INTRODUCTION |
Cinzia: Buon giorno a tutti!! Mi chiamo Cinzia. |
Marco: Marco here. Newbie Series, Season 1 Lesson #4. Capitalize on Italian Hospitality. |
Cinzia: Hello and welcome to the Newbie Series of ItalianPod101.com. We are glad you could join us again. |
Marco: We will be guiding you through basic grammar and vocabulary. |
Cinzia: And don't forget the different aspects of the language, culture, and customs that you find in Italy. |
Marco: Excellent, excellent. The focus of this lesson is how to ask a personโs nationality. |
Cinzia: These conversations takes place in a cafรฉ. |
Marco: They are between Laura and John, and also between Peter and Anna. |
Cinzia: Be sure to check out the vocabulary list in the PDF for this lesson. |
DIALOGUE 1 |
Laura: Ciao, sei francese? |
John: No, non sono francese, sono americano. E tu? |
Laura: Sono italiana. |
Marco: one more time, slowly. |
Laura: Ciao, sei francese? |
John: No, non sono francese, sono americano. E tu? |
Laura: Sono italiana. |
Marco: This time, with the translation. |
Laura: Ciao, sei francese? |
Laura: Hello, are you French? |
John: No, non sono francese, sono americano. E tu? |
John: No, I am not French; I am American, and you? |
Laura: Sono italiana. |
Laura: I am Italian. |
POST CONVERSATION BANTER 1 |
Marco: Okay, so in the first dialogue that we have just seen, the question was โare you French?โ So we implied a nationality. In the next dialogue, we will actually be asking โwhat nationality are you?โ |
DIALOGUE 2 |
Anna: Di che nazionalitร sei? |
Peter: Sono australiano. E tu? |
Anna: Sono spagnola. |
Marco: one more time, slowly. |
Anna: Di che nazionalitร sei? |
Peter: Sono australiano. E tu? |
Anna: Sono spagnola. |
Marco: This time, with the translation. |
Anna: Di che nazionalitร sei? |
Marco: What nationality are you? |
Peter: Sono australiano. E tu? |
Marco: I am Australian, and you? |
Anna: Sono spagnola. |
Marco: I am Spanish. |
POST CONVERSATION BANTER 2 |
Marco: So Cinzia, concerning these two dialogs, which one would you use more often? |
Cinzia: I think I would use the second one. |
Marco: So you would never imply someone's nationality, you would ask him directly. |
Cinzia: Yes, exactly. |
Marco: So for example the French are our, let's say, cousin, right? |
Cinzia: I would say distant cousins. |
Marco: So what happens if that... for example, if somebody asked you "Are you French?" Sei francese? |
Cinzia: No! Sono italiana! |
Marco: Exactly, I mean after all, French have champagne, but we have spumante. |
Cinzia: But we have pizza. |
Marco: True! |
VOCAB LIST |
Marco: Now weโll take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
Marco: First |
Cinzia: francese [natural native speed] |
Marco: French |
Cinzia: francese [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
Cinzia: francese [natural native speed] |
Marco: Next word |
Cinzia: americano [natural native speed] |
Marco: American |
Cinzia: americano [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
Cinzia: americano [natural native speed] |
Marco: Next verb |
Cinzia: essere [natural native speed] |
Marco: to be |
Cinzia: essere [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
Cinzia: essere [natural native speed] |
Marco: Next word |
Cinzia: nazionalitร [natural native speed] |
Marco: nationality |
Cinzia: nazionalitร [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
Cinzia: nazionalitร [natural native speed] |
Marco: Next word |
Cinzia: che [natural native speed] |
Marco: what |
Cinzia: che [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
Cinzia: che [natural native speed] |
Marco: Next word |
Cinzia: australiano [natural native speed] |
Marco: Australian |
Cinzia: australiano [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
Cinzia: australiano [natural native speed] |
Marco: Next word |
Cinzia: spagnolo [natural native speed] |
Marco: Spanish |
Cinzia: spagnolo [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
Cinzia: spagnolo [natural native speed] |
Marco: When talking about nationality, there are a couple more we should cover for example, letโs say, English people. |
Cinzia: Inglesi |
Marco: Let me repeat that, inglesi. And letโs go with German. |
Cinzia: Tedesche |
Marco: Tedesche. What else can we say? |
Cinzia: Svizzeri. |
Marco: Yes, Swiss people. Woh! Thereโre so many nationality around Italy and come to Italy, it will take us a while, so let's look at them in the future lessons. |
Cinzia: Fair enough, Marco. |
Marco: Actually, if you know how to say your nationality in Italian, come by our forum, or drop us a comment and weโll gladly answer back. |
VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
Cinzia: Letโs have a look at the usage for some of the words. The first word we will look at is [francese]. |
Marco: [Cinzia], one example sentence please? |
Cinzia: [Sono francese]... Uhm... wait... sono italiana |
Marco: Yes ok... |
Cinzia: Sono francese. |
Marco: [I am French.] |
Cinzia: The next word we're going to look at today is [americano]. |
Marco: [Cinzia], letโs have an example with "americano"? |
Cinzia: [Mike รจ americano] |
Marco: [Mike is American] |
Cinzia: These first 2 words we have seen are both adjectives. |
Marco: Now what would happen if we had Michelle instead of Mike? |
Cinzia: Well, we would have [Michelle รจ americana] |
Marco: [Michelle is American] please note that in English there is no change, but in Italian we have to change the ending to match the gender of the noun to which the adjective refers. |
