Learn how to use irregular nouns
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Cinzia: Buongiorno a tutti! |
| Marco: Marco here! Beginner series Season 1, Lesson 35 - Find a Way to Escape Stress in Italy! |
| Cinzia: Hello, everyone! I’m Cinzia and welcome to ItalianPod101. |
| Marco: With us, you’ll learn to speak Italian with fun and effective lessons. |
| Cinzia: We also provide you with cultural insights… |
| Marco: And tips you won’t find in a textbook. |
| Cinzia: In this lesson, you will learn how to use irregular nouns. |
| Marco: This conversation takes place at Luca's place. |
| Cinzia: : And it’s between Luca and Elena. |
| Marco: The speakers are friends, therefore, they will be speaking informal Italian. Now, before we listen to the conversation… |
| Cinzia: We want to ask… |
| Marco: Do you read the lesson notes while you listen? |
| Cinzia: We received an email about this study tip. |
| Marco: So we were wondering if you’ve tried it and if so… |
| Cinzia: What do you think of it? |
| Marco: You can leave us feedback in the comment section of this lesson. Okay! Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Luca: Hai sentito Anna? |
| Elena: Non ancora, ma che fretta c'è? |
| Luca: Sono agitato, non vorrei fare tardi. |
| Elena: Un po' di pazienza, sarà impegnata. |
| Luca: Perchè non la chiami tu? |
| Elena: E va bene! |
| Marco: Let's hear it slowly now. |
| Cinzia: Ascoltiamolo lentamente. |
| Luca: Hai sentito Anna? |
| Elena: Non ancora, ma che fretta c'è? |
| Luca: Sono agitato, non vorrei fare tardi. |
| Elena: Un po' di pazienza, sarà impegnata. |
| Luca: Perchè non la chiami tu? |
| Elena: E va bene! |
| Marco: And now, with the translation. |
| Cinzia: E ora, con la traduzione. |
| Luca: Hai sentito Anna? |
| Luca: Did you hear from Anna? |
| Elena: Non ancora, ma che fretta c'è? |
| Elena: Not yet, but what's the rush? |
| Luca: Sono agitato, non vorrei fare tardi. |
| Luca: I'm stressed out, I don't want to be late. |
| Elena: Un po' di pazienza, sarà impegnata. |
| Elena: Be patient, she must be busy. |
| Luca: Perchè non la chiami tu? |
| Luca: Why don't you call her? |
| Elena: E va bene! |
| Elena: OK. Fine! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Marco: Cinzia, do you think you are a patient person? |
| Cinzia: Oh well, sometimes, it depends. I am not patient now. |
| Marco: And why is that? |
| Cinzia: Because I can’t wait to finish this lesson and go home! |
| Marco: Yes, I was guessing so. |
| Cinzia: Let’s move on then. |
| Marco: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Marco: The first word is… |
| Cinzia: non ancora [natural native speed] |
| Marco: not yet |
| Cinzia: non ancora [slowly - broken down by syllable] non ancora [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word is… |
| Cinzia: fretta [natural native speed] |
| Marco: rush, hurry |
| Cinzia: fretta [slowly - broken down by syllable] fretta [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word… |
| Cinzia: agitato [natural native speed] |
| Marco: stressed out |
| Cinzia: agitato [slowly - broken down by syllable] agitato [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word… |
| Cinzia: pazienza [natural native speed] |
| Marco: patience |
| Cinzia: pazienza [slowly - broken down by syllable] pazienza [natural native speed] |
| Marco: And next word… |
| Cinzia: impegnato [natural native speed] |
| Marco: busy |
| Cinzia: impegnato [slowly - broken down by syllable] impegnato [natural native speed] |
| Marco: And finally, we have… |
| Cinzia: va bene! [natural native speed] |
| Marco: fine! |
| Cinzia: va bene! [slowly - broken down by syllable] va bene! [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Marco: Let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Cinzia: The first phrase we will look at is non ancora. |
| Marco: And the sample sentence is… |
| Cinzia: Non ho ancora finito di studiare. |
| Marco: "I haven't finished studying yet." |
| Cinzia: Next, we have fretta. |
| Marco: I mean, you have fretta. |
| Cinzia: I have fretta, yes. |
| Marco: We say in Italian avere fretta, it means “I want to finish quickly,” I wanna go home quickly. |
| Cinzia: Yes, to be in a rush. |
| Marco: Yes, exactly! |
| Cinzia: Or in a hurry. |
| Marco: Exactly! So, the sample sentence is… |
| Cinzia: Che fretta c'è? |
| Marco: “What’s the rush?” |
| Cinzia: The next word is agitato. |
| Marco: And the sample sentence is… |
| Cinzia: Sono un pò agitato per l'esame. |
| Marco: "I am a little stressed out because of the exam." |
| Cinzia: The next word is pazienza. |
| Marco: And the sample sentence is… |
| Cinzia: Ci vuole pazienza con i bambini. |
| Marco: "We have to be patient with children." |
