Learn how to get exactly what you want using the Italian singular definite article "the"
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Cinzia: Buon giorno! Mi chiamo Cinzia. |
| Marco: Marco here. Newbie Series, season 1, lesson #9 - You Might End Up Anywhere in the World! Buon giorno a tutti! Hello and welcome to the Newbie Series of Italianpod101.com. My name is Marco and I am joined here by Cinzia. |
| This series focuses on the essentials of Italian for anyone who wants to start learning. |
| Cinzia: So our dear listeners, join us for this lesson on Italianpod101.com. |
| Marco: The focus of this lesson is on Italian singular definite articles. |
| Cinzia: This conversation takes place in the countryside during a picnic. |
| Marco: And it is between Laura Rossi and John Smith. |
| Cinzia: The speakers are friends, therefore they will be speaking informal Italian. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Laura: John vorrei il panino al prosciutto. |
| John: Eccolo. Io voglio la panna cotta. |
| Laura: Sei un goloso! |
| Marco: one more time, slowly. |
| Laura: John vorrei il panino al prosciutto. |
| John: Eccolo. Io voglio la panna cotta. |
| Laura: Sei un goloso! |
| Marco: Once again, this time, with the translation. |
| Laura: John vorrei il panino al prosciutto. |
| Marco: John, I would like to have the ham sandwich. |
| John: Eccolo. Io voglio la panna cotta. |
| Marco: Here it is. I want panna cotta (literally, baked cream). |
| Laura: Sei un goloso! |
| Marco: Oh, you are a gluttonous one! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Marco: And yes, for all the listeners out there, I am a goloso! |
| Cinzia: Really? You didn't seem very happy today, when I brought you my cake. |
| Marco: Well, I was busy, setting up everything... |
| Cinzia: You didn't even open it! |
| Marco: I know I know. The truth is that I was afraid that you baked it! |
| Cinzia: Oh! Marco! I can't believe you just said that! You know I come from Napoli, Marco! You know I can cook! Well, ok, I bought the cake today! |
| Marco: You mean today's cake is from a shop? |
| Cinzia: Yes. |
| Marco: Ok, I'll go eat it now. |
| Cinzia: So so for it! |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Marco: Let’s take a look at today’s vocabulary. |
| Marco: First |
| Cinzia: panino [natural native speed] |
| Marco: sandwich |
| Cinzia: panino [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: panino [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word |
| Cinzia: Eccolo [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Here it is |
| Cinzia: Eccolo [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: Eccolo [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word |
| Cinzia: prosciutto [natural native speed] |
| Marco: ham |
| Cinzia: prosciutto [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: prosciutto [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word |
| Cinzia: la [natural native speed] |
| Marco: the (feminine singular) |
| Cinzia: la [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: la [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word |
| Cinzia: il [natural native speed] |
| Marco: the (masculine singular) |
| Cinzia: il [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: il [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word |
| Cinzia: panna cotta [natural native speed] |
| Marco: panna cotta (literally “baked cream”) |
| Cinzia: panna cotta [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: panna cotta [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Last word |
| Cinzia: goloso [natural native speed] |
| Marco: gluttonous |
| Cinzia: goloso [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: goloso [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Now, I think our listeners are now wondering why la and il are the same “the”. |
| Cinzia: We’re gonna cover that in the grammar section. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Cinzia: Let’s have a look at the usage for some of the words and expressions. The first expressions we will look at is Eccolo. |
| Marco: Cinzia, can you give us an example sentence please? |
| Cinzia: Mi passi il Parmigiano per favore? |
| Marco: Certo, eccolo! |
| Marco: Pass me the Parmesan cheese please? |
| Cinzia: Sure, here it is! |
| Cinzia: OK. The next vocabulary word is prosciutto. |
| Marco: Let’s have an example |
