Learn how to talk about your occupation
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| Hi, everyone! I’m Felice Angelini. |
| Ciao a tutti, sono Felice Angelini. |
| Welcome to the Italian Whiteboard Lesson! |
| Yay! |
| In this lesson, you’ll learn the basic vocabulary for talking about occupations in Italian. |
| Are you ready? Let’s get started! |
| First, try learning by ear. |
| On the left column, Italian masculine nouns. |
| On the right column, Italian feminine nouns. |
| Dark for Italian and blue for English. |
| Pay attention to the pronunciation, but don’t worry about it because I marked for you the accent and it’s very important, the ending of the words. So, let’s get started! |
| poliziotto |
| poliziotto (enunciated) |
| poliziotto |
| poliziotta |
| poliziotta (enunciated) |
| poliziotta |
| In English, “police officer.” |
| avvocato |
| avvocato (enunciated) |
| avvocato |
| avvocata |
| avvocata (enunciated) |
| avvocata |
| In English, “lawyer.” |
| medico |
| medico (enunciated) |
| medico |
| medico |
| medico (enunciated) |
| medico |
| Oh, the same! In English, “doctor.” |
| impiegato |
| impiegato (enunciated) |
| impiegato |
| impiegata |
| Impiegata (enunciated) |
| impiegata |
| In English, “employee.” |
| Oh! One more time, but…. |
| impiegato di banca |
| impiegato di banca (enunciated) |
| impiegato di banca |
| impiegata di banca |
| impiegata di banca (enunciated) |
| impiegata di banca |
| (three words) |
| In English, “bank employee.” |
| ricercatore |
| ricercatore (enunciated) |
| ricercatore |
| ricercatrice |
| ricercatrice (enunciated) |
| ricercatrice |
| In English, “researcher.” |
| studente |
| studente (enunciated) |
| studente |
| studentessa |
| studentessa (enunciated) |
| studentessa |
| In English, “student.” |
| ragioniere |
| ragioniere (enunciated) |
| ragioniere |
| ragioniera |
| ragioniera (enunciated) |
| ragioniera |
| In English, “accountant.” |
| infermiere |
| infermiere (enunciated) |
| infermiere |
| infermiera |
| infermiera (enunciated) |
| infermiera |
| In English, “nurse.” |
| barista |
| barista (enunciated) |
| barista |
| The same…. |
| barista |
| barista (enunciated) |
| barista |
| Oh, “barista,” also in English. |
| insegnante |
| insegnante (enunciated) |
| insegnante |
| Oh, insegnante |
| insegnante (enunciated) |
| insegnante |
| In English, “teacher.” |
| Three words…. |
| vigile del fuoco |
| vigile del fuoco (enunciated) |
| vigile del fuoco |
| Oh, vigile del fuoco |
| vigile del fuoco (enunciated) |
| vigile del fuoco |
| In English, “fire fighter.” |
| chef |
| chef |
| “In English, “chef.” Oh, not Italian. |
| The last one. |
| ingegnere |
| ingegnere (enunciated) |
| ingegnere |
| Oh, ingegnere |
| Ingegnere (enunciated) |
| ingegnere |
| In English, “engineer.” |
| Okay |
| Well, let’s try to use these masculine and feminine occupation names. |
| Are you ready? Okay. |
| Imagine a situation between two persons, at the first meeting, so this dialogue is in formal, formal Italian. Okay, one person asked about occupation. |
| Okay, listen... |
| A: È insegnante? |
| B: No, non sono insegnante. Sono studentessa. |
| Did you notice the two words here about occupation? Okay, let’s check it. |
| A: È insegnante? |
| B: No, non sono insegnante. Sono studentessa. |
| Oh, okay. Dark color for Italian, blue color, you know, for the translation, English translation, and then red, red, focus on red because we can find occupation words. |
| insegnante |
| Insegnante |
| In this question, I don’t know about male or female, I don’t know, but maybe in the answer, I can, yeah, find a means. |
| Insegnante (I don’t know), but studentessa, okay. |
| Do you remember this form, masculine or feminine? |
| Studentessa, focus on the end, on the word. |
| Okay, let’s check on the list. |
| Okay, this one, oh, wow, studentessa (feminine). |
| In this dialogue, we have a female in the answer, good. |
| So, I want to try another time with an example, but this time with a man! |
| Okay. So, do you remember how do you say “student” in Italian, but in masculine form? |
| Studentessa, studentessa, long word, no, no, no. I need shorter, shorter, shorter. |
| Okay, let’s try. Let’s check it. |
| This one, studente. |
| Okay, masculine form. |
| And, no, no, studente, hmm, a different occupation. So, listen! |
| -No, non sono studente. Sono poliziotto. |
| Okay. Did you notice the second word? |
| poliziotto (enunciated) |
| Okay, let’s check it. |
| -No, non sono studente. Sono poliziotto. |
