Learn about the imperfetto and passato prossimo tense agreement in narrations
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Marco: Hello, and welcome to the Newbie Series S2 at ItalianPOD101.com, where we study modern Italian in a fun, educational format! |
| Cinzia: So, brush up on the Italian that you started learning long ago, or start learning today. |
| Marco: Thanks for being here with us for this lesson. Cinzia, what are we looking at in this lesson. |
| Marco: In this lesson we will continue to explain the imperfetto and passato prossimo tense agreement in narrations This conversation takes place on the streets of Italy |
| Cinzia: And it's between John and Laura They are friends therefore they will be speaking informal Italian |
| Marco: Attention listners, comment, |
| Cinzia: comment, |
| Marco: and comment some more! |
| Cinzia: It's easy, |
| Marco: and asking questions really helps improve progress. |
| Marco: Let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| John: Ieri sera nevicava molto forte e mentre tornavo a casa sono scivolato! |
| Laura: Ti sei fatto male? |
| John: No, ma ero molto imbarazzato. |
| Laura: Perché? |
| John: Dei bambini mi guardavano e ridevano. |
| English Host: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| John: Ieri sera nevicava molto forte e mentre tornavo a casa sono scivolato! |
| Laura: Ti sei fatto male? |
| John: No, ma ero molto imbarazzato. |
| Laura: Perché? |
| John: Dei bambini mi guardavano e ridevano. |
| English Host: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| John: Ieri sera nevicava molto forte e mentre tornavo a casa sono scivolato! |
| Marco: Yesterday evening it was snowing very heavily and while I was going back home I slipped! |
| Laura: Ti sei fatto male? |
| Marco: Did you hurt yourself? |
| John: No, ma ero molto imbarazzato. |
| Marco: No, but I was very embarrassed. |
| Laura: Perché? |
| Marco: Why? |
| John: Dei bambini mi guardavano e ridevano. |
| Marco: Some children were looking at me and laughing. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Marco: This January, it snowed so much in Italy! |
| Cinzia: Yes! Incredible snow. |
| Marco: There’s also a YouTube video of an Italian man skiing on a closed highway access ramp in Milan. |
| Cinzia: For real! |
| Marco: Yeah! We’ll post the link in a comment under the lesson post. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Marco: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| : The first word we shall see is: |
| Cinzia: forte [natural native speed] |
| Marco: strong, powerful, loud, tough, heavy, severe |
| Cinzia: forte [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: forte [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Cinzia: mentre [natural native speed] |
| Marco: while, whilst |
| Cinzia: mentre [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: mentre [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Cinzia: tornare [natural native speed] |
| Marco: to go back, to come back, to get back |
| Cinzia: tornare [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: tornare [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Cinzia: scivolare [natural native speed] |
| Marco: to slide, slip, glide |
| Cinzia: scivolare [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: scivolare [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Cinzia: farsi male [natural native speed] |
| Marco: to hurt oneself |
| Cinzia: farsi male [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: farsi male [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Cinzia: imbarazzare [natural native speed] |
| Marco: to embarrass |
| Cinzia: imbarazzare [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: imbarazzare [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Marco: Let's have a closer look at the usuage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Cinzia: The first word we will look at is |
| forte |
| Marco: And the sample sentence is? |
| Cinzia: Tuo papa è molto forte. |
| Marco: “Your father is very strong.” |
| Cinzia: The next word/expression we will look at is |
| mentre |
| Marco: And the sample sentence is? |
| Cinzia: Ascolto musica mentre viaggio in treno. |
| Marco: “I listen to music while I travel by train.” |
| Cinzia: The next word/expression we will look at is |
| tornare |
| Marco: And the sample sentence is? |
