Learn all about how to form Italian plural definite articles
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Cinzia: Buon giorno! Mi chiamo Cinzia. |
| Marco: Marco here. |
| Marco: Newbie Series, season 1, lesson 10 - We Have To Share What? Buon giorno a tutti! Hi! My name is Marco. And I’m joined here by Cinzia. Come Va? |
| Cinzia: Alla grande, Marco, grazie. Hello and welcome to the Newbie Series of ItalianPod101.com, which focuses on the basics for anyone to start to learn the Italian language. Marco: So please join us with this lesson at ItalianPod101.com. The focus of this lesson is on Italian plural 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, shhh! Guarda gli scoiattoli! |
| John: È vero! Guarda i piccoli scoiattoli. |
| Laura: Sono così carini! |
| Marco: one more time, slowly. |
| Laura: John, shhh! Guarda gli scoiattoli! |
| John: È vero! Guarda i piccoli scoiattoli. |
| Laura: Sono così carini! |
| Marco: Once again, this time, with the translation. |
| Laura: John, shhh! Guarda gli scoiattoli! |
| Marco: John, shhh! Look, the squirrels! |
| John: È vero! Guarda i piccoli scoiattoli. |
| Marco: It’s true! Look baby squirrels. |
| Laura: Sono così carini! |
| Marco: They are so cute! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Cinzia: Ok Marco, can I tell you something? I just hate this conversation! |
| Marco: Why do you hate it so much? |
| Cinzia: Because... I don't know... I... First of all... Non mi piacciono gli scoiattoli, I don't like squirrels! |
| Marco: Why not? They're like mice on a tree... Come on... Everybody love squirrels. They're so cute with their tail! |
| Cinzia: Oh my god! No! No, no, no, no! I hate them! I got bitten once! |
| Marco: I'm sure it was your fault! |
| Cinzia: Yes! As always, you always think it's my fault! For everything, I'm exhausted! |
| Marco: So what happened? |
| Cinzia: I was in park and I was trying to feed them, and suddenly one, one of your cute squirrels bit me! |
| Marco: They're not my squirrels, my squirrels would behave very well, but Cinzia, what were you trying to feed them? |
| Cinzia: Bread... |
| Marco: Ah ah! Come on! Bread to squirrels? |
| Cinzia: Why not? |
| Marco: They were biting you like "Get me something better to eat!" |
| Cinzia: Fine, what do you want me to feed them? I mean... A burger? |
| Marco: Everybody knows it Cinzia, squirrels like noci, nuts. |
| Cinzia: Oh, I see... Maybe it's true, but why can't squirrels eat bread? |
| Marco: Why can't they? Good question! I'm sure this is a very hot topic for the philosophers everywhere in the world, they are debating non-stop. But let's go on with the vocabulary! |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Marco: First |
| Cinzia: gli [natural native speed] |
| Marco: the (masculine plural) |
| Cinzia: gli [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: gli [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word |
| Cinzia: scoiattoli [natural native speed] |
| Marco: squirrels |
| Cinzia: scoiattoli [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: scoiattoli [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word |
| Cinzia: vero [natural native speed] |
| Marco: true |
| Cinzia: vero [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: vero [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word |
| Cinzia: guardare [natural native speed] |
| Marco: to look, to watch |
| Cinzia: guardare [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: guardare [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word |
| Cinzia: i [natural native speed] |
| Marco: the (masculine plural) |
| Cinzia: i [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: i [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word |
| Cinzia: piccoli [natural native speed] |
| Marco: babies |
| Cinzia: piccoli [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: piccoli [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word |
| Cinzia: così [natural native speed] |
| Marco: so, that, like this |
| Cinzia: così [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: così [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Last word |