| Okay, poliziotto, /zio/, do you remember, yeah, that pronunciation, difficult pronunciation? Okay, and the meaning of poliziotto, let’s check on the list, but in the first example, this one. |
| Poliziotto, okay “police officer.” |
| Good. |
| Okay, this example is complete, but I want one more example, this time, change masculine form into feminine form. Okay, feminine form, poliziotto, poliziotto, this is easy, yeah. You remember, vowel ending, poliziotto, poliziotta. Good! |
| And then, okay, no, no poliziotto, I want a very important occupation, but with a difficult pronunciation. Mmm, doppia V, do you remember? But, okay, listen. |
| -No, non sono poliziotta. Sono avvocata. |
| Did you notice the second word? |
| Okay, let’s check it! |
| -No, non sono…. |
| Oops, sorry. |
| -No, non sono poliziotta. Sono avvocata. |
| Okay, this one, avvocata. |
| Avvocato, oh, okay, feminine form, avvocata. |
| Good, okay. That’s all about the examples, but in this example, I used no, non sono, sono, oh, do you notice, this is the same, same pattern, and then check it. |
| No, non sono [OCCUPATION]. |
| Sono [ACTUAL OCCUPATION]. |
| Okay, good! So, this red color for occupation names, in the first, insegnante, studentessa. And then masculine form, studente, poliziotto. And then feminine form, poliziotta, avvocata, this occupation, no! Actual occupation. Good. |
| So, now, it’s your time. Use this list. You can use, maybe, for a good pronunciation, repeat many times and use this word for more examples. And then maybe, it’s easier, you know, talking about your occupation in Italian. That’s all! |
| Well, I know, sometimes, Italian pronunciation is not very easy or not so simple, but let me show you some examples for difficult pronunciation, and then, practice, practice. |
| For example: |
| Z-I-O, together /zio/, /zio/ in poliziotto, /zio/, /zio/. |
| And then this double V, (VV) in Italiano, /v/, /v/. |
| The sound is strong because it’s double. |
| Do you know, “Venice,” a word like “Venice,” this initial, okay, V, “Venice,” the same and two times, so avvocato, avvocato, avvocato, but stronger on V. |
| And then, oh, this important word, studente, studente. |
| Remember, this vowel “u,” in Italiano, /oo/, not /u/. |
| So, stu-, stu-, studente, studente. |
| And this word, oh, my word, insegnante. |
| This pronunciation G-N-A, /gna/, /gna/. |
| Remember the very delicious food, Italian food, Gnocchi, Gnocchi. It’s the same pronunciation. |
| G-N, in Italiano, /gn/ and with A, /gna/, insegnante, insegnante. |
| It’s hard, so practice, practice, and continue to practice. |
| DId you notice, I used the same pattern for my example, two examples, masculine form and feminine form. And what’s this? |
| No, non sono [OCCUPATION]. |
| Sono [ACTUAL OCCUPATION]. |
| Okay. So, you can, you know, notice this red color [OCCUPATION] and this one [ACTUAL OCCUPATION], and remember that you want maybe use your occupation, you can pick up from this list or use another word, maybe, yeah, but put attention on feminine and masculine form. So, maybe it’s a good way, yeah, use your mouth and repeat your occupation and use this pattern like…like me and maybe like you in the repetition. That’s all! |
| When we want to refer to institutional offices or positions, we commonly use masculine nouns because they were typical for men in the past. But nowadays, Italian society is changing and, therefore, the Italian language is also changing. |
| These days, there are also women in these high positions, so we started to use feminine nouns. |
| For example: |
| "Minister" is "ministro." |
| The feminine word is "ministra." |
| "Deputata" is for congresswoman. |
| "Senatrice" is for a female senator. |
| Sometimes, we have to pay attention to nouns that, in the feminine form, could sound ironic, especially for nouns ending in "~essa." In this case, it's better to use the masculine form for women as well. President or chairman is "presidente." Not Presidentessa. |
| For some occupations, it’s not common to hear feminine versions, like "medica," or "ingegnera." People prefer to say "medico" and "ingegnere," in the masculine form. |
| So, let's try to remember these variations in reading newspaper and talking with Italian people. |
Comments
HideLet's practice together in the comments!
Here the word given for accountant is ragioniere, but in the vocabulary lists (and flashcard index) it is contabile - which is better/what is the difference in use?
And assuming ragioniere is more common, would it be possible to add it to the flashcard list (ideally also ricercatore/ricercatrice as well as that is what I am and I'd like to be able to practice the pronunciation more easily!).