Learn how to avoid embarrassing Italian language situations
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Cinzia: Buon giorno! Mi chiamo Cinzia. |
| Marco: Marco here. Newbie Series, season 1, lesson 8 - A Gender Mistake You Can’t Afford to Make! |
| 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 we’re going to discuss different aspects of the language, culture, and customs that you find in Italy. |
| Marco: Excellent. The focus of this lesson is on Italian indefinite articles. |
| Cinzia: This conversation takes place in the countryside during a picnic. |
| Marco: And it is is between Laura Rossi and John Smith. |
| Cinzia: They are friends, therefore they will be speaking informal Italian. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Laura: John vuoi una mela? |
| John: Si grazie. Tu vuoi un panino? |
| Laura: No grazie, sono piena. |
| John: Vuoi un bicchiere di vino? |
| Laura: Si grazie. |
| Marco: one more time, slowly. |
| Laura: John vuoi una mela? |
| John: Si grazie. Tu vuoi un panino? |
| Laura: No grazie, sono piena. |
| John: Vuoi un bicchiere di vino? |
| Laura: Si grazie. |
| Marco: Once again, this time, with the translation. |
| Laura: John vuoi una mela? |
| Marco: John, would you like an apple? |
| John: Si grazie. Tu vuoi un panino? |
| Marco: Yes, thank you. Do you want a sandwich? |
| Laura: No grazie, sono piena. |
| Marco: No thanks, I’m full. |
| John: Vuoi un bicchiere di vino? |
| Marco: Do you want a glass of wine? |
| Laura: Si grazie. |
| Marco: Yes, thank you. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Marco: So Cinzia, picnics, when was the last time you went to a picnic? |
| Cinzia: It was such a long time ago! |
| Marco: Really? So you are that old! Aren't you? |
| Cinzia: What??? Are you joking Marco? |
| Marco: Yes, yes, I'm joking! |
| Cinzia: Ah! Ok... What about you Marco? When was your last picnic? |
| Marco: Last picnic, last picnic... I think at Easter, few years ago... |
| Cinzia: Oh! You are meaning the picnic of pasquetta? |
| Marco: Yes, pasquetta, where the majority of Italians prepare their picnic baskets and go out for a picnic in the countryside. |
| Cinzia: Oh my god! Yeah, it's such a fun thing! |
| Marco: It is a fun thing, but I don't know if I am not lucky, but every time I go, it rains! Or sometimes it also... |
| Cinzia: Ahah! Yeah, I know, it happened to me as well! |
| Marco: It is supposed to be the middle of spring, but that day it always rains! |
| Cinzia: Yes, it's unbelievable. At Easter always rains! |
| Marco: Oh! And before we forget... Cinzia, what is pasquetta? |
| Cinzia: Oh pasquetta is a wonderful thing, a wonderful habit we have, usually we party pasquetta on the monday after Easter, so we have a lot of food, after the big Easter lunch. |
| Marco: So yes, many family use the leftovers of the feast of the day before, or some other families make something new, something fresh like cold rice salad... |
| Cinzia: Or lasagna... |
| Marco: Ok, I'll stick with my apple then and let's go on. |
| Cinzia: Ok! |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Marco: Let us take a look at today’s vocabulary. |
| Marco: First |
| Cinzia: una [natural native speed] |
| Marco: a, an |
| Cinzia: una [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: una [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word |
| Cinzia: mela [natural native speed] |
| Marco: apple |
| Cinzia: mela [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: mela [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word |
| Cinzia: un [natural native speed] |
| Marco: a, an |
| Cinzia: un [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: un [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word |
| Cinzia: panino [natural native speed] |
| Marco: sandwich |
| Cinzia: panino [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: panino [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word |
| Cinzia: piena [natural native speed] |
| Marco: full |
| Cinzia: piena [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: piena [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word |
| Cinzia: bicchiere [natural native speed] |
| Marco: glass |
| Cinzia: bicchiere [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: bicchiere [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word |
| Cinzia: vino [natural native speed] |
| Marco: wine |
| Cinzia: vino [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: vino [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Now our listeners might have noticed that una and un, both are translate into English as “a; an”. |
| Cinzia: Yes, Marco. You’re right, but listeners, be careful, una is for mela, which is feminine. Instead, un is for panino, which is masculine. |
| Marco: We should see it in more details in the grammar section. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Cinzia: Let’s have a look at the usage for some of the words. The first word we will look at is una. |
