Learn the Italian demonstrative adjective that means "this"
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Cinzia: Buon giorno! Mi chiamo Cinzia. |
| Marco: Marco here. Newbie Series, season 1, lesson #12 - Oh…Just a Little "This" and "That"! Buon giorno a tutti! Hi! My name is Marco. And I’m joined here by Cinzia. Come Va? |
| Cinzia: Alla grande, Marco, grazie. Hello and welcome to the Newbie Series of ItalianPod101.com, which focuses on the basics for anyone to start to learn the Italian language. Marco: So please join us with this lesson at ItalianPod101.com. The focus of this lesson is singular forms of the demonstrative adjective questo. |
| Cinzia: This conversation takes place at John's apartment. |
| Marco: And it is between Laura Rossi and John Smith. |
| Cinzia: They are friends, therefore they will be speaking informal italian. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Laura: John, questa maglietta è nuova? |
| John: Si, bella vero? Anche questo cappello è nuovo. |
| Laura: Davvero? Bello. Anche questa camicia è nuova? |
| John: No, questa camicia è vecchia. |
| Marco: Let’s hear it slowly now. |
| Laura: John, questa maglietta è nuova? |
| John: Si, bella vero? Anche questo cappello è nuovo. |
| Laura: Davvero? Bello. Anche questa camicia è nuova? |
| John: No, questa camicia è vecchia. |
| Marco: Once again, this time, with the translation. |
| Laura: John, questa maglietta è nuova? |
| Marco: John, is this t-shirt new? |
| John: Si, bella vero? Anche questo cappello è nuovo. |
| Marco: Yes, nice, right? This hat is also new. |
| Laura: Davvero? Bello. Anche questa camicia è nuova? |
| Marco: Really? Nice. Is the shirt also new? |
| John: No, questa camicia è vecchia. |
| Marco: No, this shirt is old. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Cinzia: Ok. Marco, tell me, what do you usually bring with you when you leave for a long trip? |
| Marco: Well, computer, mobile phone, charger... |
| Cinzia: Ok, ok, I'm not talking about that, I am talking about clothes. What kind of clothes do you bring? |
| Marco: Ok. Like everyone, it depends where I'm going, but usually.. |
| Cinzia: For example... If you were going to Italy and in particular to Naples! What would you bring? |
| Marco: In the summer time? |
| Cinzia: Yes! Summer time. |
| Marco: I'm not sure I'm going to Naples anyway. |
| Cinzia: Oh! My god! Marco!!! How rude are you? |
| Marco: One to ten... Twenty? |
| Cinzia: I think more... |
| Marco: More... Ok then, on with the vocabulary! |
| Cinzia: So wait, wait a sec! Are you really not gonna go to Naples? |
| Marco: Not sure, I might go. |
| Cinzia: Not even to visit me? |
| Marco: No, for that, I'm sure I wouldn't go. |
| Cinzia: This guy must be joking! So, ok, apart from Marco, for the others who want to come to see me in Naples, in the summer time you should bring... |
| Marco: ...ah... me? |
| Cinzia: Yes Marco! |
| Marco: You should definitely bring a costume “bathing suite”, and occhiali da sole “sunglasses”, what else Cinzia? |
| Cinzia: Un cappello “a hat”? And for all the women, sandali comodi “comfortable sandals”! |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Marco: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| Marco: First |
| Cinzia: questa [natural native speed] |
| Marco: this (feminine singular) |
| Cinzia: questa [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: questa [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word |
| Cinzia: nuova [natural native speed] |
| Marco: new (feminine singular) |
| Cinzia: nuova [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: nuova [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word |
| Cinzia: bella [natural native speed] |
| Marco: nice, beautiful (feminine singular) |
| Cinzia: bella [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: bella [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word |
| Cinzia: questo [natural native speed] |
| Marco: this (masculine singular) |
| Cinzia: questo [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: questo [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word |
| Cinzia: camicia [natural native speed] |
| Marco: shirt |
| Cinzia: camicia [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: camicia [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word |
| Cinzia: cappello [natural native speed] |
| Marco: hat |
| Cinzia: cappello [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: cappello [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Last word |
| Cinzia: vecchia [natural native speed] |
| Marco: old (feminine singular) |
| Cinzia: vecchia [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: vecchia [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Cinzia: Let’s have a look at the usage for some of the words and expressions. The first word we will look at is questa. |
| Marco: Cinzia, can you give us an example sentence please? |
| Cinzia: Questa sera. |
| Marco: “This evening.” |
| Cinzia: OK. The next word isnuova. |
| Marco: Let’s have an example |
| Cinzia: Una nuova casa. |
| Marco: “A new house.” |
| Cinzia: Next word is “bella.” |
| Marco: One example please. |
| Cinzia: Una bella ragazza. |
| Marco: “A nice looking girl.” |
| Cinzia: Like me? |
| Marco: Yes! |
| Cinzia: The next word we will see is questo. |
| Marco: And the example is? |
| Cinzia: Questo panino. |
| Marco: “This sandwich.” |
| Cinzia: Next word is camicia. |
| Marco: One example please. |
| Cinzia: La camicia è pulita. |
| Marco: “The shirt is clean.” |
