Learn how to use the imperative mode
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Marco: Marco here! Beginner series, Season 1, Lesson 13 - Italian Commands: Do What I Say...Please! |
| Cinzia: Buongiorno tutti! |
| Marco: My name is Marco. |
| Cinzia: And I am Cinzia. |
| Marco: And we’d like to welcome you to the 13th lesson of the beginner series in ItalianPod101.com. |
| Cinzia: Thank you for joining us at ItalianPod101.com. We’re going to teach Italian in an interesting and fun way. |
| Marco: So stay tuned! In this lesson, we will learn about informal imperative verbal mode. |
| Cinzia: This conversation takes place in an Italian house. |
| Marco: And it is between Peter and Anna. |
| Cinzia: They are friends, therefore they will be speaking informal Italian. |
| Marco: Take your studies to the next level by stopping by the learning center at ItalianPod101.com. I will be Peter, while Cinzia will be our lovely… |
| Cinzia: Anna. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Anna: Raccontami di tuo fratello. |
| Peter: Non ci credo! |
| Anna: Dai raccontami! Ti prego! |
| Peter: Va bene. Mio fratello fa il web designer. Lavora per una ditta giapponese, e suona la chitarra. |
| Anna: La chitarra? Anch’io! |
| Marco: Let's hear it slowly now. |
| Cinzia: Ascoltiamolo lentamente. |
| Anna: Raccontami di tuo fratello. |
| Peter: Non ci credo! |
| Anna: Dai raccontami! Ti prego! |
| Peter: Va bene. Mio fratello fa il web designer. Lavora per una ditta giapponese, e suona la chitarra. |
| Anna: La chitarra? Anch’io! |
| Marco: And now, with the translation. |
| Cinzia: E ora, con la traduzione. |
| Anna: Raccontami di tuo fratello. |
| Anna: Tell me about your brother. |
| Peter: Non ci credo! |
| Peter: I don't believe this. |
| Anna: Dai raccontami! Ti prego! |
| Anna: Come on tell me! I beg you! (Pretty please!) |
| Peter: Va bene. Mio fratello fa il web designer. Lavora per una ditta giapponese, e suona la chitarra. |
| Peter: Okay, my brother is a web designer. He works for a Japanese company and he plays the guitar. |
| Anna: La chitarra? Anch’io! |
| Anna: The guitar? Me, too! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Marco: Now Cinzia, do you play any musical instrument? |
| Cinzia: No, I’m sorry, Marco, I don’t play any musical instrument. You? |
| Marco: Me neither, none. |
| Cinzia: I would have liked to learn how to play the guitar. |
| Marco: Really? |
| Cinzia: Yes, but I didn’t have the chance. |
| Marco: I think that studying music in Italy is very expensive. At least the friends I know that used to study Music, well, they had enough money to spare. |
| Cinzia: Yeah, it’s actually true, Marco. I have also some friends who study at the Conservatorio in Italy. |
| Marco: Conservatorio, in the Music College, you mean? |
| Cinzia: Yes, of course. |
| Marco: But I’m sure many of our listeners would like to know the term conservatorio, because it is tied with our classical music. But I’m also sure that many of our listeners actually play some musical instruments. They should tell us, shouldn’t they? |
| Cinzia: Yes, of course. Come on, listeners! Tell us what you play. |
| Marco: Especially if it’s something Italian. |
| Cinzia: And even if you sing some opera songs. |
| Marco: Yes! Like… no, I can’t do that, sorry. |
| Cinzia: No come on Marco, don’t exaggerate, please. |
| Marco: Yeah, I know, I have such a bad voice. Okay, on with the show! Let us now take a look at today’s vocabulary. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Marco: First… |
| Cinzia: raccontare [natural native speed] |
| Marco: to tell |
| Cinzia: raccontare [slowly - broken down by syllable] raccontare [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next |
| Cinzia: credere [natural native speed] |
| Marco: to believe |
| Cinzia: credere [slowly - broken down by syllable] credere [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next |
| Cinzia: lavorare [natural native speed] |
| Marco: to work |
| Cinzia: lavorare [slowly - broken down by syllable] lavorare [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next |
| Cinzia: suonare [natural native speed] |
| Marco: to play (a musical instrument) |
| Cinzia: suonare [slowly - broken down by syllable] suonare [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next |
