Learn the Italian phrases meaning "there is," and ci sono, which means "there are" in English
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| 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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