Learn about the indefinite articles
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Marco: Hi. Welcome to ItalianPod101.com, the fastest, easiest and most fun way to learn Italian. My name is Marco and I'm joined by… |
| Cinzia: Hi, my name is Cinzia and we’re about to introduce you to a new fun way to learn Italian. |
| Marco: The core of this new approach is language learning material presented in a radio-talks how format, which is entertaining while at the same time educational. |
| Cinzia: Not only will you have fun learning Italian, but we’ll have you speaking Italian from the very first lesson. |
| Marco: With our revolutionary breakdown approach, even if you’re completely new to Italian you’ll be able to speak some Italian by the end of the first lesson. |
| Cinzia: Each lesson is hosted by one native Italian teacher, that’s me, and one native English speaking teacher, fluent in Italian, that’s Marco. |
| Marco: The dialogues are all recorded by professional voice actors who are, of course, native Italian speakers. |
| Cinzia: The lesson center surround current and practical dialogues you hear in Italy every day. |
| Marco: In addition to the dialogue, we break down the pronunciation of vocabulary words and phrases so you can understand them and say them right away. |
| Cinzia: We also cover cultural insight, experiences about living and traveling in Italy, and tips on using Italian you just won’t find in a textbook. |
| Marco: Now, this audio lesson you’re about to listen to is just one part of our powerful system, as the podcasts were designed to be used together with accompanying material on our site, ItalianPod101.com. |
| Cinzia: On our site you can find bonus audio tracks, Lesson Notes, quizzes and other learning tools for each and every lesson. |
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| Cinzia: So, Marco, what do you think? Let’s show them how it works! |
| Marco: Yes, very good idea. In this lesson, we’re going to go over some simple phrases used when ordering. |
| Cinzia: This is a fast and fun lesson that is useful in lots of situations. |
| Marco: To see the phrases we’re going to cover today, stop by ItalianPod101.com, get your free account and view the Lesson Notes while or after you listen. |
| Cinzia: For this lesson, the Lesson Notes have a transcript of the key phrases and vocabulary. |
| Marco: Or if you’re listening on an iPod, click the center button or touch the screen twice. Doing so will enable you to see the key phrases. So, Cinzia, where are we taking our listeners today? |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Cinzia: In this lesson, we’re going to take them to the eternal city - Rome, “Roma”. It’s 7 a.m. and we are on our way to buy our daily morning “espresso”. |
| Marco: And the English pronunciation is espresso. Great, that sounds like an interesting lesson. And if you want to know more about espresso, take a look at our Lesson Notes. |
| Cinzia: Yes, there we have a cultural insight section that gives you a detailed explanation of many topics we cover in the audio lesson. And in the Lesson Notes for this lesson there is a write-up on “espresso”. |
| Marco: All right, now I'm excited. So back to the lesson. We are in an Italian bar and the smell “di Roma” is unbelievable. It’s giving me the energy just thinking about Italian coffee. |
| Cinzia: So let’s hurry up and order an espresso. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Un espresso, per favore! |
| Una spremuta d’arancia rossa, per favore. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Marco: And “an espresso” in Italian is… |
| Cinzia: “Un espresso”. |
| Marco: “An espresso”. Before we start, in our lessons, when we give a vocabulary word or a phrase, we give you an explanation how to use it. We explain exact situations the phrases are used and the proper usage, so that you don’t embarrass yourself. But you know what else we do? |
| Cinzia: The pronunciation? |
| Marco: Yes, the proper pronunciation. So you can start speaking just like Cinzia here, instantly. So, Cinzia, can you repeat that phrase for us? And for all those listening, don’t forget to repeat after Cinzia. All right, here we go. |
| Cinzia: “Un espresso”. |
| Marco: “An espresso”. One more time, slowly. |
| Cinzia: “Un espresso”. |
| Marco: And now one more time, fast. |
| Cinzia: “Un espresso”. |
| Marco: All right. I think we got the pronunciation perfected. And just like that, when we give essential vocabulary words or phrases in our lessons, we always break it down just like that. |
| Cinzia: One time fast for you to hear the natural speed. |
| Marco: One time slow so you can fully grasp the pronunciation. |
| Cinzia: And one more time fast so that you can repeat it at full speed and with the translation. |
| Marco: You’ll be speaking like a native Italian speaker with our system in no time. |
| Cinzia: It will also help you memorize the words and master pronunciation, an important part of our system. |
