Learn how to ask "how often" in Italian as well as how to answer this question with "once, twice," and more
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Marco: Marco here! Beginner series, Season 1, Lesson 16 - Discussing Time Frames in Italian: How Often Do You Call? Buongiorno tutti! |
| Cinzia: Buongiorno! Come stai Marco oggi? |
| Marco: Bene, e tu? |
| Cinzia: Io bene, grazie. |
| Marco: Benissimo. So, welcome to today’s 16th lesson of the beginner series. |
| Cinzia: Thank you for joining us at ItalianPod101.com. We are going to teach Italian in a fun and interesting way. |
| Marco: In this lesson, which you’ll learn how to say “how often, once, twice,” and more. |
| Cinzia: This conversation takes place on the streets of Italy. |
| Marco: And it is between Anna and Peter. |
| Cinzia: They are friends, therefore they will be speaking informal Italian. |
| Marco: Perfect. Now, one last thing dear listeners, please be sure to check out the learning center for lesson-specific tools and general reference material. |
| Cinzia: Bravo, Marco. |
| Marco: Now, in the following dialogue, I will be Peter, while Cinzia will be Anna. Be careful because we have two forms for this dialogue. |
| Cinzia: Oh wow, two forms today! |
| Marco: Yes. So let’s start with Form A. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Form A |
| Anna: Ogni quanto chiami i tuoi genitori? |
| Peter: Intendi con skype? |
| Anna: Si. |
| Peter: Circa una volta alla settimana. E tu? |
| ------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Form B |
| Anna: Quante volte alla settimana chiami i tuoi genitori? |
| Peter: Intendi con skype? |
| Anna: Si. |
| Peter: Circa una volta. E tu? |
| Marco: Let's hear it slowly now. |
| Cinzia: Ascoltiamolo lentamente. |
| Form A |
| Anna: Ogni quanto chiami i tuoi genitori? |
| Peter: Intendi con skype? |
| Anna: Si. |
| Peter: Circa una volta alla settimana. E tu? |
| ------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Form B |
| Anna: Quante volte alla settimana chiami i tuoi genitori? |
| Peter: Intendi con skype? |
| Anna: Si. |
| Peter: Circa una volta. E tu? |
| Marco: And now, with the translation. |
| Cinzia: E ora, con la traduzione. |
| Form A |
| Anna: Ogni quanto chiami i tuoi genitori? |
| Anna: How often do you call your parents? |
| Peter: Intendi con skype? |
| Peter: Do you mean using Skype? |
| Anna: Si. |
| Anna: Yes. |
| Peter: Circa una volta alla settimana. E tu? |
| Peter: About once a week. What about you? |
| ------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Form B |
| Anna: Quante volte alla settimana chiami i tuoi genitori? |
| Anna: How many times a week do you call your parents? |
| Peter: Intendi con skype? |
| Peter: Do you mean using Skype? |
| Anna: Si. |
| Anna: Yes. |
| Peter: Circa una volta. E tu? |
| Peter: About once. What about you? |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Marco: We shall see more detail. The difference is between the two forms in the grammar section. But now, let’s talk about Skype and the internet habits of Italians. Cinzia, do you use Skype? |
| Cinzia: Yes, of course, I do use it. |
| Marco: What about Messenger? |
| Cinzia: Less often. |
| Marco: But Italians are actually very text savvy. They use Skype, Messenger, Yahoo. |
| Cinzia: Yes! |
| Marco: Jabber. |
| Cinzia: They keep chatting all the time. |
| Marco: Yes, we chat a lot. |
| Cinzia: Yes, it’s true. I think it’s a good thing because, you know, you have the chance to talk to your friends abroad. |
| Marco: True. |
| Cinzia: If you travel for a long time. |
| Marco: True. |
| Cinzia: You can speak to your parents back to your country. But I think it’s kind of a waste of time. |
| Marco: What do you mean? |
| Cinzia: I mean, why should I stay in front of a computer chatting on Skype or Messenger or Yahoo or anything else while I could go out and see my real friends? |
| Marco: That’s true. So in Italy, people actually use a lot of these programs, but if they can, they like to go out with friends, don’t they? |