| Marco: [Cinzia, can you give us an example sentence please? |
| Cinzia: Voglio una pesca. |
| Marco: I want a peach. Uhm... good Italian peach! |
| Cinzia: Oh my god! Don't make me think about the peaches in Italy! They are so sweet! |
| Marco: So juicy! |
| Cinzia: Yes. |
| Marco: Which is your favourite? |
| Cinzia: My favourite type of peaches is called pesche noci, which is a kind of peache very very hard and it's yellow inside, and it's very very sweet. |
| Marco: Ok, pesca noce... What can that be in English? Yes, we have the answer in the comments, so go read them! |
| Cinzia: The next vocabulary word is mela. |
| Marco: Let’s have an example |
| Cinzia: La mela verde. |
| Marco: The greenapple. |
| Cinzia: Next word is un. |
| Marco: One example please. |
| Cinzia: Francesco Totti è un calciatore. |
| Marco: Francesco Totti is a soccer player. And that is really apparent isn't it. Who doesn't know Francesco Totti? |
| Cinzia: So yeah, Francesco Totti, the striker for ROMA |
| Marco: Yes, we all know him, he's a very funny guy. |
| Cinzia: Yes, he is, especially when he speaks Roman dialect. |
| Marco: Ahaha! Sometimes you wonder |
| Cinzia: Ahaha! Yeah true! |
| Cinzia: The next word we will see is panino. |
| Marco: And the example is? |
| Cinzia: Mangio un panino. |
| Marco: “I eat a sandwich/panino.” We are hungry, aren't we? |
| Cinzia: I really would like a panino now! |
| Marco: Come on come on, the sooner we finish, the sooner we eat a nice panino! |
| Cinzia: Yes, the next word we will see is piena. |
| Marco: One example please. |
| Cinzia: La bottiglia è piena. |
| Marco: The bottle is full. |
| Cinzia: The last word for today is [bicchiere. |
| And the example is [Vorrei un bicchiere di Coca-Cola. |
| Marco: I’d like a glass of Coke. |
| Cinzia: This wraps it up for the vocabulary usage. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Marco: As in English, also in Italian there are articles. |
| Cinzia: And just as the nouns we have seen in the last lesson they can be singular, plural, masculine or feminine. |
| Marco: This is because they are bound to nouns and must therefore agree with their gender and number. |
| Cinzia: This is both bad news, as there are more things to remember... |
| Marco: ... and good news, for as we shall see the articles help us understand what gender and also number the following nouns are. |
| Cinzia: There are two main kinds of articles; the indefinite articles, which have the same meaning as in English “an”. |
| Marco: and the definite articles, that correspond to “the”. We shall see these latter ones in following lessons. Now we have a detailed explanation in the pdf. But let’s make it more simple for our listeners. |
| Marco: The rules should be actually the following. You should use un before masculine nouns starting with a consonant. Let’s have an example. |
| Cinzia: un libro “a book”; and a vowel… |
| Marco: Let’s have an example. |
| Cinzia: un abito “a dress” |
| Marco: And we use uno before masculine nouns starting with |
| Cinzia: y, z, s, gn, ps, pn + consonant. |
| Marco: Let’s have an example. |
| Cinzia: uno yogurt “a yogurt”, uno zio "an uncle", uno stagno "a pond", uno gnomo "a gnome", uno psichiatra "a psychiatrist", uno pneumatico "a tire". |
| Cinzia: And i + other vowel: |
| Marco: Let’s have an example. |
| Cinzia: uno iettatore “a jinx”... What's this Marco? Uno iettatore, come on! |
| Marco: Well, nothing else came to mind! What else can we have with i + other vowel masculine? Well, in short it's a very rare case, so don't worry about it too much! |
| Cinzia: Ok! |
| Marco: Now concerning the feminine case, use una before all feminine nouns starting with consonant. |
| Cinzia: una mela “an apple”, una sedia “a chair”. |
| Marco: And finally use un’ before all feminine nouns starting with vowel |
| Cinzia: un’amica “a female friend” |
| Marco: My advice for our listeners is please listened to this part a couple of time or better yet get the pdf, because it is complex, but I think after a couple of times of seeing it, you can actually master it. What do you think Cinzia? |
| Cinzia: I think our listeners are very very brave, and very very smart, so they can do it, I trust them. |
| Marco: I'm sure they can! And lastly please remember that, since indefinite articles refer to unspecified nouns category. |
| Cinzia: they can never be used with proper nouns, such as Laura and John for instance. |
| Marco: Please keep this in mind! |
Outro |
| Marco: This is the end of today's lesson. |
| Cinzia: Be sure to check out the vocabulary lists with audio in the Learning Center at ItalianPod101.com. Also, ask us a question in the forum, or leave us a comment. |
| Marco: See you soon! |
| Cinzia: Ci vediamo presto! Ciao! |
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