Learn how to get a table at that Italian restaurant you've been dying to try
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| Ciao a tutti! Sono Consuelo. Hi everybody! I’m Consuelo. |
| Welcome back to ItalianPod101.com’s Italiano in tre minuti, the fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Italian. |
| In the last lesson, we learned how to ask for a sconto, a "discount." Today, we are going to teach you a lot of useful phrases you can use when entering a restaurant. |
| Before you start eating, you have to get the table! So, in today’s lesson we'll cover getting to the table. |
| When entering a restaurant in Italy, the host or hostess will greet you with buongiorno or buonasera, and then he or she will usually ask you: "how many people in your party?", which in Italian is Quante persone siete? |
| (One more time, slowly: quante persone siete?) |
| Here, the question is referred to voi, Italian second plural person, you. |
| Answering this question is very easy! You should just say siamo, which stands for ‘we are’, then the number of people, and finally the Italian word for people, persone. For example: siamo quattro persone. |
| (One more time, slowly: siamo quattro persone.) |
| If you forget to say persone, it doesn’t matter. Siamo quattro is okay, and it's also quicker to say and easier to remember! |
| At this point, the waiter or the waitress should say prego, pointing at your table, but if you’re unlucky you might be told mi dispiace, non c’è posto. That means "I’m sorry, there’s no seat." |
| (One more time, slowly: mi dispiace, non c’è posto.) |
| In this case, the waiter or the waitress should add c’è da aspettare. This phrase literally means |
| C’è→there is |
| Da aspettare→to wait |
| "You have to wait!" |
| Now you’d probably ask ‘for how long,’ and that’s very easy in Italian: quanto? |
| (One more time, slowly: quanto?) |
| It can be minutes, minuti, or hours...ore. Hmm, that sounds pretty annoying, but sometimes restaurants can be really crowded! |
| So the answer could be dieci, quindici, venti minuti, or un’ora, one hour. Please remember that ora is singular and ore is its plural form. |
| If you choose to wait, simply say aspettiamo, we wait. |
| (One more time, slowly: aspettiamo.) |
| If you are in hurry or too hungry to wait, it is appropriate to say: no grazie. No, thank you. |
| (One more time, slowly: no, grazie.) |
| Now it’s time for Consuelo’s tips. |
| Whenever you’re having lunch or dinner alone, the host will still probably ask you ‘how many people?’ In this case you can say una soltanto, just one. Or sono solo, if you’re a man, and sono sola, if you’re a woman. These mean ‘I’m alone’. |
| Ah, the last tip for today is don’t be scared if Italian waiters shout—that’s normal in Italy! |
| In this lesson we learned how to enter a restaurant. Next time we’ll be sitting at our table learning how to order! |
| We’ll be waiting for you in our next Italiano in tre minuti lesson. |
| Ciao, alla prossima lezione!! |
Comments
Hide