Learn how to form the imperfect tense of third conjugation Italian verbs
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Cinzia: Cinzia here. |
| Marco: Marco here. Newbie Series season 1, lesson #34 - Tell Me in Italian What Kept You Awake Last Night. |
| Cinzia: Buon giorno a tutti! |
| Marco: Hi, my name is Marco and I'm joined here by Cinzia. Come va? |
| Cinzia: Tutto bene, grazie, Marco. Hello everyone and welcome to the Newbie Series of ItalianPod101.com! |
| Marco: Thanks for joining us for our 34th lesson of this Newbie Series. |
| Cinzia: Which focuses on the basics for anyone starting to learn the Italian language. |
| Marco: So please join us for this lesson of Italianpod101.com. |
| Cinzia: Before we jump in, take your studies to the next level by stopping by the Learning Center at Italianpod101.com. |
| Marco: In today’s lesson, we are going to be talking about Lasagna. No, we did that two lessons ago. |
| Cinzia: Yes. So today we will talk about gnocchi. |
| Marco: No, no, that’s also not. |
| Cinzia: Ah shame! |
| Marco: We are going to be talking about the imperfetto tense of the third conjugation verbs. |
| Cinzia: Oh okay. |
| Marco: Something more useful than Lasagna, not so good but… |
| Cinzia: Useful for our brain and not for our stomach. |
| Marco: Yes, sorry about that, Cinzia. |
| Cinzia: The lesson regards both irregular and the regular verbs belonging to the third conjugation. |
| Marco: And in the following dialogue, I will be John while Cinzia will be Laura. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Laura: Ieri sera sentivo uno strano rumore in cucina. |
| John: Ah si? Cosa era? |
| Laura: Non lo so. Ogni volta che aprivo la porta della cucina, smetteva. |
| John: Forse era un topo. |
| Laura: Spero di no! |
| Marco: Let’s hear it slowly now. |
| Laura: Ieri sera sentivo uno strano rumore in cucina. |
| John: Ah si? Cosa era? |
| Laura: Non lo so. Ogni volta che aprivo la porta della cucina, smetteva. |
| John: Forse era un topo. |
| Laura: Spero di no! |
| Marco: And now, with the translation. |
| Laura: Ieri sera sentivo uno strano rumore in cucina. |
| Marco: Yesterday evening, I kept hearing a strange noise in the kitchen. |
| John: Ah si? Cosa era? |
| Marco: Oh really? What was it? |
| Laura: Non lo so. Ogni volta che aprivo la porta della cucina, smetteva. |
| Marco: I don't know. Every time I opened the kitchen door, it stopped. |
| John: Forse era un topo. |
| Marco: Maybe it was a mouse. |
| Laura: Spero di no! |
| Marco: I hope not! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Cinzia: Huh, have you ever had topi in your kitchen? |
| Marco: Topi in my kitchen… I actually had. I had a mouse in my kitchen, in my bedroom, in my toilet, I mean bathroom. |
| Cinzia: In your bedroom? |
| Marco: Yes, on the sofa, in the garden. |
| Cinzia: What are you talking about Marco? |
| Marco: My sister, she had a pet mouse. |
| Cinzia: Oh my god! Really? |
| Marco: Yeah, we went jogging once. He was.. |
| Cinzia: With the mouse? |
| Marco: Yes, yeah well okay, he wasn’t jogging, he was just carried by me on in a bag. |
| Cinzia: How big was it? |
| Marco: He got to be about 10 to 12cm in length without the tail, that is. |
| Cinzia: Oh. |
| Marco: Now nice. |
| Cinzia: Nice! |
| Marco: Yes. He was a kavia, he was a lab mouse. |
| Cinzia: Okay I see. |
| Marco: They are cute. |
| Cinzia: They are not cute to me. |
| Marco: They are cute and they are also very, very fluffy. |
| Cinzia: Fluffy! |
| Marco: My sister’s mouse was actually rather fat. He gets fluffy with the fat. |
| Cinzia: That’s enough. I think we should take a look at today’s vocabulary. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Marco: And the first word is |
| Cinzia: sentire [natural native speed] |
| Marco: to hear, listen to |
| Cinzia: sentire [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: sentire [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word |
| Cinzia: strano [natural native speed] |
| Marco: strange |
| Cinzia: strano [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: strano [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word |
| Cinzia: rumore [natural native speed] |
| Marco: noise |
| Cinzia: rumore [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: rumore [natural native speed] |
| Marco: And next word |
| Cinzia: sapere [natural native speed] |
| Marco: to know |
| Cinzia: sapere [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: sapere [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word |
| Cinzia: volta [natural native speed] |
| Marco: time |
| Cinzia: volta [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: volta [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word |
| Cinzia: aprire [natural native speed] |
| Marco: to open |
| Cinzia: aprire [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: aprire [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word |
