Dialogue

Vocabulary

Learn New Words FAST with this Lesson’s Vocab Review List

Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.

Or sign up using Facebook
Already a Member?

Lesson Notes

Unlock In-Depth Explanations & Exclusive Takeaways with Printable Lesson Notes

Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.

Or sign up using Facebook
Already a Member?

Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Cinzia: Buongiorno cari ascoltatori.
Marco: Marco here. Newbie series season 1, lesson #36 - What Floor Should I Visit in This Italian Building? Hello, and welcome to the ItalianPod101.com , the fastest, easiest and most fun way to learn Italian!
Cinzia: I'm Cinzia, and thanks again for being here with us for this Newbie Series lesson. The focus of this lesson is ordinal numbers up to one thousand.
Marco: This conversation takes place at the information counter of a high-rise building.
Cinzia: It is between John and a receptionist.
Marco: The speakers are not friends, therefore they will be speaking formal Italian.
Cinzia: If you don't already have one...
Marco: Stop by ItalianPod101.com.
Cinzia: And sign up for your Free Lifetime Account!
Marco: You can sign up in less than 30 seconds.
Marco: Let’s listen to today's conversation
DIALOGUE
John: Mi scusi, a che piano è lo studio del Dottor Invernizzi?
Receptionist: È al dodicesimo piano.
John: Al tredicesimo piano?
Receptionist: No al dodicesimo.
John: Grazie.
Receptionist: Prego.
Marco: one more time, slowly.
John: Mi scusi, a che piano è lo studio del Dottor Invernizzi?
Receptionist: È al dodicesimo piano.
John: Al tredicesimo piano?
Receptionist: No al dodicesimo.
John: Grazie.
Receptionist: Prego.
Marco: Once again, this time, with the translation.
John: Mi scusi, a che piano è lo studio del Dottor Invernizzi?
Marco: Excuse me, on what floor is the practice of Doctor Invernizzi?
Receptionist: È al dodicesimo piano.
Marco: It's on the twelfth floor.
John: Al tredicesimo piano?
Marco: The thirteenth floor?
Receptionist: No al dodicesimo.
Marco: No, the twelfth.
John: Grazie.
Marco: Thank you.
Receptionist: Prego.
Marco: You are welcome.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Marco: There is one topic about we haven't talked.
Cinzia: Do you mean doctors?
Marco: Yes, yes, yes.
Cinzia: Well, usually we have a medico di famiglia.
Marco: family doctor.
Cinzia: yes, he or she takes care of the health of the whole family, if they live in the same city.
Marco: but when we move to a different city we have to find a new one, right?
Cinzia: Yes, exactly.
Marco: So what happens when if there is an emergency? Do we have to always contact the medico di famiglia?
Cinzia: No, of course not, if you have an emergency, you can just go to the pronto soccorso.
Marco: In the hospital.
Cinzia: But please remember that if it's not something that serious, you can simply go to a pharmacy.
Marco: Yes, because all Italian pharmacy have something special, what’s that?
Cinzia: A doctor.
Marco: Yes, to open a pharmacy, you have to have at least one doctor that works there full-time, certainly they can have shifts, but you always have a doctor near the pharmacy at least to ask for help.
VOCAB LIST
Marco: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson.
Cinzia: piano [natural native speed]
Marco: floor
Cinzia: piano [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Cinzia: piano [natural native speed]
Cinzia: studio [natural native speed]
Marco: practice
Cinzia: studio [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Cinzia: studio [natural native speed]
Cinzia: dodicesimo [natural native speed]
Marco: twelfth
Cinzia: dodicesimo [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Cinzia: dodicesimo [natural native speed]
Cinzia: tredicesimo [natural native speed]
Marco: thirteenth
Cinzia: tredicesimo [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Cinzia: tredicesimo [natural native speed]
VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE
Marco: Let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson.
Cinzia: The first word we will take a look at is piano.
Marco: And the sample sentence is?
Cinzia: Vivo al terzo piano.
Marco: I live on the third floor.
Cinzia: The next word we will take a look at is studio.
Marco: And the sample sentence is?
Cinzia: Lo studio del dottore è al primo piano.
Marco: The practice is on the first floor.
Cinzia: The next word we will take a look at is dodicesimo.
Marco: And the sample sentence is?
Cinzia: Ho prenotato un posto in dodicesima fila.
Marco: I booked a seat in the twelfth row.
Cinzia: The next word we will take a look at is tredicesimo.
Marco: And the sample sentence is?
Cinzia: Hai visto il film intitolato Il tredicesimo piano?
Marco: Have you seen the movie titles The Thirteenth Floor? It’s a sort of scientific horror movie, woohoo. I never seen it though.
Cinzia: I never seen it either.
Marco: IMDB said it’s good. IMDB I mean the Internet Movie Database.
Cinzia: OK, thank you. And now, let’s take a look at today’s grammar.

