Learn the proper usage of Italian possessive adjectives and the Italian definite articles that go with them
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Cinzia: Buongiorno! Mi chiamo Cinzia. |
| Marco: Marco here! Beginner series Season 1, Lesson 10 - Talking About Possessions in Italian - It’s MY Coat! |
| Marco: Buongiorno tutti! My name is Marco. |
| Cinzia: And I’m Cinzia. |
| Marco: And we’d like to welcome you to the tenth lesson of the Beginner series in ItalianPod101.com. |
| Cinzia: Thank you for joining us at ItalianPod101.com. We are going to teach Italian in a fun and interesting way. Isn’t that great, Marco? |
| Marco: Sure it is, we’re always great, aren’t we? |
| Cinzia: Yes, always. |
| Marco: Especially you, Cinzia. |
| Cinzia: Of course! |
| Marco: Ok, so let’s move on then. In this lesson, we will teach you the proper usage of Italian possessive adjectives and the Italian definite articles that go with them. |
| Cinzia: This conversation takes place at Luca and Peter's apartment. |
| Marco: And it is between Anna and Peter. |
| Cinzia: They are friends, therefore, they will be speaking informal Italian. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Anna: Ehi Peter, c’è Luca? |
| Peter: No. Perché? |
| Anna: Ha il mio libro di storia. Ehi, è una foto di famiglia quella? |
| Peter: Sí, lo è. |
| Anna: Chi è questo? |
| Marco: One more time, slowly. |
| Anna: Ehi Peter, c’è Luca? |
| Peter: No. Perché? |
| Anna: Ha il mio libro di storia. Ehi, è una foto di famiglia quella? |
| Peter: Sí, lo è. |
| Anna: Chi è questo? |
| Marco: Once again, this time, with a translation. |
| Anna: Ehi Peter, c’è Luca? |
| Anna: Hey, Peter. Is Luca here? |
| Peter: No. Perché? |
| Peter: No, why? |
| Anna: Ha il mio libro di storia. |
| Anna: He has my history book. |
| Anna: Ehi, è una foto di famiglia quella? |
| Anna: Hey, is that a family picture? |
| Peter: Sí, lo è. |
| Peter: Yes, it is. |
| Anna: Chi è questo? |
| Anna: Who is this? |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Cinzia: So, Marco, did you see? Anna went to Peter’s place, but she was looking for Luca. |
| Marco: It’s just an excuse. I mean why should she look for Luca’s history book? |
| Cinzia: Oh, maybe she really means it. Maybe she’s preparing a history exam at a university. |
| Marco: Mm, might be possible. What about foto di famiglia? Do you have many family pictures in your house? |
| Cinzia: Oh, yes, I have so many foto di famiglia at home. |
| Marco: Really? |
| Cinzia: Yes, in black and white as well. |
| Marco: Nice, nice. |
| Cinzia: And actually, photography is my favorite hobby? |
| Marco: Really? Then you’ll have to post some pictures on the website. |
| Cinzia: Yes, we’ll see. |
| Marco: Come on. We could have maybe a voting poll where people choose the best picture that Cinzia took. |
| Cinzia: Okay, but I need a subject. |
| Marco: It’s not gonna be me. I’m not posing nude for anyone. |
| Cinzia: You better not, Marco. |
| Marco: Okay, so let’s move on with today’s vocabulary. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Marco: First |
| Cinzia: perché [natural native speed] |
| Marco: why |
| Cinzia: perché [slowly - broken down by syllable] perché [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next |
| Cinzia: libro [natural native speed] |
| Marco: book |
| Cinzia: libro [slowly - broken down by syllable] libro [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next |
| Cinzia: famiglia [natural native speed] |
| Marco: family |
| Cinzia: famiglia [slowly - broken down by syllable] famiglia [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next |
| Cinzia: storia [natural native speed] |
| Marco: history |
| Cinzia: storia [slowly - broken down by syllable] storia [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next |