| Cinzia: And the last word is impegnato. |
| Marco: And the last sample sentence is… |
| Cinzia: Domani sarò impegnato tutto il pomeriggio. |
| Marco: "Tomorrow I will be busy all afternoon." |
| Cinzia: And now, let’s take a look at today’s grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Cinzia: In the previous lesson we saw that Italian irregular nouns can be divided into four categories. |
| Marco: The first one is, Cinzia? |
| Cinzia: sostantivi invariabili |
| Marco: "invariable nouns" (they don't change from singular to plural) |
| Cinzia: Then difettivi del singolare |
| Marco: "singular defective" (they are used only in their plural form) |
| Cinzia: difettivi del plurale |
| Marco: "Plural defective" (they are used only in their singular form). And then? |
| Cinzia: The so called sovrabbondanti |
| Marco: "Overabundant" (they have multiple plural forms). |
| Cinzia: So today, we will focus on the last two categories, difettivi del plurale. |
| Marco: "plural defective" |
| Cinzia: Such as… |
| Marco: collective nouns |
| Cinzia: la plebe |
| Marco: "common people" |
| Cinzia: la prole |
| Marco: "Offspring." Then we have also abstract nouns. |
| Cinzia: la pazienza |
| Marco: "patience" |
| Cinzia: la vanità |
| Marco: "vanity" |
| Cinzia: la fretta |
| Marco: "rush, hurry" |
| Cinzia: Then we have nouns of illnesses and diseases. |
| Marco: For example… |
| Cinzia: il tifo |
| Marco: "typhus fever" |
| Cinzia: il colera |
| Marco: "cholera" |
| Cinzia: And nouns of chemical substances or metals. |
| Marco: For example… |
| Cinzia: il ferro |
| Marco: "iron" |
| Cinzia: il rame |
| Marco: "copper" |
| Cinzia: l'ossigeno |
| Marco: "oxygen" |
| Cinzia: l'oro |
| Marco: "gold" |
| Cinzia: il bronzo |
| Marco: "Bronze." We also have nouns of some foods. |
| Cinzia: il caffé |
| Marco: "Coffee." In this case, meaning the product, not the actual drink. Remember, the drink was discussed in the previous lesson. Then we also have… |
| Cinzia: il riso |
| Marco: "rice" |
| Cinzia: il pepe |
| Marco: "pepper" |
| Cinzia: So please remember that these nouns are used only in their singular form, that’s why they are called difettivi del plurale. |
| Marco: It’s because their plural form has defected, has gone to the enemy. Think of it like that. No plural here. |
| Cinzia: And finally, we have the 4th category, which is sovrabbondanti. |
| Marco: "Overabundant." So remember, they have multiple plural forms. Also remember that nouns falling into this category have multiple variants for their singular and/or their plural forms. |
| Cinzia: And also, they change their meaning, but let’s see them in detail. Let’s start with sovrabbondanti in their plural form. |
| Marco: For example… |
| Cinzia: il braccio - i bracci |
| Marco: "arm-wing" (of a building) |
| Cinzia: And then we have il braccio - le braccia. |
| Marco: In this case meaning "arm." What else do we have, Cinzia? |
| Cinzia: il ciglio - i cigli |
| Marco: "Edge, verge" or… |
| Cinzia: il ciglio - le ciglia |
| Marco: "Eyelash." Then, Cinzia? |
| Cinzia: il gesto - i gesti |
| Marco: "gesture" |
| Cinzia: il gesto - le gesta |
| Marco: "deed" |
| Cinzia: Then we have il membro - i membri. |
| Marco: "member" (of a group) |
| Cinzia: And then we have il membro - le membra |
| Marco: "Member," in this case, anatomy member. |
| Cinzia: Also, we have il muro - i muri. |
| Marco: "Wall," in this case, of a room. |
| Cinzia: Or il muro - le mura |
| Marco: In this case, "wall" of a city. Then we also have… |
| Cinzia: il fondamento - i fondamenti |
| Marco: "foundation" |
| Cinzia: il fondamento - le fondamenta |
| Marco: "groundwork" |
| Cinzia: So, as you can see, they have the same singular, but they change their form in the plural and they change also their meaning. |
| Marco: So be careful when using them in their plural form. Really, you don’t have to remember them by heart. Their meanings usually are very close, so with some practice, you’ll get the hang of it. |
| Cinzia: And now, let’s take a look at the sovrabbondanti in both their singular and plural. |
| Marco: This is a headache. |
| Cinzia: I guess so, yeah. |
| Marco: And one example is… |
| Cinzia: il frutto - i frutti |
| Marco: "fruit" (single product) |
| Cinzia: Or la frutta - le frutta |
| Marco: "Fruits," in this case, a quantity of fruits. |
| Cinzia: And then we have sovrabbondanti in their singular. |
| Marco: They are very rare and are principally found in literary works. For example… |
| Cinzia: il forestiero - i forestieri or il forestiere - i forestieri |
| Marco: Meaning "foreigners." |
Outro |
| Marco: That just about does it for today. Thank you all! |
| Cinzia: Ciao a tutti, grazie! |
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