| Marco: All right, so now that we got the pronunciation perfected, we have our Lesson Notes and we know exactly when and where to use these phrases. So, Cinzia, let’s break up that phrase piece by piece to help us understand a little better. |
| Cinzia: Of course, it’s my pleasure. “Un espresso”. |
| Marco: “An espresso”. And what’s that first part? |
| Cinzia: “Un”. |
| Marco: The indefinite article “a”. One time slowly, please. |
| Cinzia: “Un. Un”. |
| Marco: And next we have… |
| Cinzia: “Espresso”. |
| Marco: “Espresso”. Wow, the pronunciation of that is a little different from what you hear abroad, right? Can you break that down for us one more time? |
| Cinzia: “Espresso. Espresso”. |
| Marco: Great, thank you. Now, if I wanted to order “un espresso” in an Italian bar, what can I say? |
| Cinzia: “Un espresso, per favore”. |
| Marco: “An espresso, please.” Okay, I think I got the first part, but what was the pronunciation for “please”? |
| Cinzia: “Per favore”. |
| Marco: And one time slowly, please. |
| Cinzia: “Per favore. Per favore”. |
| Marco: So to order an espresso at an Italian bar, a café or pastry shop, I can say… |
| Cinzia: “Un espresso, per favore”. |
| Marco: But actually I'm not such a big fan of “espresso”, I like the “spremuta”. Italian “spremuta” is absolutely delicious. This sweet juice made with fresh fruit is really what you need to start a long day. |
| Cinzia: And besides the traditional “spremuta d’arancia”, freshly-squeezed orange juice, we have the incredibly tasty “spremuta d’arancia rossa”. Mmm, delicious… That’s why when I go to Italian bar I order “Una spremuta d’arancia rossa”. |
| Marco: “A freshly-squeezed blood orange juice”. One time slowly, please? |
| Cinzia: “Una spremuta d’arancia rossa. Una spremuta d’arancia rossa”. |
| Marco: One thing I notice is that the word for a is different for espresso and for spremuta. |
| Cinzia: Yes, for an espresso it is “un”. For a spremuta it is “una”. |
| Marco: So what’s the difference between the two? |
| Cinzia: “Un” is masculine and is used with masculine nouns, and “una” is used for feminine nouns. |
| Marco: So whenever you use the indefinite article in Italian, it changes according to if the noun is masculine or feminine. |
| Cinzia: Correct. And if the listeners want to take a deeper look, we should remind them to take a look at the lesson notes. |
| Marco: Yes. Let’s remind our listeners that the lesson notes not only contain a vocabulary list, but they also contains lesson’s dialogue in… |
| Cinzia: Formal Italian, informal Italian and the English translation, so you can compare the different politeness levels. You know, Marco, looking at the dialogue in the lesson notes while listening at the same time really improves reading fluency, while improving listening ability. |
| Marco: And remember, every single new word that comes out in the lesson also comes out in the lesson’s PDF. Please, don’t take our word for it. |
| Cinzia: What are you saying, Marco? |
| Marco: I'm just saying that they should see for themselves. I'm telling you, you need to stop by ItalianPod101.com, sign up for a free lifetime membership and pick up the lesson notes. It’s really the most effective and most convenient way to study. |
| Cinzia: All right, before we finish the lesson, I want to give some cultural insight. |
| Marco: Well, do all Italians drink espresso in the morning? |
| Cinzia: Ahaha. Oh, well, yes, with pizza and pasta. That’s the perfect cliché, right? Well, we do love drinking espresso as well as spremuta. |
Outro |
| Marco: Thanks, Cinzia, for your explanation. And thank you also for listening. And remember to stop by our website… |
| Cinzia: ItalianPod101.com. |
| Marco: And sign up for a free lifetime account. Be sure to pick up the lesson notes for this lesson. |
| Cinzia: And also you can take a tour of our website. |
| Marco: You can also find the next introduction lesson. |
| Cinzia: The introduction lessons explain how to use the site. |
| Marco: So if you’re new to Italian or ItalianPod101.com, we recommend you start listening to all the lessons of the Introduction Series. |
| Cinzia: That really is the best way. |
| Marco: After that we have a lot more lessons waiting for you. |
| Cinzia: But for now, we’d like to experience our community. |
| Marco: You can leave a comment on this lesson by visiting ItalianPod101.com. Let us know what you thought of this lesson, as your feedback is an important part of our system. |
| Cinzia: That’s right. At the site there is an amazing community of Italian students around the world. You ask the questions and you get the answers. |
| Marco: Okay, thank you again for listening. Stop by, sign up for your free lifetime account and get the lesson notes, and leave us a comment. In Introduction Lesson 2, we’ll introduce you to several more powerful parts of our learning system. For now… |
| Cinzia: “Arrivederci”. Goodbye. Here are the phrases one more time. Please, have a listen. Bye. |
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