| Cinzia: foto [natural native speed] |
| Marco: history |
| Cinzia: foto [slowly - broken down by syllable] foto [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next |
| Cinzia: mio [natural native speed] |
| Marco: my (singular masculine) |
| Cinzia: mio [slowly - broken down by syllable] mio [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 perché. |
| Marco: Can you give us an example sentence, please? |
| Cinzia: Perché sei felice? |
| Marco: “Why are you happy?” |
| Cinzia: Are you happy, Marco? |
| Marco: I got something in my eye. Let’s go. Let’s go on. |
| Cinzia: And this was the rightest answer. Next word is storia. |
| Marco: Let’s have an example, please. |
| Cinzia: La storia è interessante. |
| Marco: “History is interesting.” |
| Cinzia: The next word is foto. |
| Marco: And let’s have one example, please, Cinzia. |
| Cinzia: È una bella foto. |
| Marco: It’s a beautiful picture. |
| Ciniza: The next word is mio. |
| Marco: Let’s have one example. Actually, this brings us to the grammar point, so let’s take it from there. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Marco: Like all other adjectives in Italian, also possessive adjectives change according to the gender (masculine/feminine) and the number (singular/plural) of the noun they precede. |
| Cinzia: Today, we shall see only the singular forms of both masculine and feminine possessive adjectives in relation to the personal pronoun they refer to. |
| Marco: Yes. The only exception is the possessive "their" (loro), that never changes, remember. “Their” (loro) never changes. So, first of all, let’s take a look at the masculine singular cases, “my.” |
| Cinzia: mio |
| Marco: “your” |
| Cinzia: tuo |
| Marco: “his/her” |
| Cinzia: suo |
| Marco: “our” |
| Cinzia: nostro |
| Marco: “your” |
| Cinzia: vostro |
| Marco: “their” |
| Cinzia: loro |
| Marco: And the feminine singular cases, “my.” |
| Cinzia: mia |
| Marco: “your” |
| Cinzia: tua |
| Marco: "his/her" |
| Cinzia: sua |
| Marco: “our” |
| Cinzia: nostra |
| Marco: “your” |
| Cinzia: vostra |
| Marco: “their” |
| Cinzia: loro |
| Marco: So, it doesn’t change so much, does it? |
| Cinzia: No, it doesn’t change and actually, it’s very easy. And please notice that loro is the same and never changed for both masculine singular case and feminine singular case. |
| Marco: Perfect. And notice that mio (masculine singular) becomes mia (feminine singular). Only the “a” changes and this is the same for mio, tuo, suo, nostro, and vostro, that become… |
| Cinzia: Mia, tua, sua, nostra, vostra. So, just one vowel changed. The “o” from the masculine case changing to “a” to the feminine case. |
| Marco: Yes. And now, let’s take a look at some of the usage. For, example “my book” becomes… |
| Cinzia: Il mio libro |
| Marco: Because “book” in Italian is masculine, so we use the masculine singular case mio. Instead, “your jacket” is… |
| Cinzia: La tua giacca |
| Marco: Because giacca is feminine singular. |
| Cinzia: Marco, would you give us another example, please? |
| Marco: Certainly. “His pen” |
| Cinzia: Which becomes… |
| Marco: La sua penna |
| Cinzia: Because penna is feminine singular. |
| Marco: Exactly. Not so difficult at all. But don’t worry, we shall see the possessive adjectives in later lessons too, because remember, we are only seeing the singular cases today. We have to see the… |
| Cinzia: Plural. |
| Marco: Exactly. |
Outro |
| Marco: This is the end of today’s lesson. |
| Cinzia: Be sure to check out the vocabulary list with audio in the Learning center at ItalianPod101.com. Also, ask us a question in the forum or leave us a comment. Grazie e ciao ciao! Ci vediamo presto! |
| Marco: A presto! Ciao! |
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