| Cinzia: The last word for today is vecchia. |
| Marco: One last example. |
| Cinzia: Una casa vecchia. |
| Marco: “An old house.” |
| Cinzia: Ok then, this wraps it up for the vocabulary usage. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Marco: Today we shall learn how to use one category of Italian adjectives, named... |
| Cinzia: Demonstrative adjectives. Listeners don't be scared, it's gonna be very easy. They correspond to the English equivalent “this, that” in the singular form, today we are only going to see questo and questa, the masculine and feminine singular demonstrative adjectives. So don't let Marco scare you. |
| Marco: Ok, then. Just as every Italian adjective, they have to agree with the nouns they refer to in both gender and number and cannot stand alone. |
| Cinzia: Let's take a look at the patterns and how they are formed. |
| Marco: Demonstrative adjectives singular, questo “this”. Now in Italian, there are 3 main groups of nouns, ones that start with a consonant, nouns that start with a vowel, and finally nouns that start with a Z, Y, or S + consonant. So luckily, questo, that is used for the masculine singular of “this”, stays the same for all three groups. Now, I’m really sorry, listeners, it may sound very difficult, but if we just see a few examples it would be so clear. So Cinzia, can you give us a noun that start with a consonant? |
| Cinzia: Cane. |
| Marco: “dog”. Now, let’s add the demonstrative adjective “this”. And remember that cane is masculine. |
| Cinzia: questo cane |
| Marco: "This dog". As you have seen, it was a perfect match. Masculine singular, and masculine singular. And in this case we use questo. Very very easy. Let’s go on to the next one. Cinzia, let's have a masculine nouns starting with a vowel. |
| Cinzia: Albero. |
| Marco: “Tree”. Now Cinzia, how do we say “this tree”? |
| Cinzia: Questo albero. |
| Marco: So no change from before. Questo is still questo. And finally, let’s have an example with a masculine noun starting with a Z. |
| Cinzia: Zaffiro. |
| Marco: “Sapphire”. So how do we say “this sapphire”? |
| Cinzia: Questo zaffiro. |
| Marco: Next, masculine noun starting with a Y. |
| Cinzia: Yogurt. |
| Marco: “Yogurt”. And how do we say “this yogurt"? |
| Cinzia: Questo yogurt. |
| Marco: Yogurt, good yogurt. Ok, moving on. What about a masculine noun starting with s + consonant? |
| Cinzia: Scandalo. |
| Marco: “scandal”. And now, Cinzia, how do we say "this scandal"? |
| Cinzia: Questo scandalo. |
| Marco: So listeners, in theory it sounded so difficult, but in practice it's always questo. Isn’t it right, Cinzia? |
| Cinzia: Yes, Marco. Don’t forget, for masculine singular nouns. |
| Marco: Exactly, so now let's take a look at the feminine singular nouns. So as if seen before we have these three big groups, nouns that start with consonant, nouns that start with vowel, and nouns that start with Z, Y, or S + consonant. So Cinzia, give me one noun, actually feminine noun, that starts with a consonant. |
| Cinzia: Ragazza. |
| Marco: “girl”. And how do we say “this girl”? |
| Cinzia: Questa ragazza. |
| Marco: What about a feminine nouns starting with a vowel? |
| Cinzia: Unghia. |
| Marco: “fingernail”. So how do we say “This fingernail”? |
| Cinzia: Quest'unghia. Notice there was a change, please. |
| Marco: Yes. We didn’t say questa unghia, but we said... |
| Cinzia: Quest'unghia. |
| Marco: Because there are two vowels. There is the ‘a’ in questa, sorry, the final ‘a’ of questa, and the starting ‘u’ of unghia. The last ‘a’ of questa is dropped, and in its place we have a small apostrophe. So Cinzia, let’s hear it one more time, slowly. |
| Cinzia: Quest'unghia. |
| Marco: You see, it looks like it's one word, the apostrophe actually put the two words together. So now for our third group, the one with nouns starting with Z, Y, or S + consonant, it's actually all the same, so let’s have one example for all of them. |
| Cinzia: Strada. |
| Marco. “Road.” And how do we say “this road”? |
| Cinzia: Questa strada. |
| Marco: So now, let’s take a look at where questo and questa popped up in the conversation. In the first line, what did Laura say? |
| Cinzia: Laura said, questa maglietta. |
| Marco: And that means “this t-shirt”. And maglietta is a feminine singular noun, so we use the feminine singular demonstrative adjective questa. |
| Cinzia: Instead, in the second line, John says, questo cappello. |
| Marco: “This hat”. |
| Cinzia: And cappello is a singular masculine noun, so we used questo cappello. |
| Marco: And then finally, in third line, Laura said, questa camicia. |
| Cinzia: “this shirt”. |
| Marco: And also here, camicia is feminine singular, so the demonstrative adjective is… |
| Cinzia: questa. Feminine singular. |
| Marco: So there are a lot of grammar around it, but the usage is actually very very easy. |
| Cinzia: In the fourth line, John says, questa camicia, and as we said before camicia is feminine singular, so wer have... |
| Marco: Questa camicia. |
| Cinzia: “This shirt”. Ok, so, my dear listeners, please don't be scared, it's gonna be very very easy, just listen to it few times, check the PDF, and it will all come together! |
Outro |
| Marco: This wraps up today's lesson. |
| Cinzia: Don't forget to try out the Italian Review in the Learning Center, where you'll find test questions, answers and comments on the answers. |
| Marco: It's a great way to start practicing on your own. |
| Cinzia: Grazie, ciao! |
| Marco: Ciao! |
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