Learn how to use impersonal Italian expressions to offer suggestions
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Cinzia: Ciao a tutti. |
| Marco: Marco here. Lower intermediate series, season 1, Lesson 21. What’s your secret Italian recipe? Hello and welcome to the Lower intermediate series at italianpod101.com where we study modern Italian in a fun, educational format. |
| Cinzia: So brush up on the Italian that you started learning a long ago or start learning today. |
| Marco: Thanks for being here with us for this lesson. Cinzia, what are we looking at in this lesson? |
| Cinzia: In this lesson, we will practice the hypothetical period in Italian using the gerundio tense in the subordinate clause. |
| Marco: This conversation takes place in front of a closed Italian restaurant. |
| Cinzia: And it’s between Marcella, Giulia and Manuel. |
| Marco: The speakers are friends. Therefore they will be speaking informal Italian. |
| Cinzia: Remember, commenting each day |
| Marco: And posting in the forum are two great ways to get answers. |
| Cinzia: Community members |
| Marco: And staff, are all ready to help. |
| Cinzia: Definitely take advantage. Okay. |
| Marco: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Manuel: Sfortunatamente Antonio è chiuso. |
| Giulia: Che peccato! Potremmo andare a mangiare una piadina, che dite? |
| Marcella: A me va bene. Ho fame. |
| Manuel: In effetti, avendo voglia si potrebbe andare da me e fare una pasta. |
| Marcella: Sai cucinare? |
| Manuel: Certamente! |
| Giulia: Andiamo da te, ma il sugo lo preparo io! |
| Marco: Let’s hear it slowly now. |
| Manuel: Sfortunatamente Antonio è chiuso. |
| Giulia: Che peccato! Potremmo andare a mangiare una piadina, che dite? |
| Marcella: A me va bene. Ho fame. |
| Manuel: In effetti, avendo voglia si potrebbe andare da me e fare una pasta. |
| Marcella: Sai cucinare? |
| Manuel: Certamente! |
| Giulia: Andiamo da te, ma il sugo lo preparo io! |
| Marco: And now, with the translation. |
| Manuel: Sfortunatamente Antonio è chiuso. |
| Manuel: Antonio's is closed, unfortunately. |
| Giulia: Che peccato! Potremmo andare a mangiare una piadina, che dite? |
| Giulia: What a pity! We could go eat a "piadina," what do you guys think? |
| Marcella: A me va bene. Ho fame. |
| Marcella: It's fine with me. I am hungry. |
| Manuel: In effetti, avendo voglia si potrebbe andare da me e fare una pasta. |
| Manuel: In fact, if it's fine with you, we could go to my place and make some pasta. |
| Marcella: Sai cucinare? |
| Marcella: Do you know how to cook? |
| Manuel: Certamente! |
| Manuel: Absolutely! |
| Giulia: Andiamo da te, ma il sugo lo preparo io! |
| Giulia: Let's go to your place, but I'll prepare the sauce! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Cinzia: Hah Marco, can you cook? |
| Marco: Yeah I can make pasta. |
| Cinzia: Umm what pasta? |
| Marco: Al pomodoro, tomato sauce. |
| Cinzia: That’s it? |
| Marco: Well yeah. Lo stretto indispensabile. |
| Cinzia: So you mean you cook just the basic and indispensable to fight off hunger? |
| Marco: Exactly. |
| Cinzia: But cooking different dishes is such a nice thing because after you cook, you can eat them. |
| Marco: I bet that you cook a different dish every day. |
| Cinzia: Of course I do. You want to try my cuisine? |
| Marco: Ah I think I am fine for the moment. I will try today’s vocabulary. |
| Cinzia: Umm okay then. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Marco: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. The first word is |
| Cinzia: Sfortunatamente. |
| Marco: Unfortunately, unluckily. |
| Cinzia: Sfortunatamente. Sfortunatamente. |
| Marco: Next we have an expression. |
| Cinzia: Che peccato! |
| Marco: What a pity! |
| Cinzia: Che peccato. Che peccato! |
| Marco: The next word is |
| Cinzia: Cucinare. |
| Marco: To cook. |
| Cinzia: Cucinare. Cucinare. |
| Marco: And the next word |
| Cinzia: Certamente. |
| Marco: Absolutely. |
