Learn how to talk about your likes and dislikes
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Eric: Hi everyone, and welcome back to ItalianPod101.com. This is Business Italian for Beginners, Season 1 Lesson 24 - Talking About Your Likes and Dislikes at Work. I’m Eric. |
| Ofelia: Ciao, I'm Ofelia. |
| Eric: In this lesson, you’ll learn How to Inquire About someone’s Likes and Dislikes. The conversation takes place at a restaurant. |
| Ofelia: It's between Linda and Carlo. |
| Eric: The speakers are co-workers, so they will use informal Italian. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Linda: Carlo, qual è il tuo piatto preferito? |
| Carlo: A me piacciono tutti i primi piatti a base di pomodoro. Per esempio adoro le tagliatelle. |
| Carlo: E a te, Linda, piace la cucina italiana? |
| Linda: Certo! Anche a me piacciono le tagliatelle, ma preferisco le lasagne. |
| Carlo: Sai anche cucinarle? |
| Linda: ...no, non sono portata per la cucina! |
| Eric: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Linda: Carlo, qual è il tuo piatto preferito? |
| Carlo: A me piacciono tutti i primi piatti a base di pomodoro. Per esempio adoro le tagliatelle. |
| Carlo: E a te, Linda, piace la cucina italiana? |
| Linda: Certo! Anche a me piacciono le tagliatelle, ma preferisco le lasagne. |
| Carlo: Sai anche cucinarle? |
| Linda: ...no, non sono portata per la cucina! |
| Eric: Listen to the conversation with the English translation |
| Linda: Carlo, which is your favorite dish? |
| Carlo: I like all entrées with a tomato base. For example, I adore tagliatelle. |
| Carlo: And to you, Linda, do you like Italian food? |
| Linda: Sure! I also like tagliatelle, but I prefer lasagna. |
| Carlo: Can you also cook that? |
| Linda: ... No, I'm not good in the kitchen! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eric: What is a good topic for small talk in Italy? |
| Ofelia: Without a doubt, the best topic is food, whether you just like eating or you also are good at cooking. |
| Eric: So starting a conversation, picking up from food, is a safe choice. |
| Ofelia: That’s right. For most Italians, Italian food is a real source of national pride. |
| Eric: ...so if you want your Italian coworker to think you're nice, don't hesitate to praise the Italian food tradition! |
| Ofelia: Right, for example you could say Amo il cibo italiano. |
| Eric: meaning "I love Italian food." Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Eric: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Ofelia: preferito [natural native speed] |
| Eric: favorite |
| Ofelia: preferito[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ofelia: preferito [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Ofelia: piacere [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to like |
| Ofelia: piacere[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ofelia: piacere [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Ofelia: primo piatto [natural native speed] |
| Eric: entrée (pasta or rice based dish) |
| Ofelia: primo piatto[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ofelia: primo piatto [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Ofelia: a base di [natural native speed] |
| Eric: based |
| Ofelia: a base di[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ofelia: a base di [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Ofelia: preferire [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to prefer |
| Ofelia: preferire[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ofelia: preferire [natural native speed] |
| Eric: And last... |
| Ofelia: essere portato per [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to have a talent for, to be good at |
| Ofelia: essere portato per[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ofelia: essere portato per [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Eric: Let's have a closer look at the usage of one of the phrases from this lesson. The phrase is.. |
| Ofelia: essere portato per |
| Eric: meaning "to have a talent for, to be good at" |
| Ofelia: This phrase is made up of the verb essere, "to be," followed by the adjective portato, meaning "inclined" or "talented" and the preposition per, "for." |
| Eric: You can use it when you want to describe someone who can do something skillfully or effortlessly. Or, as in the dialogue, when you want to use an effective expression to mean that someone is not good at all at doing something. |
| Ofelia: This is an expression to be avoided in a job interview. If you use it affirmatively, you'll give the impression of being too self-confident. If you use it negatively, you'll definitely leave a bad impression. |
| Eric: Can you give us an example using this phrase? |
| Ofelia: Sure. For example, you can say.. Non sono molto portata per la danza. |
| Eric: ..which means "I'm not very good at dancing." Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Eric: In this lesson, you'll learn How to Inquire About someone’s Likes and Dislikes. |
| Ofelia: We’ll review some rules that are useful when making small talk with your co-workers in an informal setting. For example, in the dialogue we have ...qual è il tuo piatto preferito? |
| Eric: “...which is your favorite dish?” With this question Linda asks about a preference. It’s easy – you can recycle the same structure to ask about anything else. |
| Ofelia: Right, you need to just pay attention to the gender of the noun. Here is an example with a masculine noun, Qual è il tuo film preferito? |
| Eric: “Which is your favorite movie?” |
| Ofelia: Here is a feminine noun – Qual è la tua città preferita? |
| Eric: “Which is your favorite city?” Ok, now let’s take a look at how to reply. |
| Ofelia: Carlo answers using the verb piacere, “to like.” He says A me piacciono tutti i primi piatti a base di pomodoro. |
| Eric: “I like all entrées with a tomato base.” |
| Ofelia: The verb piacere works differently from other verbs in Italian. We do not conjugate it in six different forms. |
| Eric: This is because the subject of the verb is not the person who likes something, like in English, but the object being liked. |
| Ofelia: for example, Mi piace la pasta. |
| Eric: "I like pasta." |
| Ofelia: In Italian the subject of the sentence is "pasta," not "I." Mi is an indirect pronoun, and it means "to me." |
| Eric: So, a literal translation would be "Pasta is pleasing to me." |
| Ofelia: Right, in order to express who likes something, we use indirect pronouns. |
| Eric: Listeners, remember that you can find the complete list in the lesson notes. |
| Ofelia: To recap, piacere in the present tense can only have two forms – if the subject is a singular or an infinitive verb, it’s piace... |
| Eric: literally “is pleasing” |
| Ofelia: or if the subject is plural, it’s piacciono, |
| Eric: literally “are pleasing.” Are there other useful verbs when talking about likes and dislikes in Italian? |
| Ofelia: Yes, you can also use adorare meaning “to adore,” and preferire meaning “to prefer.” Unlike piacere, we need to conjugate them as usual. |
| Eric: Could you give us some examples? |
| Ofelia: Adoro Roma. |
| Eric: “I adore Rome.” |
| Ofelia: Preferisco Roma. |
| Eric: “I prefer Rome.” Ok, let’s wrap up with some sample sentences that shows the topics we explained in this lesson. |
| Ofelia: Mi piace cucinare. |
| Eric: "I like cooking." |
| Ofelia: Simone preferisce i dolci a base di limone. |
| Eric: "Simon prefers lemon-based desserts." |
| Ofelia: Ti piace questo ristorante? |
| Eric: "Do you like this restaurant?" |
Outro |
| Eric: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! |
| Ofelia: A presto! |
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