Marco: For example, I would say. [Io sono italiano]. Ending with an o. |
While Cinzia would sayโฆ |
Cinzia: [Sono italiana] ending with and a |
Marco: We'll continually visit this topic throughout our studies. |
Cinzia: The next vocabulary word is [Essere]. |
Marco: [Cinzia], would you give us an example with "Essere", please? |
Cinzia: [Siamo italiani] |
Marco: [We are Italians] |
Marco: [Cinzia], next word? |
Cinzia: [nazionalitร ] |
Marco: One example please. |
Cinzia: [Di che nazionaliร sei, Marco?] |
Marco: [What nationality are you, Marco?] |
Cinzia: OK. The next vocabulary word is [che]. |
Marco: Letโs have an example |
Cinzia: [Che cosa fai?] |
Marco: [What are you doing?] |
Cinzia: Like we have seen [che] can have many other meanings. |
Marco: For now let us just remember [what]. |
Marco: Bene, good; this wraps it up for the vocabulary usage. |
Lesson focus
|
Marco: In the dialogs we have seen how to ask oneโs nationality. |
Cinzia: The construction of Ciao, sei francese? is the same of โHello, are you French?โ with two exceptions. |
Marco: First, as we have seen in the previous lesson, there is no tu (Italian for โyouโ), because there is no need to specify the subject since sei can only indicate โyouโ second person singular. |
Cinzia: Second, when expressing nationalities, Italians do not use capital letters. |
Marco: If you don't know what we're talking about, please click the center button on your ipod. |
Cinzia: Or stop by the site and check out the pdf. |
Marco: Perfect. Now back to the topic, yes, Italian does not use capitals as often as English. Please remember the following rules |
Cinzia: proper names (Luca, Laura, Marco), town names (Milano, Roma, Napoli), countries, lakes, rivers etc. are written with a capital. |
Marco: In headings/titles only the first word has a capital letter and the rest of the title is in lowercase. For example Il signore degli anelli = โThe Lord of the Ringsโ only has the first letter of the sentence in upper case. |
Cinzia: Days of the week/seasons/months are always in lowercase. |
Marco: Words such as English, Italian, Japanese, which in English are always written with a capital, are always written in lowercase letters in Italian. |
Marco: now on with something a little boring, sorry. |
Cinzia: but necessary. In future lessons we shall see in more detail Italian adjectives, for now please remember two points. |
Marco: One, they have feminine, masculine, singular and plural meaning, all realized by changing the ending. Two, in the case of adjectives of nationality there are only two types, one that follows both gender and number and one that only follows number. |
Cinzia: Here is the adjective conjugation. |
Italiano (Masculine singular) |
Italiana (Feminine singular) |
italiani (Masculine plural) |
italiane (Feminine plural) |
Marco: Now, letโs look at the next set. |
francese (Masculine singular) |
francese (Feminine singular) |
francesi (Masculine plural) |
francesi (Feminine plural) |
Cinzia: So I would say Sono italiana, and you Marco would say... |
Marco: Sono italiano. |
Cinzia: But what should we say about both of us? |
Marco: Well, in Italian there is this little rule that even if it's even a boy and a girl, or a boy and a boy, masculine has more real power, not in real society, don't get angry, Cinzia... |
Cinzia: Uhmm... Ok Marco. |
Marco: Just on a grammar point of view, so in our case, male and female, we should use siamo italiani, while if it's Cinzia and another girl she would say... |
Cinzia: Siamo italiane. |
Marco: Perfect, so remember, these are the couples, these are the set. Male-male we use masculine, male-female, we still use masculine, female-female you use? |
Cinzia: Feminine. |
Marco: Perfect. |
Outro
|
Cinzia: This wraps up today's lesson. |
Marco: Don't forget to try out the Italian Review in the Learning Center, where you'll find test questions, answers and comments on the answers. |
Cinzia: It's a great way to start practicing on your own. |
Marco: Ok then. See you again. |
Cinzia: Arrivederci. |
Marco: Arrivederci. |
245 Comments
HideDear listeners, let us see if we can get a post from every country in the world! So please comment! Marco
Ciao Harley,
piacere! Grazie per il tuo commento. ร vero, รจ una buona opportunitร ๐
Let us know if you have any questions!
Valentina
Team ItalianPod101.com
Ciao a tutti, sono americano ma vivo in Francia. Il virus รจ una buona opportunitร per imparare!
Ciao Andrea,
grazie per il tuo commento!
Welcome and let us know if you have any questions.
Valentina
Team ItalianPod101.com
Ciao Tuqa,
grazie per il tuo commento!
Welcome and thanks for your comment. ๐
Valentina
Team ItalianPod101.com
Mille grazie Marco e Cinzia. Sono degli Stati Uniti. Ho famiglia in Italia, a Milano e a Abruzzi.
Andrea
Ciao, mi chiamo Tuqa . Vengo dal Sudan . Sono Sudanese. La mia lingua รจ l'arabo . Io parlo arabo ๐๐
Ciao Anette,
benvenuta!
The correct sentence for what you want to say is: la mia lingua รจ lo svedese.
Let us know if you have any quesitons!
Valentina
Team ItalianPod101.com
Ciao Cesar,
Piacere, benvenuto su ItalianPod101!
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to leave a comment.
Valentina
Team ItalianPod101.com
Oops, lingua
Ciao, mi chiamo Anette. Vengo dalla Finlandia. Sono Finlandese. Mi lingula svedese. Ok, what I'm trying to tell is that I am Finnish but my language is Swedish (since I belong to The small minority of native Swedefinns). I'd appreciate corrections on this.