Learn the negative Italian pronouns that mean "nobody," "nothing," and "anything"
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Consuelo: Buongiorno a tutti. |
| Marco: Marco here. Upper intermediate, season 1, Lesson #19. Do You Like To Complain in Italian? |
| Consuelo: Hello everyone. I am Consuelo and welcome to italianpod101.com. |
| Marco: With us, you will 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. In today’s class, we will focus on the negative pronouns nessuno, niente and nulla. |
| Consuelo: This conversation takes place on a plane. |
| Marco: And it’s between Claudia and a passenger. |
| Consuelo: They will be speaking formal Italian. |
| Marco: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Passeggero: Mi scusi signorina. |
| Claudia: Sì, mi dica! |
| Passeggero: Avete del succo di mirtillo? |
| Claudia: No signore, mi dispiace, abbiamo solo succo d'arancia o di mela, oppure del tè freddo... |
| Passeggero: No, allora non mi porti niente, grazie. |
| Claudia: Ah, come preferisce. |
| Passeggero: Senta, avete delle riviste sul giardinaggio? |
| Claudia: Purtroppo no, tutte le riviste che abbiamo sono sul catalogo. |
| Passeggera: Sì, ho visto, niente di interessante. |
| Claudia: Ah, mi dispiace. |
| Passeggero: Almeno avete delle ciabatte? Mi fanno male i piedi! |
| Claudia: No signore. |
| Passeggero: Ma gli altri le hanno! |
| Claudia: Non so, probabilmente le hanno portate, ma non si preoccupi tra meno di venti minuti atterriamo. |
| Passeggero: Meno male! Niente di buono da bere, nulla di interessante da leggere e nessuno che ti vuole aiutare! La prossima volta cambio sicuramente compagnia! |
| Claudia: Faccia come crede! |
| Marco: Let’s here it slowly now. |
| Passeggero: Mi scusi signorina. |
| Claudia: Sì, mi dica! |
| Passeggero: Avete del succo di mirtillo? |
| Claudia: No signore, mi dispiace, abbiamo solo succo d'arancia o di mela, oppure del tè freddo... |
| Passeggero: No, allora non mi porti niente, grazie. |
| Claudia: Ah, come preferisce. |
| Passeggero: Senta, avete delle riviste sul giardinaggio? |
| Claudia: Purtroppo no, tutte le riviste che abbiamo sono sul catalogo. |
| Passeggera: Sì, ho visto, niente di interessante. |
| Claudia: Ah, mi dispiace. |
| Passeggero: Almeno avete delle ciabatte? Mi fanno male i piedi! |
| Claudia: No signore. |
| Passeggero: Ma gli altri le hanno! |
| Claudia: Non so, probabilmente le hanno portate, ma non si preoccupi tra meno di venti minuti atterriamo. |
| Passeggero: Meno male! Niente di buono da bere, nulla di interessante da leggere e nessuno che ti vuole aiutare! La prossima volta cambio sicuramente compagnia! |
| Claudia: Faccia come crede! |
| Marco: And now, with the translation. |
| Passeggero: Mi scusi signorina. |
| Passenger: Excuse me, Miss. |
| Claudia: Sì, mi dica! |
| Claudia: Yes, may I help you? |
| Passeggero: Avete del succo di mirtillo? |
| Passenger: Do you have some blueberry juice? |
| Claudia: No signore, mi dispiace, abbiamo solo succo d'arancia o di mela, oppure del tè freddo... |
| Claudia: No, sir, I'm sorry, we have only orange or apple juice or some iced tea... |
| Passeggero: No, allora non mi porti niente, grazie. |
| Passenger: No, then don't bring me anything, thanks. |
| Claudia: Ah, come preferisce. |
| Claudia: Ah, as you prefer. |
| Passeggero: Senta, avete delle riviste sul giardinaggio? |
| Passenger: Listen, do you have some magazines about gardening? |
| Claudia: Purtroppo no, tutte le riviste che abbiamo sono sul catalogo. |
| Claudia: Unfortunately, no. All the magazines we have are in the catalog. |
| Passeggera: Sì, ho visto, niente di interessante. |
| Passenger: Yes, I saw nothing interesting. |
| Claudia: Ah, mi dispiace. |
| Claudia: Ah, I'm sorry. |
| Passeggero: Almeno avete delle ciabatte? Mi fanno male i piedi! |
| Passenger: Do you have some slippers at least? My feet hurt! |
| Claudia: No signore. |
| Claudia: No, sir. |
| Passeggero: Ma gli altri le hanno! |
| Passenger: But the others have them! |
| Claudia: Non so, probabilmente le hanno portate, ma non si preoccupi tra meno di venti minuti atterriamo. |
| Claudia: I'm not sure; they probably brought them, but don't worry. We are landing in less than twenty minutes. |
| Passeggero: Meno male! Niente di buono da bere, nulla di interessante da leggere e nessuno che ti vuole aiutare! La prossima volta cambio sicuramente compagnia! |
| Passenger: Thank goodness! Nothing good to drink, nothing interesting to read, and nobody who wants to help you! Next time, I'm surely changing company! |
| Claudia: Faccia come crede! |
| Claudia: Do as you please. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Marco: Consuelo, the old man was a very trying passenger. Don’t you think? |
| Consuelo: I think so. |
| Marco: There are always people complaining like that during a flight. |
| Consuelo: Right but I don’t think about them because basically I sleep all the time. |
| Marco: It is probably the best thing to do but tell me something. Why does this annoying man talk to Claudia using voi? |
| Consuelo: Do you mean when he asks questions by saying avete? |
| Marco: Yes why use avete with voi. I thought he would have used Lei, in the courtesy form. |
