Learn about the pronoun ne
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Cinzia: Buongiorno, io sono Cinzia. |
| Marco: Marco here! Beginner series Season 1, Lesson 29 - Was Your Date Impressed by Your Italian? Hi, my name is Marco and I’m joined here by Cinzia. Come va? |
| Cinzia: Bene, grazie Marco. Hello and welcome back to the beginner series of ItalianPod101.com. Thanks for joining us for our 29th lesson of this beginner series, which focuses on the basics for anyone starting to learn the Italian language. |
| Marco: So please join us for this lesson of ItalianPod101.com. |
| Cinzia: Before you jump in, don’t forget to press the center button on your iPad to see the lesson transcript in your display. |
| Marco: Oh, today’s lesson is so nice, because we’re gonna be seeing how Italian girls talk about Italian boys. |
| Cinzia: Another girly chat. |
| Marco: Yes. So in today’s dialogue, we’re gonna have Elena and Anna talking about the day that Anna had with Peter. And today’s grammar topics are gonna be the pronoun "ne" and the Italian equivalent of the structure “to keep.” |
| Cinzia: continuare |
| Marco: Followed by another verb in the continuous form. |
| Cinzia: So, let’s start. In this dialogue, I will be Elena and I will be Anna. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Elena: Com’è andato l’appuntamento? |
| Anna: Non ne voglio parlare. |
| Elena: Perché? Cos’è successo? |
| Anna: Ha continuato a farmi domande. |
| Elena: Riguardo te? |
| Anna: Magari. Riguardo la partita. Non ha capito le regole. |
| Marco: Let's hear it slowly now. |
| Cinzia: Ascoltiamolo lentamente. |
| Elena: Com’è andato l’appuntamento? |
| Anna: Non ne voglio parlare. |
| Elena: Perché? Cos’è successo? |
| Anna: Ha continuato a farmi domande. |
| Elena: Riguardo te? |
| Anna: Magari. Riguardo la partita. Non ha capito le regole. |
| Marco: And now, with the translation. |
| Cinzia: E ora, con la traduzione. |
| Elena: Com’è andato l’appuntamento? |
| Elena: How was the date? |
| Anna: Non ne voglio parlare. |
| Anna: I don’t want to talk about it. |
| Elena: Perché? Cos’è successo? |
| Elena: Why? What happened? |
| Anna: Ha continuato a farmi domande. |
| Anna: He kept asking me questions. |
| Elena: Riguardo te? |
| Elena: About you? |
| Anna: Magari. Riguardo la partita. Non ha capito le regole. |
| Anna: I wish. About the match. He didn’t understand the rules. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Marco: Are Italian soccer rules, I mean, Italian football rules are so difficult to understand? |
| Cinzia: No, not that they’re difficult actually but maybe if someone doesn’t know actually about soccer rules in general, maybe it’s difficult. |
| Marco: Yeah. I mean the basic rules is 11 people on one side, 11 people on the other side, plus a referee in the center all running around half naked. That’s all. Oh yeah, there’s a ball included. |
| Cinzia: And this is the idea of soccer in Marco’s mind. |
| Marco: Come on, two hours, they score two goals? |
| Cinzia: I love soccer. |
| Marco: In 2 hours, just two goals? |
| Cinzia: So what? It’s great! |
| Marco: I like playing soccer, not watching people play soccer. |
| Cinzia: Yes, but if you like playing it, you like watching it. |
| Marco: Unless that is the Italian National Team, la Nazionale italiana. |
| Cinzia: But I’m sure that may of our listeners are following Campionato. |
| Marco: You mean the Italian soccer championship? |
| Cinzia: Of course. |
| Marco: Yes. Let’s see who’s gonna win the scudetto this year. |
| Cinzia: Okay, let’s go on! |
| Marco: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary and phrases for today’s lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Cinzia: The first word is… |
| Cinzia: appuntamento [natural native speed] |
| Marco: appointment, date |
| Cinzia: appuntamento [slowly - broken down by syllable] appuntamento [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word is… |
| Cinzia: parlare [natural native speed] |
| Marco: to talk, speak |
| Cinzia: parlare [slowly - broken down by syllable] parlare [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word is… |
| Cinzia: succedere [natural native speed] |
| Marco: to happen |
| Cinzia: succedere [slowly - broken down by syllable] succedere [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word is… |
| Cinzia: ne [natural native speed] |
| Marco: of/about + this, these, that, those |
| Cinzia: ne [slowly - broken down by syllable] ne [natural native speed] |
| Marco: And the next word is… |
| Cinzia: continuare a [natural native speed] |
| Marco: to keep + -ing form |
| Cinzia: continuare a [slowly - broken down by syllable] continuare a [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word is… |
| Cinzia: domanda [natural native speed] |
| Marco: question |
| Cinzia: domanda [slowly - broken down by syllable] domanda [natural native speed] |
