Learn about how to use the simple Italian preposition su, which has many uses, including "about
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| INTRODUCTION | |
| Consuelo: Hello everyone! I'm Consuelo, and welcome to ItalianPOD101. | |
| Marco: With us, you'll learn to speak Italian with fun and effective lessons. | |
| Consuelo: We also provide you with cultural insights | |
| Marco: and tips you won't find in a textbook... | |
| Marco: In this lesson, we will continue our study of Italian simple prepositions, delving into su. This conversation takes place in John's car. | |
| Consuelo: The conversation is between John and Laura. The speakers are friends; therefore, the speakers will be speaking informally | |
| Marco: Now, before we listen to the conversation... | |
| Consuelo: We want to ask... | |
| Marco: Do you read the lesson notes, while you listen? | |
| Consuelo: We received an e-mail about this study tip. | |
| Marco: So we were wondering if you've tried it, and if so, | |
| Consuelo: what do you think of it. | |
| Marco: You can leave us feedback in the comment section of this lesson. Okay... | |
| Marco: Let's listen to the conversation. | |
| DIALOGUE | |
| John: Laura, ti ricordi il numero di Martina? | |
| Laura: Sì, dovrei averlo sulla rubrica del telefonino. A proposito, hai visto il mio cellulare? | |
| John: Sì, è lì sul cruscotto della macchina. | |
| Laura: Ah già, grazie. | |
| John: Con questo traffico ci metteremo molto tempo per arrivare da Martina. | |
| Laura: Su col morale dai, andremo al cinema insieme un'altra volta! | |
| John: Va bene, va bene. | |
| English Host: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. | |
| John: Laura, ti ricordi il numero di Martina? | |
| Laura: Sì, dovrei averlo sulla rubrica del telefonino. A proposito, hai visto il mio cellulare? | |
| John: Sì, è lì sul cruscotto della macchina. | |
| Laura: Ah già, grazie. | |
| John: Con questo traffico ci metteremo molto tempo per arrivare da Martina. | |
| Laura: Su col morale dai, andremo al cinema insieme un'altra volta! | |
| John: Va bene, va bene. | |
| English Host: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. | |
| John: Laura, ti ricordi il numero di Martina? | |
| Marco: Laura, do you remember Martina's number? | |
| Laura: Sì, dovrei averlo sulla rubrica del telefonino. A proposito, hai visto il mio cellulare? | |
| Marco: Yes, I should have it in my mobile's address book. By the way, did you see my cell phone? | |
| John: Sì, è lì sul cruscotto della macchina. | |
| Marco: Yeah, it's on the car's dashboard. | |
| Laura: Ah già, grazie. | |
| Marco: Oh, right! Thank you. | |
| John: Con questo traffico ci metteremo molto tempo per arrivare da Martina. | |
| Marco: With this traffic, it'll take us a lot of time to go to Martina's place. | |
| Laura: Su col morale dai, andremo al cinema insieme un'altra volta! | |
| Marco: Come on, keep your spirits up, we'll go to movies together soon! | |
| John: Va bene, va bene. | |
| Marco: All right, all right. | |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER | |
| Cristiano: Marco, have you ever missed a date because of a traffic jam? | |
| Marco: No, I was lucky! | |
| Cris: That's something you don't want to wish even to our worst enemy. | |
| Marco: But probably in cities where moving by car is essential, like Rome or Milan, one day it could happen. | |
| Cris: Yes, you're right, Marco. Sometimes I wish I were born in Venice! | |
| VOCAB LIST | |
| Marco: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. | |
| : The first word we shall see is: | |
| Consuelo: ricordare [natural native speed] | |
| Marco: to remember, to not forget, to recall | |
| Consuelo: ricordare [slowly - broken down by syllable] | |
| Consuelo: ricordare [natural native speed] | |
| : Next: | |
| Consuelo: numero [natural native speed] | |
| Marco: number | |
| Consuelo: numero [slowly - broken down by syllable] | |
| Consuelo: numero [natural native speed] | |
| : Next: | |
| Consuelo: rubrica [natural native speed] | |
| Marco: address book | |
| Consuelo: rubrica [slowly - broken down by syllable] | |
| Consuelo: rubrica [natural native speed] | |
| : Next: | |
| Consuelo: telefono [natural native speed] | |
| Marco: telephone | |
| Consuelo: telefono [slowly - broken down by syllable] | |
| Consuelo: telefono [natural native speed] | |
| : Next: | |
| Consuelo: cruscotto [natural native speed] | |
| Marco: dashboard, instrument panel | |
| Consuelo: cruscotto [slowly - broken down by syllable] | |
| Consuelo: cruscotto [natural native speed] | |
| : Next: | |
| Consuelo: morale [natural native speed] | |
| Marco: moral, spirits, mood | |
| Consuelo: morale [slowly - broken down by syllable] | |
| Consuelo: morale [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. | |
| Marco: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases we learned in this lesson. The word we'll look at is... | |
| Cris: ""telefono."" | |
| Marco: In Italian, we have several ways to call our mobile phone. | |
