Learn how to use some phrasal verbs with the prepositions di and a to talk about your past using an informal conversation between friends as an example
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Brandon: Hi everyone! Welcome to ItalianPod101.com! This is Lower Intermediate Season 3, Lesson 5, What Brings You To Italy? I’m Brandon! |
| Ofelia: Ciao. I'm Ofelia. |
| Brandon: Ofelia, what are we going to learn in this lesson? |
| Ofelia: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to talk about a big choice you made in your life. |
| Brandon: The conversation takes place in a restaurant. |
| Ofelia: It’s between Maria, Elia, and Lucia. |
| Brandon: The speakers are coworkers and friends, so they’ll be speaking informal Italian. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Lucia: Come mai hai deciso di venire in Italia? |
| Maria: E' sempre stato il mio sogno. |
| Elia: Ma tu sei di origini italiane, no? |
| Maria: Sì, i genitori di mia madre erano italiani e sono immigrati in America negli anni 50. |
| Elia: Veramente? |
| Maria: Sì, mia nonna mi parlava sempre in italiano quando ero bambina...così mi sono appasionata e ho continuato a studiare italiano fin da quando avevo 6 anni.... |
| Lucia: Poi da grande, hai trovato un lavoro adeguato in America! |
| Maria: Sì, ho cercato un'azienda con una sede anche in Italia. |
| Brandon: Now, let’s listen to the conversation with English translation. |
| Lucia: Come mai hai deciso di venire in Italia? |
| Lucia: How is it that you decided to come to Italy? |
| Maria: E' sempre stato il mio sogno. |
| Maria: It's always been my dream. |
| Elia: Ma tu sei di origini italiane, no? |
| Elia: But you’re of Italian origin, aren't you? |
| Maria: Sì, i genitori di mia madre erano italiani e sono immigrati in America negli anni 50. |
| Maria: Yes, my mother’s parents were Italian and immigrated to America in the 1950s. |
| Elia: Veramente? |
| Elia: Really? |
| Maria: Sì, mia nonna mi parlava sempre in italiano quando ero bambina...così mi sono appasionata e ho continuato a studiare italiano fin da quando avevo 6 anni.... |
| Maria: Yes, my grandmother always talked in Italian with me when I was a child... So I got fond and I’ve continued studying Italian since I was six... |
| Lucia: Poi da grande, hai trovato un lavoro adeguato in America! |
| Lucia: Then when you grew up, you found a suitable job in U.S.! |
| Maria: Sì, ho cercato un'azienda con una sede anche in Italia. |
| Maria: Yes, I looked for a company that also had a branch in Italy. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Brandon: There’s something that’s so classic and romantic about Italy. |
| Ofelia: When you think about Italy, what images do you see? |
| Brandon: Oh, I think of hills, vineyards, Italian pines...and a big glass of wine while I sit on the veranda! |
| Ofelia: You’re talking about Tuscany! Tuscany's countryside is one of the places that has contributed most to the collective imagination of Italy. It’s always associated with vineyards covering smooth hills, and rows of sunflowers. You can also imagine an isolated casale, or farmhouse. |
| Brandon: Yes, it sounds beautiful! |
| Ofelia: One of the most beautiful landscapes that I've ever seen in Tuscany is near the little town of Monteriggioni. This town has preserved its medieval circular walls, which also inspired Dante, when depicting Hell in his work Inferno. This town offers an enchanted view. |
| Brandon: Listener’s you should definitaly visit these places soon! Okay, now on to the vocabulary. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Brandon: We’re going to review all of the vocabulary for this lesson. The first word is... |
| Ofelia: ...adeguato. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: “Suitable.” |
| Ofelia: Adeguato. [slowly - broken down by syllable] Adeguato. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Next we have... |
| Ofelia: ...sede. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: “Branch.” |
| Ofelia: Sede. [slowly - broken down by syllable] Sede. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Our next word is... |
| Ofelia: ...origine. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: “Origin.” |
| Ofelia: Origine. [slowly - broken down by syllable] Origine. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Next... |
| Ofelia: ...immigrare. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: “to immigrate.” |
| Ofelia: Immigrare. [slowly - broken down by syllable] Immigrare. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Next we have... |
| Ofelia: Veramente? [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: “Really?” |
| Ofelia: Veramente? [slowly - broken down by syllable] Veramente? [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Our next word is... |
| Ofelia: ...appassionarsi. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: “To develop a passion for something.” |
| Ofelia: Appassionarsi. [slowly - broken down by syllable] Appassionarsi. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Next... |
| Ofelia: ...fin da. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: “Since.” |
| Ofelia: Fin da. [slowly - broken down by syllable] Fin da. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Our final word is... |
| Ofelia: ...cercare. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: “To look for, seek, or search.” |
| Ofelia: Cercare. [slowly - broken down by syllable] Cercare. [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Brandon: Let's have a closer look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is... |
| Ofelia: Veramente? |
| Brandon: Meaning "Really?" |