| Marco: And the next word is… |
| Cinzia: magari [natural native speed] |
| Marco: I wish |
| Cinzia: magari [slowly - broken down by syllable] magari [natural native speed] |
| Marco: And the next word is… |
| Cinzia: capire [natural native speed] |
| Marco: to understand |
| Cinzia: capire [slowly - broken down by syllable] capire [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word… |
| Cinzia: regola [natural native speed] |
| Marco: rule |
| Cinzia: regola [slowly - broken down by syllable] regola [natural native speed] |
| Marco: And today’s last word is... |
| Cinzia: riguardo [natural native speed] |
| Marco: about |
| Cinzia: riguardo [slowly - broken down by syllable] riguardo [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Cinzia: And now, let’s take a look at the usage for some of the words and expressions. The first word we will look at is appuntamento. |
| Marco: And the sample sentence is… |
| Cinzia: Appuntamento romantico. |
| Marco: "Romantic date." |
| Cinzia and Marco: Ahh… |
| Cinzia: Appuntamento romantico. Che bello, no? |
| Marco: Next word is… |
| Cinzia: succedere |
| Marco: And the sample sentence is… |
| Cinzia: Che ti è successo? |
| Marco: "What happened to you?" |
| Cinzia: Che ti è successo, Marco? Sei caduto dal letto? |
| Marco: “What happened Marco? Did you fall off the bed?” It was the reclining chair in the office, actually. Che ti succede Cinzia? “What’s happening, Cinzia?” You’re coughing. |
| Cinzia: I don’t know. It must be a bad god who’s influencing my activities. |
| Marco: It’s your karma. Your karma is very, very bad. You think bad thoughts. |
| Cinzia: No, it’s not. |
| Marco: Yes, it’s true. |
| Cinzia: It’s you. It’s your fault. |
| Marco: Yes. And the next word is… |
| Cinzia: ne |
| Marco: And the sample sentence is… |
| Cinzia: Ne ho avuto abbastanza. |
| Marco: "I've had enough of this." |
| Cinzia: Next word we will look at is magari. |
| Marco: And the sample sentence is… |
| Cinzia: Sei uscito con Elena? Magari! |
| Marco: "Did you date Elena?" "I wish!" |
| Cinzia: And the last word we will look at is riguardo. |
| Marco: So the last sample sentence is… |
| Cinzia: Hai fatto qualcosa al riguardo? |
| Marco: "Have you done something about it?" And now, let’s take a look at today’s grammar. |
| Cinzia: Vai, la grammatica! |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Cinzia: In today’s dialogue, we have seen the pronoun “ne” which is actually an object pronoun used instead of di quello, di questo, di quelli, di questi. |
| Marco: Literally "of/about that, this, those, these" and it is one of the most widely used pronouns in Italian, especially in spoken language. |
| Cinzia: True. And in both the interrogative and affirmative structures, ne is always positioned between the subject and the verb. |
| Marco: Therefore, the order would be subject + ne + verb in an affirmative sentence and subject + negation + ne + verb in a negative sentence. |
| Cinzia: For example - Io ne voglio parlare. |
| Marco: "I want to talk about it." |
| Cinzia: Io non ne voglio parlare. |
| Marco: "I don’t want to talk about it." |
| Cinzia: Ne can be used in different cases, but we will see it in future lessons. Please remember that in this case of this lesson, we employed ne when we translated the English structure “about + pronoun.” |
| Marco: For example - “What do you think about it?” in Italian would be Cosa ne pensi? |
| Cinzia: In the spoken language, you have to distinguish ne (pronoun) without accent and né as coordinating conjunction used in negative statements. For example - Lui non è né intelligente, né bravo. |
| Marco: “He is neither intelligent, nor good.” |
| Cinzia: Yes. So please pay attention if you’re not reading either writing and distinguish ne (without the accent) and né (with accent). The last topic we will see in today’s grammar is the translation of the English verb “to keep + -ing.” |
| Marco: And since we’re running out of time, let’s make a very, very quick explanation. While in English the verb “to keep” is always followed by either the object or the verb in the continuous form, the Italian equivalent continuare is only followed by the infinitive of the auxiliary verb preceded or not by the preposition a. For example, Cinzia, in the dialogue, what did we have? |
| Cinzia: Ha continuato a farmi domande. |
| Marco: "He kept asking me questions." |
| Cinzia: So we have ha continuato passato prossimo of the verb continuare plus the preposition a. |
| Marco: Then followed by the infinitive verb fare. In this case, be careful, fare has become farmi because that -mi is the indirect object pronoun that stands for a me “to me.” |
| Cinzia: So, continuate a seguirci! |
Outro |
| Marco: And now you know the grammar behind that phrase. |
| Marco: A presto! |
| Cinzia: Ciao, grazie! |
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