| Cris: Yes Marco, for example ""telefono cellulare."" | |
| Marco: ""Cell phone."" | |
| Cris: Usually as the word is pretty long, we use the informal ""cellulare."" | |
| Marco: I see, like the English ""cell."" | |
| Cris: Or sometimes we refer to it as ""telefonino,"" which sounds more like ""a small phone,"" but it's used to mean the words ""mobile phone."" | |
| Marco: Great, thank you! | |
Lesson focus |
|
|---|---|
| Cris: Let's take a look at today's lesson. | |
| Marco: Today we are going to continue with the study of the | |
| Cris: ""preposizioni semplici"" | |
| Marco: ""simple prepositions."" | |
| Cristiano: The focus of this lesson is on the Italian preposition su. | |
| Marco: The preposition ""su"" is used as follows… | |
| Marco: To indicate the topic of a sentence. Note that in this case, the preposition almost always combines with the definite article preceding the noun. For example... | |
| Cris: ""Ho scritto diversi articoli sulla (i.e., ""su"" + ""la"") politica internazionale."" | |
| Marco: ""I wrote a good deal of articles about international politics."" | |
| Cris: ""Hanno letto un libro sulla (i.e., ""su"" + ""la"") vita di JFK."" | |
| Marco: ""They read a book on JFK's life."" | |
| Cris: ""La riunione verterà sui (i.e., ""su"" + ""i"") nuovi progetti."" | |
| Marco: ""The meeting will be focused on the new projects."" | |
| Marco: To express the position of objects placed on something. Similarly, to the first case, ""su"" attaches to the definite article preceding the following nouns. For instance... | |
| Cris: ""La penna è sul (i.e., ""su"" + ""il"") tavolo."" | |
| Marco: ""The pen is on the table."" | |
| Cris: ""La maglia è sulla (i.e., ""su"" + ""la"") lavatrice."" | |
| Marco: ""The sweater is on the washing machine."" | |
| Cris: ""Il cellulare è sul (i.e., ""su"" + ""il"") libro."" | |
| Marco: ""The cellular phone is on the book."" | |
| Marco: Please note that in this situation, the ""preposizione semplice su"" may be substituted by the equivalent preposition ""sopra"" + definite article (preceding the noun). For example… | |
| Cris: ""I piatti sono sopra il tavolo."" | |
| Marco: ""The dishes are on the table."" | |
| Cris: ""Il (""computer"") portatile era sopra alla scrivania."" | |
| Marco: ""The laptop was on the desk."" | |
| Cris: ""La sveglia è sopra al comodino."" | |
| Marco: ""The alarm clock is on the bedside table."" | |
| Marco: In informal Italian, ""su"" is used to express indefinite or rough quantities. The same meaning may be conveyed in formal Italian by the synonym | |
| Cristiano: ""circa"" | |
| Marco: ""about,"" ""nearly,"" ""approximately."" | |
| For example... | |
| Cris: ""La giacca costa sui (i.e., ""su"" + ""i"") cento euro."" | |
| Marco: ""The jacket costs around a hundred euros."" | |
| Cris: ""Federico è un uomo sui (i.e., ""su"" + ""i"") quarant'anni."" | |
| Marco: ""Federico is a man in his forties."" | |
| Cris: ""Ci vorranno sui cinque giorni per finire il lavoro."" | |
| Marco: ""It'll take approximately five days to complete the job."" | |
Outro |
|
| Marco: That just about does it for today. | |
| Marco: Consuelo, I'd like to share a study tip a listener shared with us. | |
| Consuelo: Ahh, you're talking about the student who uses just the conversation tracks to review the lessons. | |
| Marco: Consuelo, you read my mind. | |
| Consuelo: (laughter) | |
| Marco: Yep a listener of ours listens to each lesson several times, | |
| Consuelo: 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. | |
| Consuelo: This is a great idea. Please give it a try and let us know what you think? | |
| Marco: okay... | |
| Marco: Ciao! | |
| Consuelo: Arrivederci! |
15 Comments
HideHi Maryna Knaidel,
You are correct!
"Another time" is the literal translation, however, "soon" is also correct.
Keep up the good work!
Ofelia
Team ItalianPod101.com
Hi,
you translate "andremo al cinema insieme un'altra volta!" as "we'll go to movies together soon!" but doesn't "un'altra volta" mean "another time"? i am confused, please, advise.
Ciao Antonette,
On behalf of Ofelia, you're welcome!
Please let us know if you have any questions. :)
Cristiane
Team ItalianPod101.com
Grazie.
Hi Antonette,
When referring to the Internet, we often use the preposition "su."
So you can say: "su internet" ("on the Internet"), "su ItalianPod101.com" ("on/to ItalianPod101.com"), "sul blog di oggi" ("on today's blog"), and so on.
You can use this also with printed materials, for example "sul giornale" ("on the newspaper").
I hope this helps! ?
Ofelia
Team ItalianPod101.com
Can you help me to understand the use of"su" in your introduction, "benvenuti sul italianpod101.com"?
It doesn't seem to fall into any of these categories.
Hi Edmar,
grazie! Hope you enjoy studying Italian more and more.
Buono studio,
Chiara
Team ItalianPod101.com
Ho trovato il migliore sito web sulla lingua l'italiana.
Hello hamed,
You're most welcome!
If you have any questions, please do let us know.
Cheers,
Neha
Team ItalianPod101.com
thank you