| Cinzia: carini [natural native speed] |
| Marco: cute |
| Cinzia: carini [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: carini [natural native speed] |
| 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 scoiattoli. |
| Marco: Yes, killer scoiattoli! Killer squirrels. They'll be haunting you with their red eyes! So, Cinzia can you give us an example sentence please? |
| Cinzia: This is so hard to say for me... But, can you please stop yawning while we're recording? |
| Marco: I'm showing you my wisdom teeth. |
| Cinzia: I'm not interested in it, but anyway... |
| Cinzia: Gli scoiattoli sono carini. |
| Marco: “The squirrels are cute.” |
| Cinzia: OK. The next vocabulary word is vero. |
| Marco: Let’s have an example |
| Cinzia: Vero o falso? |
| Marco: True or false? Cinzia likes squirrels. vero o falso? |
| Cinzia: Falso, false. |
| Marco: Ahhh ok! |
| Cinzia: The last word for today is guardare. Guardo un film. |
| Marco: “I watch a movie.” |
| Cinzia: Which is much better than watch a squirrel. |
| Marco: Yes... Maybe... |
| Cinzia: Ok then, this wraps it up for the vocabulary usage. |
| Marco: On with the grammar point. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Marco: As we have seen in our previous lesson, definite articles correspond to the English counterpart “the”. |
| Cinzia: Yes, today we shall take a look at the plural form. |
| Marco: Ok then, let us take a closer look at the Definite Italian articles plural form. So, if you remember, there are three groups: first of all, nouns that start with consonant; second, nouns that start with vowel; and thirdly, nouns that start with Z, Y, or S plus consonant. So Cinzia, one example of a plural masculine noun that starts with a consonant. |
| Cinzia: Ragazzi. |
| Marco: “Boys”. So Cinzia, how do you say “the boys”? |
| Cinzia: I Ragazzi. |
| Marco: Perfect! Now let’s have a plural masculine noun starting with a vowel. |
| Cinzia: Unicorni. |
| Marco: “Unicorns”. And how do we say “the unicorns”? |
| Cinzia: Gli unicorni. |
| Marco: And the spelling of gli, is G L I, gli. Now Cinzia, one example of a plural masculine noun starting with a Z. |
| Cinzia: Zerbini. |
| Marco: “Doormats”, and how do we say “the doormats”? |
| Cinzia: Gli zerbini. |
| Marco: Perfect. Okay the Cinzia, one last example for the last group of nouns that start with Z, Y, or S plus consonant. |
| Cinzia: And then we have scoiattoli. |
| Marco: Yes, “squirrels”. For the last time, don’t worry, don’t worry, Cinzia. How do we say “the squirrels”? |
| Cinzia: Gli scoiattoli. |
| Marco: Now I’m sure our listeners will all remember squirrels, scoiattoli, till they live. Moving on, let's take a look at the definite articles plural form feminine cases. |
| Cinzia: the feminine case is very very easy because it doesn't change, never! It's the same for all three group. |
| Marco: Yes! We always have… |
| Cinzia: Le. |
| Marco: For example, feminine pronoun start with a consonant... |
| Cinzia: Camicie |
| Marco: “Shirts”, how do we say “the shirts”? |
| Cinzia: Le camicie. |
| Marco: Then feminine plural nouns starting with a vowel. |
| Cinzia: Unghie. |
| Marco: “Fingernails”, how do you say “the fingernails”? |
| Cinzia: Le unghie. |
| Marco: And then finally, one example from the last group. |
| Cinzia: Zanzare |
| Marco: “mosquitoes”, how do we say “the mosquitoes”? |
| Cinzia: Le zanzare. |
| Marco: And I'm sure when you go on a picnic there are full of mosquitoes, right? |
| Cinzia: Yes, especially in summer. |
| Marco: Yeah, true. Mosquitoes. |
| Cinzia: But we don’t have to worry about that for the moment it's not summer yet. |
| Marco: You’re right, you’re right. |
| Cinzia: And we’re not gonna go for a picnic. |
| Marco: Together. |
| Cinzia: Yes. |
| Marco: For sure, because I would bring all my squirrels with me. |
| Cinzia: Oh my god! Someone help me! |
Outro |
| Marco: Ok then, this will conclude 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: Ciao, ci vediamo presto! |
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