marco: Next word
Cinzia: frigorifero [natural native speed]
Marco: refrigerator, fridge
Cinzia: frigorifero [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Cinzia: frigorifero [natural native speed]
Marco: Next word
Cinzia: c'è [natural native speed]
Marco: there is
Cinzia: c'è [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Cinzia: c'è [natural native speed]
Marco: Next word
Cinzia: vino [natural native speed]
Marco: wine
Cinzia: vino [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Cinzia: vino [natural native speed]
Marco: Next word
Cinzia: sul [natural native speed]
Marco: on the
Cinzia: sul [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Cinzia: sul [natural native speed]
Marco: Next word
Cinzia: chinotto [natural native speed]
Marco: chinotto, sometimes referred to as the Myrtle-leaf orange
Cinzia: chinotto [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Cinzia: chinotto [natural native speed]
Marco: Next word
Cinzia: proprio [natural native speed]
Marco: really, actually
Cinzia: proprio [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Cinzia: proprio [natural native speed]
Marco: And last word
Cinzia: niente [natural native speed]
Marco: nothing
Cinzia: niente [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Cinzia: niente [natural native speed]
VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE
Cinzia: And now let’s have a look at the usage for some of the words and expressions. The first word we will look at is frigorifero.
Marco: And the sample sentence is?
Cinzia: Il latte è nel frigorifero.
Marco: The milk is in the refrigerator.
Cinzia: We have another way to say refrigerator... right?
Marco: Yes, just as in English we can say fridge or refrigerator, in Italian we can say...
Cinzia: Frigo instead of frigorifero!
Marco: So it's actually the same usage right?
Cinzia: Yes! It's just the shortest way to say frigorifero.
Marco: And what do you use... Frigorifero or frigo?
Cinzia: I always use frigo.
Marco: What about the freezer? How do we say freezer in Italian?
Cinzia: Uhm... Freezer is really funny because we say FRIZZER!
Marco: Yes... We say the I, the Italian way, so freezer becomes FRIZZER. Very strange.
Cinzia: Yes, but what is the other word for freezer, Marco?
Marco: It is congelatore, which is actually the Italian word, but we have imported and started using also FRIZZER.
Cinzia: Yes, I always use FRIZZER!
Marco: Me too!
Cinzia: Ok, and the next word we will look at is c'è.
Marco: And the sample sentence is?
Cinzia: Pronto, c'è Marco?
Marco: Hello, is Marco there?
Cinzia: So we use c'è even when we call someone at the phone?
Marco: Exactly, so for example... Pronto? C'è Steven?
Cinzia: Hello? Is Steven there? And the next word is vino.
Marco: And the sample sentence is?
Cinzia: Il Falerno è un vino rosso.
Marco: Falerno is a red wine.
Cinzia: Yes, and it actually comes from my region.
Marco: Let's move on!
Cinzia: Ok. The next word is proprio.
Marco: And the sample sentence is?
Cinzia: Non ti capisco proprio.
Marco: I really don't understand you.
Cinzia: And the last word is niente.
Marco: And the last sample sentence is?
Cinzia: Non c'è niente.
Marco: There's nothing.

Lesson focus

Marco: The first topic of today's grammar section is “there is” and “there are”. How do we say “there is” in Italian?
Cinzia: C'è.
Marco: And “there are”?
Cinzia: Ci sono.
Marco: So they are separate, just like in English.
Cinzia: Yes.
Marco: One for for singular,
Cinzia: and one for plural.
Marco: Very nice. Cinzia, give us one example with “there is”.
Cinzia: C'è un quadro sulla parete,
Marco: "There is a picture on the wall". One example with “there are”.
Cinzia: Ci sono dei gelati nel congelatore.
Marco: "There are some ice creams in the freezer". It’s very straightforward.
Cinzia: I think it’s very very easy, Marco. You can just learn it by heart.
Marco: Yes, just c'è and ci sono. So simple.
Cinzia: Yes, so c'è is made up by ci, which is a locative adverb, plus è, verb essere "to be".
Marco: And how do you write it?
Cinzia: We write it with c, then apostrophe, and then è of verb essere "to be".
Marco: Remember that it actually would be ci è, but since the i is a vowel, and the e is also a vowel, the vowel i falls off and is replaced by an apostrophe, giving us c'è. Altogether c'è.
Cinzia: And Marco, what about the negative form?
Marco: You mean the negative form of c'è and ci sono?
Cinzia: Yes.
Marco: Well, that’s just easy, we just say non c'è and non ci sono.
Cinzia: So you obtain the negative form just by adding non before c'è or ci sono.
Marco: Exactly! One example, Cinzia.
Cinzia: Non c'è più latte.
Marco: "There's no more milk".
Marco: Non ci sono posti.
Marco: "There are no seats".
Cinzia: So it’s really easy, right, Marco?
Marco: It is, maybe only writing c'è is difficult, but all the rest is really easy.
Cinzia: Yes. Please remember that the pattern non c'è niente is often used when followed by the preposition da + an infinitive. So then we have Non c'è niente da mangiare.
Marco: "There is nothing to eat".
Cinzia: Or, non c'è niente da dire.
Marco: "There is nothing to say".
Cinzia: So very straightforward.
Marco: Yes. To close out today’s grammar section, let’s take a look at proprio.
Cinzia: Proprio in Italian can have three different meanings, actually.
Marco: The first one, I think, we have seen in the dialogue, right?
Cinzia: Yes, right, it’s like davvero or veramente.
Marco: For example, È proprio un bel film!
Cinzia: "It's really a good movie!"
Marco: Furthermore, it can also be a possessive adjective always referred to the subject. And in English it can be translated with "one's own".
Cinzia: For example, È difficile ammettere le proprie colpe.
Marco: "It's difficult to admit one's own faults."
Cinzia: And finally, it can be translated also as a synonym of tipico, caratteristico.
Marco: "Typical, distinctive".
Cinzia: For example, La tarantella è una danza propria della regione Campania.
Marco: "Tarantella is a typical dance of the Campania region"
Cinzia: Yes.

Outro

Marco: So let’s finish this lesson by dancing!
Cinzia, Marco: La la la la la la la~
Marco: Ok that’s enough!
Cinzia: While Marco and I are going to dance tarantella, check out the PDF and be ready for the next lesson with us.
Marco: Yes. Buona giornata!
Cinzia: Ciao!

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