| Cinzia: Torno subito. |
| Marco: “I’ll be right back.” |
| Cinzia: The next word/expression we will look at is |
| scivolare |
| Marco: And the sample sentence is? |
| Cinzia: Mario è scivolato mentre correva. |
| Marco: “Mario slipped while he was running.” |
| Cinzia: The next word/expression we will look at is |
| farsi male |
| Marco: And the sample sentence is? |
| Cinzia: Mi sono fatto male correndo. |
| Marco: “I hurt myself while running.” |
| Cinzia: Today's last word/expression is |
| imbarazzare |
| Marco: And the sample sentence is? |
| Cinzia: La ragazza era imbarazzata. |
| Marco: “The girl was embarrassed.” |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Marco: In order to better illustrate the passato prossimo and imperfetto tense agreement, consider the following short story. |
| Cinzia: Ieri stava piovendo. Mentre guardavo la televisione è suonato il telefono. Stavo andando a rispondere e sono caduto a terra. Stavo per rialzarmi quando il telefono ha smesso di suonare. La stanza era fredda e scura. Io ero un po' nervoso a causa del tempo. Quando ero giovane guardavo la pioggia, mi faceva pensare al futuro come infinite gocce di possibilità. Ora pensavo alla mia famiglia e sorridevo. |
| Marco: ""Yesterday, it was raining. While I was watching the TV, the phone rang. I was going to answer (the call), and I fell on the floor. I was about to stand up when the phone stopped ringing. The room was cold and dark. I was a bit nervous due to the weather. When I was young, I used to look at rain. It made me think about the future as infinite drops of possibilities. Now, I thought about my family and smiled. |
| Cinzia: The short story above presented the main contexts in which to use the imperfetto tense. |
| Marco: I. We use the imperfetto tense to describe the traits of the environment, situations, or animate and inanimate beings in a narration. For example |
| Cinzia: Ieri stava piovendo. |
| Marco: ""Yesterday, it was raining."" |
| Cinzia: La stanza era fredda e scura. |
| Marco: ""The room was dark and cold."" |
| Marco: II. We can use the imperfetto to express past, ongoing actions before they were interrupted. |
| Cinzia: The conjunction mentre (""while"") often precedes these actions and we can also conjugate them in the passato progressivo (past progressive) tense. |
| Marco: For instance |
| Cinzia: Mentre guardavo la televisione... |
| Marco: ""While I was watching the TV..."" guardavo is imperfetto |
| OR |
| Cinzia: Mentre stavo guardando la televisione... |
| Marco: ""While I was watching the TV..."" guardando is passato progressivo |
| Marco: III. Another use of the imperfetto tense is to describe the character of individuals in the past. For example |
| Cinzia: Io ero un po' nervoso a causa del tempo. |
| Marco: ""I was a bit nervous due to the weather."" |
| Marco: IV. We can use the imperfetto tense to describe repetitions, recurrent actions, and past habits. For example |
| Cinzia: Quando ero giovane mi piaceva guardare la pioggia. |
| Marco: ""When I was young, I liked looking at the rain."" guardare (past habit and repetition) |
| Cinzia: ...mi faceva pensare al futuro come... |
| Marco: ""...it made me think about the future as..."" pensare (recurrent action) |
| Marco: V. One more way in which we can use the imperfetto tense is to express two or more contemporary actions in the past. |
| Cinzia: Ora pensavo alla mia famiglia e sorridevo. |
| Marco: ""Now, I thought about my family and smiled."" |
| Marco: We employ the passato prossimo tense to express the main actions of the narration, which take place at a particular time. For example |
| Cinzia: ...è suonato il telefono. |
| Marco: ""...the phone rang."" |
| Cinzia: ...sono caduto a terra. |
| Marco: ""...I fell on the floor."" |
| Cinzia: ...il telefono ha smesso di suonare. |
| Marco: ""...the phone stopped ringing."" |
Outro |
| Marco: That just about does it for today. |
| Cinzia: Ready to test what you just learned? |
| Marco: Make this lesson's vocabulary stick by using lesson specific flashcards in the learning center. |
| Cinzia: There is a reason everyone uses flashcards... |
| Marco: They work... |
| Cinzia: They really do help memorization. |
| Marco: You can get the flashcards for this lesson at |
| Cinzia: ItalianPod101.com. |
| Marco: Okay.... |
| Marco: A presto! |
| Cinzia: Ciao a tutti!" |
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