| Cinzia: Yes, of course. They definitely prefer to go out. |
| Marco: Well, not all. Maybe somebody like me like to stay at home and never go out. |
| Cinzia: Yes, like a little Giacomo Leopardi. |
| Marco: Giacomo Leopardi? Oh, this is gonna be very complex to explain. |
| Cinzia: The modern Giacomo Leopardi. |
| Marco: Who was Giacomo Leopardi? |
| Cinzia: Giacomo Leopardi was a poet of the 19th Century. He is now very famous in Italy and he wrote L'infinito. |
| Marco: Yes, yes, yes. Many nice poems. |
| Cinzia: Yes. I talked about Giacomo Leopardi just because he used to stay at home all the time, writing and writing and writing. |
| Marco: Yes. That’s what Cinzia does every night. Okay! |
| Cinzia: No, no, no! That’s what Marco does every day, typing, typing, typing. |
| Marco: Yes. Let’s go on with the vocabulary then. |
| Cinzia: Okay. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Marco: First… |
| Cinzia: ogni [natural native speed] |
| Marco: every |
| Cinzia: ogni [slowly - broken down by syllable] ogni [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next |
| Cinzia: quanto [natural native speed] |
| Marco: how much, how long |
| Cinzia: quanto [slowly - broken down by syllable] quanto [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next |
| Cinzia: chiamare [natural native speed] |
| Marco: to call, to phone |
| Cinzia: chiamare [slowly - broken down by syllable] chiamare [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next |
| Cinzia: tuoi [natural native speed] |
| Marco: your |
| Cinzia: tuoi [slowly - broken down by syllable] tuoi [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next |
| Cinzia: genitori [natural native speed] |
| Marco: parents |
| Cinzia: genitori [slowly - broken down by syllable] genitori [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next |
| Cinzia: intendere [natural native speed] |
| Marco: to intend, mean |
| Cinzia: intendere [slowly - broken down by syllable] intendere [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next |
| Cinzia: con [natural native speed] |
| Marco: with |
| Cinzia: con [slowly - broken down by syllable] con [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next |
| Cinzia: circa [natural native speed] |
| Marco: about |
| Cinzia: circa [slowly - broken down by syllable] circa [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next |
| Cinzia: volta [natural native speed] |
| Marco: time |
| Cinzia: volta [slowly - broken down by syllable] volta [natural native speed] |
| Marco: And last... |
| Cinzia: settimana [natural native speed] |
| Marco: week |
| Cinzia: settimana [slowly - broken down by syllable] settimana [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Marco: Okay. Now, let’s take a look at the usage for some of the words and expressions. |
| Cinzia: The first word we will look at is quanto. |
| Marco: One example sentence, please. |
| Cinzia: Quanto costa? |
| Marco: “How much does it cost?” |
| Cinzia: And the next word is chiamare. |
| Marco: One example sentence, please. |
| Cinzia: Chiama la polizia! |
| Marco: “Call the police!” But really, this is actually very useful. If you need to ask for help or for something, you can actually say “chiama” and then say what you need. For example - Chiama la polizia! |
| Cinzia: Yes. |
| Marco: Or… |
| Cinzia: Chiama un'ambulanza. |
| Marco: That is “Call an ambulance.” One more time, please, Cianza. |
| Cinzia: Chiama un'ambulanza. |
| Marco: Perfect. Or what about “Call for help.” |
| Cinzia: Chiama aiuto. |
| Marco: So, “Call for help” in Italian is… |
| Cinzia: Chiama aiuto. |
| Marco: So, it actually is very simple - “call” (chiama) and then whatever your need. Don’t worry, if you’re on a tighspot and you can’t think of the correct article to use in there, don’t really worry. |
| Cinzia: Yes. |
| Marco: Just say, for example - Chiama polizia por chiama ambulanza, we understand. |
| Cinzia: Yes, definitely. |