| Cinzia: Certamente. Certamente. |
| Marco: Then the next word is |
| Cinzia: Sugo. |
| Marco: Sauce. |
| Cinzia: Sugo. Sugo. |
| Marco: And finally we have |
| Cinzia: Preparare. |
| Marco: To prepare, make, set, arrange. |
| Cinzia: Preparare. Preparare. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Marco: Let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Cinzia: And the first word we will look at today is sfortunatamente. |
| Marco: And the first sample sentence is |
| Cinzia: Sfortunatamente, non abbiamo visto nessun cervo. |
| Marco: Unfortunately, we didn’t see any deer. |
| Cinzia: Next we have an expression. Che peccato! |
| Marco: And the sample is |
| Cinzia: Ieri ho perso il treno. Che peccato! |
| Marco: Yesterday I missed the train. What a pity! |
| Cinzia: The next word is cucinare. |
| Marco: And the sample sentence is |
| Cinzia: Amo cucinare per i miei amici. |
| Marco: I love cooking for my friends. |
| Cinzia: The next word we will look at is certamente. |
| Marco: And the sample sentence is |
| Cinzia: Mi potresti aiutare? Certamente. |
| Marco: Could you help me out? Absolutely. |
| Cinzia: Next we have sugo. |
| Marco: And the sample is |
| Cinzia: Il sugo va preparato con attenzione. |
| Marco: The sauce has to be carefully prepared. |
| Cinzia: And today’s last word is preparare. |
| Marco: So the last sample sentence will be |
| Cinzia: Il corso mira a preparare gli studenti per un ampio ventaglio di carriere. |
| Marco: The course aims to prepare students for a wide range of careers. Let’s take a look at today’s grammar point. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Cinzia: Italian language is rich of impersonal structures and expressions. |
| Marco: But well while in English taking responsibility of what we say is connected to using the real subject of what we are saying, in Italian, impersonal structures are also used to politely make suggestions without stating the actual subject of the sentence. |
| Cinzia: This is simplest I will use and it is not to be connected with its grammatical and literal meaning. |
| Marco: For example |
| Cinzia: A: Potremmo andare a giocare a calcio, che ne dite? |
| Marco: We could go play football, what do you think? |
| Cinzia: B: Si potrebbe andare a giocare a calcio, che ne dite? |
| Marco: We could go play football, what do you think? |
| Cinzia: Sentences A and B have equivalent meaning. |
| Marco: The only difference is in their grammatical form. |
| Cinzia: The subject of sentence A is noi. |
| Marco: We |
| Cinzia: While the subject of sentence B is the neutral third person singular it. |
| Marco: And since it is never stated in Italian, this neutral third person singular does not have a written form. |
| Cinzia: We can understand it is present as we are using the impersonal forms, such as the particle SI or the gerundio mode. |
| Marco: We saw this in a dialogue when Manuel suggests |
| Cinzia: Avendo voglia, si potrebbe andare da me. |
| Marco: If it’s fine with you, we could go to my place. |
| Cinzia: And now for a topic that is more fun |
| Marco: And what is that? |
| Cinzia: Well the word sugo is used in Italian principally to indicate pasta sauce. When talking about other kinds of sauce, we should use salse. |
| Marco: Oh yes and we also don’t have to confuse its singular form salsa with a Latin American popular dance music. |
| Cinzia: Oh that would be a big mistake. |
| Marco: Salsa. That just about does it for today. |
Outro |
| Marco: Testing yourself is one of the most effective ways to learn. |
| Cinzia: That’s why we have three types of quizzes. |
| Marco: Vocabulary, grammar and content specific. |
| Cinzia: Each quiz targets specific skill |
| Marco: And together, these quizzes will help you master several fundamental skills. |
| Cinzia: You can find them in the learning center at |
| Marco: Italianpod101.com. Arrivederci. |
| Cinzia: Ciao a tutti, grazie. |
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