| My name is Desy, mi chiamo Desy. |
| And in this video, we're gonna learn together about nationalities, la nationalità. |
| Nazione is "country". So nazionalità is where you come from, nationality. |
| First of all, let's say that we can't cover them all, so I'm sorry if yours is not included in the video, but don't hesitate to comment and ask about that. And also, I'm gonna try to give examples just for the sake of grammar, so don't focus on the content. Hopefully, it's correct, but if not, please focus on the grammar. Okay? That being said, I'm gonna use examples with food, so it's easy to remember, at least for people like me who really like to eat. |
| And of course, let's start with Italian. So, |
| La pizza è italiana. |
| "Pizza is Italian." |
| We can't argue about this, can we? As other adjectives in Italian, nationalities too have to be adjusted based on the subject. La pizza è italiana ends with -a because la pizza is female, la pizza. If I say Marco è italiano, then you can see that since Marco is a male, italiana becomes italiano. |
| And also, some of them don't even change, but we're gonna get to that in a bit. For now, let's see some other examples of this normal form that changes according to the subject. So, from Italia, we have italiano or italiana. Then let's say: |
| La paella è spagnola. |
| I want you to focus on the name of the country too, so let's work in a parallel way, okay? |
| Spain is Spagna, and Spanish is spagnolo or spagnola. |
| La paella è spagnola. |
| Juan è spagnolo. |
| "Juan is spanish." |
| Il kebab è turco. |
| "Kebab is Turkish." |
| Turchia is the name for the country, Turchia, turco or turca. |
| Le piramidi sono egiziane. |
| "Pyramids are Egyptian." |
| Here, I want you to notice that it's not only about she or he, but also about singular or plural, right? So piramidi, which is female and plural, goes with egiziane, while |
| Lui è egiziano. |
| "He is Egyptian", and |
| Lei è egiziana. |
| "She is Egyptian." |
| And by the way, Egypt is Egitto. |
| Same word for svizzero. |
| L’orologio è svizzero. |
| "The watch is Swiss." |
| Fun thing in this case is that the name of the country is the same as the female version of Swiss. So, Switzerland, Svizzera. |
| Lui è svizzero. |
| "He is Swiss.", or |
| Lei è svizzera. |
| "She is Swiss." |
| Loro sono svizzeri. |
| "They are Swiss." |
| Svizzeri and svizzere. Hope you're not from there because it's hard to say. I'm kidding. |
| Then we have… |
| Lo yogurt è greco. |
| "Yogurt is Greek." |
| From Grecia, Greece, Grecia. |
| Lui è greco. |
| "He is Greek." |
| Lei è greca. |
| "She is Greek." |
| Be careful because Loro sono greci, they are greci, but they female are greche. |
| Lo strudel è tedesco. |
| If you don't know, it's a sweet with apples, very, very nice. |
| Lo strudel è tedesco. |
| From Germania, which is Germany. This is really tricky because it completely changes. If you're from Germania, which is Germany, you are tedesco or tedesca. |
| Loro sono tedeschi/tedesche. |
| Il curry è indiano. |
| "Curry is Indian." |
| From India, indiano, easy. |
| Same goes for example for America and americano. |
| L’hamburger è americano. |
| "Hamburger is American." |
| But here, to be precise, we are talking about the continent, America, while if you want to refer specifically to the USA, it's Stati Uniti, United States, Stati Uniti. It's part of the group of those adjectives that dont change. Of course, they do change if it's singular or plural, but not if it's male or female. For example: |
| Lei è statunitense. "She is from the US." |
| Lui è statunitense. "He is from the US." |
| Loro sono statunitensi. "They are from the US." |
| It changes only if the subject is plural, okay? |
| In the same group, we also have France, for example, Francia. |
| La baguette è francese. "Baguette is French." |
| Baguette, by the way, it’s female, so it's like saying |
| Lei è francese. "She is French." |
| But even if I say |
| Lui è francese. |
| Francese doesn't change. While loro… |
| Loro sono francesi. "They are French." |
| And even if it's just a group of female friends, for example, loro sono francesi. |
| I ravioli sono cinesi. "Dumplings are Chinese." |
| From Cina, which is China, cinesi or cinese. |
| Le polpette sono svedesi. "Meatballs are Swedish." |
| I know theyre not, but they're really famous there, right? So, svedese comes from Svezia, which is Sweden. Svedese is Swedish. |
| Lui è svedese. "He is Swedish." |
| Lei è svedese. "She is Swedish." |
| Io sono svedese. |
| That’s not true. |
| Giappone, giapponese. |
| Il sushi è giapponese. "Sushi is Japanese." |
| Lei è giapponese. "She is Japanese." |
| La birra è irlandese. "Beer is Irish." |
| Irlanda is Ireland. So, irlandese is Irish. |
| Of course, there are many others, but this is more or less how it works, grammar-wise. I'm so sorry if I didn't mention your nationality, but there are just too many, and this video would never end if we did then. So please comment, click on the link in the description, and download our PDF lessons which include all the essential phrases that you need for your daily life. |
| Remember that you can sign up for your free lifetime account on ItalianPod101 at any time. So do that if you still haven't, and then see you soon. |
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