| Cinzia: ditta [natural native speed] |
| Marco: company |
| Cinzia: ditta [slowly - broken down by syllable] ditta [natural native speed] |
| Marco: And the last word… |
| Cinzia: chitarra [natural native speed] |
| Marco: guitar |
| Cinzia: chitarra [slowly - broken down by syllable] chitarra [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Cinzia: Now, let’s a have a look at the usage for some of the words and expressions. The first word we will look at is raccontare. |
| Marco: Cinzia, can you give us some example sentence, please? |
| Cinzia: Raccontami una storia. |
| Marco: “Tell me a story.” |
| Cinzia: Okay. The next word is credere. |
| Marco: Let’s have an example. |
| Cinzia: Non ci credo! |
| Marco: "I don't believe it!" And yes, this is the example, don’t be scared. It’s not that something happened here. |
| Cinzia: Non ci credo, Marco! You’re always the same. |
| Marco: “I don’t believe it, Marco!” You’re always - uh, that’s already in English. Okay. Next word is… |
| Cinzia: lavorare |
| Marco: One example, please. |
| Cinzia: |
| Lavoro in una fabbrica. |
| Marco: "I work in a factory." |
| Cinzia: Which is not true, actually. |
| Marco: Yes. |
| Cinzia: Yeah, go on with the next word. |
| Marco: Okay. |
| Cinzia: Which is suonare. |
| Marco: And the example is… |
| Cinzia: Non suono la chitarra. |
| Marco: “I don’t play the guitar.” |
| Cinzia: The next word we will see is ditta. |
| Marco: And the example is… |
| Cinzia: Lavoro in una ditta di computer. |
| Marco: “I work in a computer company.” Now, be careful listeners. We said ditta, to “Ts.” But if we say dita, similar but with only one “T,” it means… |
| Cinzia: “fingers” |
| Marco: So, ditta (double T) means “company,” while dita means… |
| Cinzia: “Fingers.” The last word is chitarra. |
| Marco: One last example. |
| Cinzia: Suoni la chitarra? |
| Marco: Do you play the guitar? |
| Cinzia: Okay then, this wraps it up for the vocabulary usage. |
| Marco: Onto the grammar point. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Cinzia: Today, we will learn about informal imperative verbal mode (imperativo, in Italian). |
| Marco: Imperativo is used when commanding someone we know to do something. For example, Cinzia, in the dialogue said… |
| Cinzia: parlarmi |
| Marco: That means “speak to me.” |
| Cinzia: Or Sta' zitto! |
| Marco: That is “be quiet.” |
| Cinzia: This order can be more or less stronger according to the intonation or other polite words we use with it, like per favore “please,” but must anyway be used when talking to someone we know well, like family members, friends, etc. |
| Marco: Yes. And furthermore, the imperative is normally used at the second person singular (“you” -tu), at the first person plural (“we” - noi), and at the second person plural (“you” - voi) persons. So, let’s have a look at how the verb endings change according to the conjugation. |
| Cinzia: First conjugation -are, raccontare “to tell.” |
| Marco: Second person singular. |
| Cinzia: racconta |
| Marco: First person plural |
| Cinzia: raccontiamo |
| Marco: Second person plural |
| Cinzia: raccontate |
| Marco: Perfect! Very, very easy. Let’s hear them once again, altogether please! |
| Cinzia: racconta, raccontiamo, raccontate |
| Marco: Now, let’s take a look at the second conjugation, -ere, prendere “to take.” |
| Cinzia: Second person singular |
| Marco: prendi |
| Cinzia: First person plural |
| Marco: prendiamo |
| Cinzia: Second person plural |
| Marco: Prendete. And altogether - prendi, prendiamo, prendete. |
| Cinzia: And finally, we have the third conjugation - ire, sentire “to listen, hear, feel.” |
| Marco: Second person singular |
| Cinzia: senti |
| Marco: First person plural |
| Cinzia: sentiamo |
| Marco: Second person plural |
| Cinzia: Sentite. And altogether - senti, sentiamo, sentite. |
| Marco: Note than when the verb and phrase requires a personal pronoun, ths pronoun must be attached to the end of the verb, thus becoming a single word. |
| Cinzia: So, Marco, it’s very easy, isn’t it? |
| Marco: Yes. |
Outro |
| Cinzia: So, that’s it for today’s lesson. |
| Marco: Yes. |
| Cinzia: Drop by! Venite a trovaci! |
| Marco: Ciao! |
| Cinzia: Ciao ciao! |
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