| Ofelia: This word is an adverb that comes from the word vero, meaning "real," to which the suffix -mente is added. This is typical of adverbs. |
| Brandon: When can we use this? |
| Ofelia: You can use it when you’re surprised about something you have heard. |
| Brandon: Then, when can we not use this expression? |
| Ofelia: Well, it’s better not to use it when someone is talking about something serious or tragic. Or when there’s something that doesn’t surprise you. |
| Brandon: Can you give us an example? |
| Ofelia: Sure! Veramente? Sembra molto più giovane. |
| Brandon: Meaning, "Really? He looks much younger." |
| Ofelia: Veramente is equivalent to another common expression: Davvero? This contains the word vero too. Be careful not to say only vero because it doesn't sound natural. |
| Brandon: Okay, next we have... |
| Ofelia: ...fin da. |
| Brandon: Meaning “since." |
| Ofelia: This word is composed of the preposition fino—shortened into fin for pronunciation reasons. It means "until," and it’s combined with the preposition da meaning “from.” |
| Brandon: When can we use this word? |
| Ofelia: This is used when you want to indicate the starting point of a process or tendency. However, you can not use this phrase if you’re at the end point of a process or a tendency. |
| This mistake is very likely because fino by itself or combined with the preposition a means "until" and can be used to refer to an ending point. For example, ho dormito fino a mezzogiorno, means "I slept until noon." |
| Brandon: Okay, can you give us an example with our key word? |
| Ofelia: Sure! Piove fin da ieri mattina. |
| Brandon: Meaning, “It has been raining since yesterday morning." Okay, now on to the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Brandon: In this lesson, you'll learn about phrasal verbs with the prepositions di and a. Most verbs are single words, but the verbs combined with a preposition, like English phrasal verbs, have two or more words. |
| Ofelia: That’s right. In the dialogue, Lucia said, come mai hai deciso di venire in Italia? |
| Brandon: Meaning, “How is it that you decided to come to Italy?” What was the phrasal verb here? |
| Ofelia: Decidere di, which means "to decide to." You’ll see that the first part of the phrase is a verb that has its own meaning when we use it by itself. The second part is a preposition that allows you to combine the verb with another verb in the infinitive form. |
| Brandon: So for example, to say “to decide to come.” |
| Ofelia: Yes, and that would be decidere di venire. And in this lesson we’re going to learn some verbs that are followed by the simple prepositions di and a. We’ve already covered an example with di, but here’s an example from the dialogue with a. Ho continuato a studiare italiano. |
| Brandon: Meaning, "I continued studying Italian." |
| Ofelia: Here, the phrasal verb is continuare a, which literally means "to continue to." |
| Brandon: Now before we go further, let’s review prepositions in Italian. |
| Ofelia: Italian prepositions can be simple, such as di, a, da, in, con, su, per, tra, fra. |
| Brandon: Or they can be articulated, meaning that a definite article follows the preposition and they contract to form one word. |
| Ofelia: Such as del, al, nel, or sul. In the case of the preposition di, meaning "of," the articulated forms are del, dello, dell', dei, degli, della, and delle. Moving on, the preposition a has three basic meanings: "to," "at," and "in." The articulated forms are al, allo, ai, agli, all', alla, and alle. |
| Brandon: Now let's review some of the most common verbs combined with these two prepositions and then followed by another verb in the infinitive form. Ofelia will give you the Italian phrase, and I’ll give you the English translation. |
| Ofelia: Cominciare a fare qualcosa. |
| Brandon: “To start doing something.” |
| Ofelia: Provare a fare qualcosa. |
| Brandon: “To try to do something.” |
| Ofelia: Riuscire a fare qualcosa. |
| Brandon: “To manage doing something.” |
| Ofelia: Sapere di fare qualcosa. |
| Brandon: “To be conscious of doing something.” |
| Ofelia: Ricordare di fare qualcosa. |
| Brandon: “To remember to do something.” |
| Ofelia: Finire di fare qualcosa. |
| Brandon: “To finish doing something.” Listeners, check out the charts in the lesson notes for more examples of common phrasal verbs. |
| Ofelia: Brandon, did you notice Fare qualcosa was in all these examples? |
| Brandon: This means "to do something," right? |
| Ofelia: That’s right. So if you want to use a phrasal verb, just substitute this phrase for any verb in the infinitive form. Here’s an example: ho finito di inserire tutti i dati. |
| Brandon: Meaning, "I finished inserting all of the data." |
| Ofelia: And here’s another one: proviamo a chiedere informazioni ad un passante. |
| Brandon: "Let's try asking a passerby for information." Well, that’s all the time we have for now. |
| Ofelia: Listeners, be sure to check out the lesson notes for more details and examples. |
| MARKETING PIECE |
| Brandon: Attention perfectionists! You’re about to learn how to perfect your pronunciation. |
| Ofelia: Lesson Review Audio Tracks. |
| Brandon: Increase fluency and vocabulary fast with these short, effective audio tracks. |
| Ofelia: Super simple to use. Listen to the Italian word or phrase... |
| Brandon: ...then repeat it out loud in a loud clear voice. |
| Ofelia: You’ll speak with confidence knowing that you’re speaking Italian like the locals. |
| Brandon: Go to ItalianPod101.com, and download the Review Audio Tracks right on the lessons page today! |
Outro |
| Brandon: Thank you for listening, everyone. See you next time! |
| Ofelia: A presto. |
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