| Cinzia: smettere [natural native speed] |
| Marco: to quit, stop, end |
| Cinzia: smettere [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: smettere [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word |
| Cinzia: forse [natural native speed] |
| Marco: maybe |
| Cinzia: forse [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: forse [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word |
| Cinzia: topo [natural native speed] |
| Marco: mouse |
| Cinzia: topo [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: topo [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Last word |
| Cinzia: sperare [natural native speed] |
| Marco: to hope |
| Cinzia: sperare [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: sperare [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. |
| Marco: And the first word is, Cinzia? |
| Cinzia: strano. |
| Marco: And the first sample sentence is, |
| Cinzia: Non ti ricordi di me? Strano. |
| Marco: Don’t you remember me, strange. And talking about Cinzia, I think it’s very difficult not to remember her. |
| Cinzia: Yes, I leave a mark. The next word we will look at is rumore. |
| Marco: And the sample sentence is |
| Cinzia: Quando studio odio sentire rumori. |
| Marco: I hate hearing noises when I study. |
| Cinzia: The next word we will look at is smettere. |
| Marco: And the sample sentence is, |
| Cinzia: Potresti smettere di lamentarti? |
| Marco: Could you stop complaining? |
| Cinzia: Yes Marco, stop complaining. |
| Marco: I was just reading. |
| Cinzia: Yeah actually today you’ve been very good. |
| Marco: Thank you. |
| Cinzia: You are surprising me. Anyway, the next word we will look at is forse. |
| Marco: And the sample sentence is |
| Cinzia: Forse finisco i compiti domani. |
| Marco: Maybe I finish doing my homework tomorrow. |
| Cinzia: The next word is topo. |
| Marco: And the sample sentence is |
| Cinzia: Ti piacciono i topi bianchi? |
| Marco: Do you like white mice? |
| Cinzia: No I don’t. |
| Marco: Okay…Next word. |
| Cinzia: And the last word is sperare. |
| Marco: And the last sample sentence is, |
| Cinzia: Spero che Luisa arrivi in tempo. |
| Marco: I hope Louisa will arrive in time. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Cinzia: Today we will take a look at the imperfetto of the third conjugation. In fact in the dialogue, we have seen in Laura’s first line Ieri sera sentivo uno strano rumore in cucina. We had the verb sentivo. |
| Marco: “To hear, to listen to”. But before we jump into today’s conjugations, we have to point out that in today’s dialogue, we use the imperfetto with another of its possible values. That is to express an ongoing action in the past before it was interrupted. In fact, in Laura’s second line, she says… |
| Cinzia: Ogni volta che aprivo la porta della cucina, smetteva. |
| “Every time I open the kitchen door, it stopped.” An ongoing action in the past was always interrupted. |
| Cinzia: Let’s take a look at the conjugation of the verb sentire. |
| Marco: "to hear"; "to listen to" |
| Cinzia: Io sent-ivo |
| Marco: "I heard" |
| Cinzia: Tu sent-ivi |
| Marco: "You heard" |
| Cinzia: Lui/lei sent-iva |
| Marco: "He/she/it heard" |
| Cinzia: Noi sent-ivamo |
| Marco: "We heard" |
| Cinzia: Voi sent-ivate |
| Marco: "You heard" |
| Cinzia: Loro sent-ivano |
| Marco: "They heard" |
| Marco: The imperfetto endings for the third conjugation verbs are… |
| Marco: -ivo, -ivi, -iva, -ivamo, -ivate, -ivano |
| Marco: Let’s now take a look at the verb aprire, that means? |
| Cinzia: “To open”. |
| Cinzia: Io apr-ivo |
| Marco: "I opened" |
| Cinzia: Tu apr-ivi |
| Marco: "You opened" |
| Cinzia: Lui/lei apr-iva |
| Marco: "He/she/it opened" |
| Cinzia: Noi apr-ivamo |
| Marco: "We opened" |
| Cinzia: Voi apr-ivate |
| Marco: "You opened" |
| Cinzia: Loro apr-ivano |
| Marco: "They opened" |
| Cinzia: Very straightforward and now let’s take a look at the conjugation of the verb dire. |
| Marco: “To say, to tell.” |
| Cinzia: Which is actually an irregular verb. So it follows an irregular conjugation in its imperfetto. |
| Cinzia: Io dic-evo |
| Marco: "I said"/"I told" |
| Cinzia: Tu dic-evi |
| Marco: "You said"/" You told" |
| Cinzia: Lui/lei dic-eva |
| Marco: "He/she/it said"/"He/she/it told" |
| Cinzia: Noi dic-evamo |
| Marco: "We said"/"We told" |
| Cinzia: Voi dic-evate |
| Marco: "You said"/"You told" |
| Cinzia: Loro dic-evano |
| Marco: "They said"/"They told" |
| Cinzia: Contrary to all other third conjugation verbs, dire's imperfetto root is followed by the vowel -e instead of -i. |
Outro |
| Marco: Well, I guess that’s enough for today’s lesson, right? |
| Cinzia: Yes and for me, it’s time for un piatto di gnocchi. |
| Marco: And for me, it’s time to go look for some topi. |
| Cinzia: Oh my god, let me escape. |
| Cinzia: Ciao a tutti! Bye-bye! |
| Marco: Ciao ciao! |
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