| Cinzia: Il prosciutto cotto è buono. |
| Marco: Ham is good. Cinzia... why do we say prosciutto cotto? What's the difference between prosciutto and prosciutto cotto? |
| Cinzia: It's for making a distinction between prosciutto cotto and prosciutto crudo which is the one I prefer! |
| Marco: So exactly what is prosciutto crudo? |
| Cinzia: Prosciutto crudo is the red one and prosciutto cotto is the red one! It's easy! |
| Marco: Ok, so... prosciutto crudo means... |
| Cinzia: ahaha! |
| Marco: Now, for all our listeners prosciutto crudo is actually non cooked ham, crudo means raw, and the most famous is Parma ham. |
| Cinzia: Buono! |
| Marco: Molto buono! Very good, well the usual prosciutto is the cooked ham, the pink one, like Cinzia pointed out. |
| Cinzia: prosciutto crudo is the red one, and prosciutto cotto is the pink one. |
| Cinzia: OK the next word is la. |
| Marco: One example please. |
| Cinzia: La casa rossa. |
| Marco: The red house. |
| Cinzia: The next word we will see is Panna cotta. |
| Marco: And the example is? |
| Cinzia: La panna cotta è un dolce italiano. |
| Marco: Panna cotta is an Italian dessert. |
| Cinzia: The last word for today is goloso. And obviously all our listeners know who I'm talking about. |
| Marco: yes yes yes, she is talking about me. And remember if we are talking about Cinzia we have to change the adjectives ending to feminine, so Cinzia è molto golosa. Cinzia is very gluttonous. |
| Cinzia: E Marco è più goloso di me. |
| Marco: And Marco is well you translate that |
| Cinzia: And Marco is more gluttonous than me. |
| Marco: OK ok ok, but now everybody be careful because goloso doesn’t have this negative image as it is in English, gluttonous is not such a nice adjective, is it? |
| Cinzia: No, it isn’t. |
| Marco: But goloso you can hear it often in Italy can’t you? |
| Cinzia: Yes of course |
| Marco: I mean if you tell me goloso I don’t get angry do I? |
| Cinzia: No why should you? |
| Marco: Because maybe goloso is just someone who likes to eat good food. |
| Cinzia: Yes. |
| Marco: And who doesn’t like to eat good food? |
| Cinzia: Especially food from Napoli |
| Marco: Yes, on to the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Marco: Now as we have briefly mentioned in our previous lesson, definite articles correspond to the English counterpart “the”. |
| Cinzia: As in English, they are employed to identify one or more specific nouns. |
| Marco: As for the indefinite articles, proper nouns are due to their very definition already specific, therefore they cannot be preceded by any kind of article. |
| Cinzia: For example, saying il John. |
| Marco: The John. |
| Cinzia: Or un John. |
| Marco: A John. |
| Cinzia: Would not make any sense, since there can be only one individual named John. |
| Marco: And one girl named Cinzia! |
| Cinzia: Of course! |
| Marco: Ok then, let us take a closer look at the Definite Italian articles. But only the singular form, in our next lesson we shall see the plural form. |
| Cinzia: Use il before masculine nouns starting with a consonant. For example, il cane "the dog". |
| Marco: L + apostrophe before masculine nouns starting with vowels. For example, l’albero “the tree”. |
| Cinzia: Lo before masculine nouns starting with z, y or s + consonants |
| Marco: For example, lo zaffiro “the sapphire”; lo studente “the student”; lo yogurt “the yogurt”. |
| Cinzia: Use la before feminine nouns starting with a consonant, including z, y or s + consonants. |
| Marco: For example, la ragazza “the girl”; la strada “the road”. |
| Cinzia: L + apostrophe before feminine nouns starting with vowels. For example, l’uva “the grapes”. |
| Marco: That was a long grammar section |
| Cinzia: Yes, I hope we didn’t loose any listeners because of this. |
| Marco: Well I could tell a joke. |
| Cinzia: You a joke??? You’d make them cry. |
| Marco: My jokes aren’t that bad. |
| Cinzia: Come on, only you laugh at them, and usually you laugh even before you finished telling the joke!!! |
| Marco: OK then. This will conclude today’s lesson. |
| Cinzia: Scusa! Ahahahaahah |
Outro |
| Cinzia: Be sure to pick up the PDF at Italianpod101.com. |
| Marco: Also, if you have any questions, feel free to use our forum or comment on today’s lesson. |
| Cinzia: See you again tomorrow, a domani! |
| Marco: Ciao, a domani! |
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