Lesson focus

Cinzia: Ordinal numbers! This is a very useful subject.
Marco: Then let's jump right in.
Cinzia: Italian ordinal numbers fall into the adjective category.
Marco: But contrary to ordinal numbers, they obey all the rules of standard Italian adjectives,
Cinzia: including changing their ending vowel in accordance to the gender and number (singular or plural) of the noun they refer to.
Marco: As in English, they are used to indicate a specific position in a given series.
Cinzia: Except the first ten Italian ordinal numbers, whose form is not derived from the cardinal equivalent, ordinal numbers originate from the corresponding cardinal numbers.
Marco: So to, let us say... make an ordinal number after 10 we need to drop the ending vowel from the corresponding cardinal number and add the ending –esimo.
Cinzia: For example
Marco: twenty-one
Cinzia: 21 – ventuno (cardinal number) – ventunesimo (ordinal number, ventun + esimo)
Marco: fifty-four
Cinzia: 54 – cinquantaquattro (cardinal number) – cinquantaquattresimo (ordinal number, cinquantaquattr + esimo)
Marco: one hundred
Cinzia: 100 – cento (cardinal number) – centesimo (ordinal number, cent + esimo)
Marco: Furthermore Italian ordinal numbers are usually positioned before the noun, unless we wish to stress the position over the noun.
Cinzia: Here are a couple of example sentences, questa è la centesima volta che ti vedo.
Marco: In this case, centesima is a singular feminine noun, and the English translation would be “this is the hundredth time I see you.”
Cinzia: Obviously, it's a way of saying, right?
Marco: What do you mean?
Cinzia: I mean you can't see someone for 100th time
Marco: You could, but you wouldn’t know it’s the 100th time unless you’re keeping score. So yeah, it’s a way of saying “I’ve seen you so many times”.
Cinzia: Yeah, exactly.
Marco: Do you really keep the score of the times you meet people?
Cinzia: Well, you, yes.
Marco: Oh, thank you!
Cinzia: You’re welcome. The next example is, il Decameron di Boccaccio è stato il terzo libro italiano che John ha letto.
Marco: “Boccaccio’s Decameron was the third Italian book John read.”
Cinzia: Now be very careful, my dear students, as we are going to give you a long list of Italian Ordinal Numbers in their singular masculine form.
Marco: Here we go.
primo 1° 1st first
secondo 2° 2nd second
terzo 3° 3rd third
quarto 4° 4th fourth
quinto 5° 5th fifth
sesto 6° 6th sixth
settimo 7° 7th seventh
ottavo 8° 8th eighth
nono 9° 9th ninth
decimo 10° 10th tenth
undicesimo 11° 11th eleventh
dodicesimo 12° 12th twelfth
tredicesimo 13° 13th thirteenth
quattordicesimo 14° 14th fourteenth
quindicesimo 15° 15th fifteenth
sedicesimo 16° 16th sixteenth
diciassettesimo 17° 17th seventeenth
diciottesimo 18° 18th eighteenth
diciannovesimo 19° 19th nineteenth
ventesimo 20° 20th twentieth
ventunesimo 21° 21st twenty-first
ventiduesimo 22° 22nd twenty-second
ventitreesimo 23° 23rd twenty-third
ventiquattresimo 24° 24th twenty-fourth
venticinquesimo 25° 25th twenty-fifth
ventiseiesimo 26° 26th twenty-sixth
ventisettesimo 27° 27th twenty-seventh
ventottesimo 28° 28th twenty-eighth
ventinovesimo 29° 29th twenty-ninth
trentesimo 30° 30th thirtieth
quarantesimo 40° 40th fortieth
cinquantesimo 50° 50th fiftieth
sessantesimo 60° 60th sixtieth
settantesimo 70° 70th seventieth
ottantesimo 80° 80th eightieth
novantesimo 90° 90th ninetieth
centesimo 100° 100th one-hundredth
duecentesimo 200° 200th two-hundredth
trecentesimo 300° 300th three-hundredth
quattrocentesimo 400° 400th four-hundredth
cinquecentesimo 500° 500th five-hundredth
seicentesimo 600° 600th six-hundredth
settecentesimo 700° 700th seven-hundredth
ottocentesimo 800° 800th eight-hundredth
novecentesimo 900° 900th nine-hundredth
millesimo 1000° 1000th one-thousandth
Cinzia: Such as any other Italian adjective, ordinal numbers can be used instead of the noun they refer to.
Marco: In these circumstances, they lose the “adjective status” and take over the grammatical role of the noun, keeping its gender and number.
Cinzia: For example, quando è arrivato il quarto ospite?
Marco: “When did the fourth guest arrive?”
Cinzia: Il quarto è arrivato poco dopo mezzogiorno.
Marco: “The fourth arrived shortly after noon.” In this case, “the fourth” should be “the fourth guest arrived shortly after noon”. And something that everybody should know, there’s a very special Italian soccer program called 90º minuto.
Cinzia: Oh, yes! That’s so famous!
Marco: It’s the 90th minute.
Cinzia: It’s on Sundays, right?
Marco: I think so I don't actually watch TV that much, but if you have time when you’re in Italy, look for Novantesimo Minuto. That is pure Italian culture, soccer culture.
Cinzia: You’ll be laughing at it anyway.
Marco: Yes, we always do.
Cinzia: It’s really funny.
Marco: Strange people.

Outro

Marco: That just about does it for today.
Marco: Cinzia, I'd like to share a study tip a listener shared with us.
Cinzia: Oh, yeah, you're talking about the student who uses just the conversation tracks to review the lessons.
Marco: Cinzia, you read my mind.
Cinzia: Yes, of course.
Marco: Yep, a listener of ours listens to each lesson several times,
Cinzia: then afterward, get the conversation only track from our site.
Marco: She then listens to them on shuffle again and again. She created her own immersion program using ItalianPod101.com.
Cinzia: This is such a great idea. Please give it a try and let us know what you think.
Marco: Okay, see you soon!
Cinzia: A presto!

Comments

Hide