| Consuelo: Ah no. When we are talking to the staff of a place or a company, we usually use voi, in the sense of you and the people working for you or with you in the company. |
| Marco: Ah I see. This is very good to know. Thank you. |
| Consuelo: A typical example is on a plane but also at a travel agency, at a restaurant and so on. |
| Marco: So is it wrong to use Lei in these cases? |
| Consuelo: Mmm...No Marco, it is not a mistake. It is just a correct and natural way of speaking to use voi. |
| Marco: I got it. Thank you for the information. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Marco: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. The first word we shall see is |
| Consuelo: Mirtillo. |
| Marco: Blueberry. |
| Consuelo: Mirtillo. Mirtillo. |
| Marco: And next we have |
| Consuelo: Giardinaggio. |
| Marco: Gardening. |
| Consuelo: Giardinaggio. Giardinaggio. |
| Marco: And next we have |
| Consuelo: Purtroppo. |
| Marco: Unfortunately. |
| Consuelo: Purtroppo. Purtroppo. |
| Marco: And next we have |
| Consuelo: Catalogo. |
| Marco: Catalogue. |
| Consuelo: Catalogo. Catalogo |
| Marco: And the next word is |
| Consuelo: Ciabatte. |
| Marco: Slippers. |
| Consuelo: Ciabatte. Ciabatte |
| Marco: And the next word is |
| Consuelo: Compagnia. |
| Marco: Company. |
| Consuelo: Compagnia. Compagnia. |
| Marco: The next word is |
| Consuelo: Fare. |
| Marco: To do, to make, to build. |
| Consuelo: Fare. Fare. |
| Marco: And today’s last word is |
| Consuelo: Credere. |
| Marco: To believe. |
| Consuelo: Credere. Credere. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Marco: Consuelo, what word are we studying today? |
| Consuelo: Today we are studying the word “almeno”. |
| Marco: At least. |
| Consuelo: Marco, this word is very good to know because it is usually used when complaining. |
| Marco: We all know how Italians like complaining. |
| Consuelo: Purtroppo hai ragione. Unfortunately you are right. |
| Marco: So let’s see some examples with almeno. |
| Consuelo: Okay. Marco, Ti stai annoiando? Almeno cerca di non sbadigliare. Marco, are you getting bored? At least try not to yawn. |
| Marco: Hey, hey non è vero. It’s not true. And you, almeno sii seria durante la lezione. At least, be serious during the lesson. |
| Consuelo: I am a serious person. |
| Marco: Sure? Listeners, I was not yawning. Consuelo, what’s that sii that we have just heard? |
| Consuelo: That’s the imperative form of the verb essere, meaning to be. |
| Marco: I think I need a review of the imperative. |
| Consuelo: Yes. Almeno questa volta, studia seriamente. At least this time, study seriously. |
| Marco: Consuelo, please stop it. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Consuelo: Let’s take a look at today’s grammar point. |
| Marco: In today’s lesson, we will focus on the negative pronouns. |
| Consuelo: Those are nessuno, niente and nulla in Italian. |
| Marco: Nobody, nothing and anything. |
| Consuelo: The negative pronouns are those that indicate the nonexistence of people or things. |
| Marco: In the sense they are negative. Consuelo, can you remind us how to form the negative statement of a sentence in Italian? Here you can also add some negative pronouns. |
| Consuelo: Okay. A phrase is usually made negative by inserting non in front of the verb. |
| Marco: For example: |
| Consuelo: Non mangio niente. |
| Marco: I don’t eat anything. |
| Consuelo: Non viene nessuno alla festa. |
| Marco: Nobody is coming to the party. |
| Consuelo: Non vuole sapere nulla. |
| Marco: He doesn’t want to know anything. |
| Consuelo: By the way, when these pronouns are placed before the verb non is omitted. |
| Marco: For instance: |
| Consuelo: Niente sarà facile d’ora in poi. |
| Marco: Nothing will be easy from now on. |
| Consuelo: Nessuno è perfetto. |
| Marco: Nobody is perfect. |
| Consuelo: Nulla gli fa paura. |
| Marco: Nothing scares him. Okay no non in the last sentences. What about the phrase we heard in the dialogue: niente di interessante da leggere. |
| Consuelo: Nothing interesting to read. That’s a very frequent construction. |
| Marco: Oh that’s true. |
| Consuelo: The pronouns niente and nulla are often followed by the preposition Di plus an adjective and Da before an infinitive. |
| Marco: Sounds complicated. |
| Consuelo: No, it is not. Listen: in questo museo non c’è niente di interessante da vedere. |
| Marco: In this museum, there is nothing interesting to see. |
| Consuelo: In questa lezione non c’è nulla di complicato da capire. |
| Marco: In this lesson, there is nothing complicated to understand. |
| Consuelo: Don’t you think? |
| Marco: Well said! Nothing is complicated here. |
Outro |
| Marco: That just about does it for today. Attention perfectionists, you are about to learn how to perfect your pronunciation. |
| Consuelo: Lesson review order tracks. |
| Marco: Increase fluency and vocabulary fast with these short, effective audio tracks. |
| Consuelo: Super simple to use. Listen to the Italian word or phrase. |
| Marco: Then repeat it out loud in a loud, clear voice. |
| Consuelo: You will speak with confidence, knowing that you are speaking Italian like the locals. |
| Marco: Go to italianpod101.com and download the review order tracks right on the lesson page today. |
| Consuelo: Ciao, a presto. |
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