| Marco: Okay then, let’s move on. |
| Cinzia: The next word we will look at is genitori. |
| Marco: One example sentence. |
| Cinzia: I tuoi genitori sono giovani. |
| Marco: “Your parents are young.” |
| Cinzia: And the next word is intendere. |
| Marco: And the example is… |
| Cinzia: Intendi domani? |
| Marco: “Do you mean tomorrow?” This can be used, for example, when asking confirmation for let’s say appointments or anything concerning time management. |
| Cinzia: Next word, circa. |
| Marco: One example sentence. |
| Cinzia: Studio circa 3 ore al giorno. |
| Marco: “I study about three hours a day.” And then, Cinzia? |
| Cinzia: The last word we will look at is settimana. |
| Marco: And the example sentence is… |
| Cinzia: La prossima settimana. |
| Marco: “Next week.” Perfect! Let’s go on with today’s grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Marco: We have to explain the differences in today’s dialogues because we saw two forms, right? |
| Cinzia: Yes. |
| Marco: Okay. So, first of all, the two forms, Form A and Form B are perfectly equivalent. That means they can be actually freely exchanged. |
| Cinzia: Mm, yes, right. But we should answer keeping the syntactical structure of the question. Let’s take a look at Form A, first of all. |
| Marco: Yes. |
| Cinzia: In which we have Anna saying - Ogni quanto chiami i tuoi genitori? So in this sentence, we have the pattern ogni quanto. |
| Marco: That means “how often.” So, there is no specified time frame, right? |
| Cinzia: Exactly, Marco! |
| Marco: So, what does Peter answer? |
| Cinzia: Peter answers - Circa una volta alla settimana. |
| Marco: That means “About once a week.” |
| Cinzia: And so, in this case, he is specifying the timeframe. |
| Marco: Yes. Because if you just answer circa una volta (about once), we don’t know which timeframe. |
| Cinzia: Yes, it doesn’t make any sense. |
| Marco: So, if the question is ogni quanto, the answer has to have a specific timeframe. |
| Cinzia: Exactly. |
| Marco: What about Form B? |
| Cinzia: In Form B, we have Anna asking - Quante volte alla settimana chiami i tuoi genitori? |
| Marco: “How many times a week do you call your parents?” |
| Cinzia: So, we have the pattern quante volte alla settimana. |
| Marco: So in the question, you find the timeframe. |
| Cinzia: So, it’s just the opposite of Form A. |
| Marco: Yes. And also, the answer is actually opposite because Peter answers - Circa una volta. (About once.) We don’t need to specify a week because the question already specified it. |
| Cinzia: Yes, bravo, Marco. |
| Marco: Now certainly, if somebody wanted, he could answer to Form B with circa una volta alla settimana, repeating again, settinmana, but we usually try to economize on our words in Italian. We speak so much, we don’t wanna repeat the same things over and over. |
| Cinzia: Yes, true. |
| Marco: But it’s not incorrect, it’s just a bit heavy. |
| Cinzia: Mm, yes. And actually, it’s easier if you cut the settimana and you just say circa una volta. One more thing, in Italian, there is no equivalent of “once, twice, thrice.” Instead, we use “one time, two times, three times.” |
| Marco: Yes. We use una volta, due volte, and tre volte. |
| Cinzia: Note the difference between the singular (volta) and the plural (volte). |
| Marco: Yes. So, for example, if it’s one time, it would be… |
| Cinzia: una volta |
| Marco: And if it’s two, three, four and so on… |
| Cinzia: Many times |
| Marco: Exactly, we would have due volte and… |
| Cinzia: tante volte |
| Marco: Many times. Volta is for singular, volte is for plural. So only use volta if its one time. |
| Cinzia: Good. |
Outro |
| Cinzia: So, this wraps it up for today’s lesson. |
| Marco: We hope you had a great time with us because we certainly had a great time together, didn’t we, Cinzia? |
| Cinzia: Yes, we did, definitely, and I’m sure they had a great time too. Ciao a tutti! |
| Marco: Ciao! |
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