Learn how to form the passato prossimo tense of second conjugation Italian verbs
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Marco: Marco here. Newbie Series, Season 1, lesson #26 - Have You Read Montale’s Poems? |
| Cinzia: Buon giorno! I’m Cinzia. |
| Marco: And I’m Marco, and we’d like to welcome you to this new lesson in the Newbie Series in Italianpod101.com. |
| Cinzia: Thank you to listeners joining us at Italianpod101.com. We are going to teach Italian in a fun and interesting way. |
| Marco: So stay tuned. |
| Cinzia: Woh! What do we have here? Montale! |
| Marco: Yes, Montale is a famous Italian poet, right? |
| Cinzia: Did you like it? |
| Marco: Well, if my high school teachers actually listen to this, they would be very angry, I forgot all of his poems. |
| Cinzia: Oh, no, Marco, come on! |
| Marco: I am very bad at poetry. |
| Cinzia: Don't you remember Ossi di seppia? It's a very famous poem by Montale. |
| Marco: No, I forgot them all, I’m sorry, my internal hard disk is very limited, I don’t have enough space for all the data. |
| Cinzia: Oh, fine. Ok, so, I think it’s better to see the dialogue now. |
| Marco: Yes, and the dialogue is between Laura and John. |
| Cinzia: It’s in the informal speech. |
| Marco: And well, as you’ll notice, they’ll be talking about poetry. Before we jump in, take a look at the learning center, especially at the vocabulary flashcards that now have a audio option. You can now listen to Cinzia’s voice reading the vocabulary questions as you do the flashcards. |
| Cinzia: Fortunali |
| Marco: Lucky, lucky! |
| DIALOGUE |
| Laura: Hai letto le poesie di Eugenio Montale? |
| John: Ho preso la raccolta di poesie, ma io preferisco leggere la narrativa. |
| Laura: Allora ti consiglio di leggere i romanzi di Italo Calvino. |
| John: È vero che è nato a Cuba? |
| Laura: Sì. |
| Marco: Let’s hear it slowly now. |
| Laura: Hai letto le poesie di Eugenio Montale? |
| John: Ho preso la raccolta di poesie, ma io preferisco leggere la narrativa. |
| Laura: Allora ti consiglio di leggere i romanzi di Italo Calvino. |
| John: È vero che è nato a Cuba? |
| Laura: Sì. |
| Marco: And now, with the translation. |
| Laura: Hai letto le poesie di Eugenio Montale? |
| Laura: Have you read Eugenio Montale's poems? |
| John: Ho preso la raccolta di poesie, ma io preferisco leggere la narrativa. |
| John: I bought the collection of poems, but I prefer reading prose. |
| Laura: Allora ti consiglio di leggere i romanzi di Italo Calvino. |
| Laura: Then I suggest you read Italo Calvino's novels. |
| John: È vero che è nato a Cuba? |
| John: Is it true he was born in Cuba? |
| Laura: Sì. |
| Laura: Yes, it is. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Marco: So many famous names in this short dialogue. |
| Cinzia: Yes, Montale and Calvino. |
| Marco: Well, Calvino is, yes, he was born in Cuba, but he actually stayed at my city. |
| Cinzia: Really? |
| Marco: Yes, Sanremo. |
| Cinzia: Oh wow! |
| Marco: He wrote a few books about Sanremo. One is called il sentiero dei nidi di ragno. |
| Cinzia: Oh yeah, I’ve read it. |
| Marco: Very nice, isn’t it? |
| Cinzia: Yes I actually love Calvino. |
| Marco: And the story narrated in il sentiero dei nidi di ragno actually takes place just around where I live. |
| Cinzia: Oh wow! |
| Marco: Well certainly the city has changed tremendously but you can still actually go around the places where the book is set. |
| Cinzia: And Marco, what about le città invisibili? |
| Marco: Very, very nice book but maybe the one that touched me the most was Il barone rampante. |
| Cinzia: Oh, I haven’t read it. |
| Marco: It talks about this young boy that actually then becomes a baron because his family is a very wealthy family. He decides after having argued with his family to spend his whole life on trees. |
| Cinzia: Oh! |
| Marco: And so really he spends his whole life just hanging on trees. |
| Cinzia: Ho wow! I am curious. Now I want to read it. |
| Marco: Yeah it’s very, very nice. I mean my childhood imagination was really touched by this. |
| Cinzia: Yes I can imagine. He is so great. |
| Marco: Yes, he is, but let’s move on with... |
| Cinzia: Vocabulary. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Marco: The first word is |
| Cinzia: poesia [natural native speed] |
| Marco: poem |
| Cinzia: poesia [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: poesia [natural native speed] |
| Marco: And the next word is |
| Cinzia: prendere [natural native speed] |
| Marco: to take, get (figuratively, to buy) |
| Cinzia: prendere [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: prendere [natural native speed] |
| Marco: And the next word is |
| Cinzia: ma [natural native speed] |
| Marco: but |
| Cinzia: ma [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: ma [natural native speed] |
| Marco: The next word is |
| Cinzia: preferire [natural native speed] |
| Marco: to prefer |
| Cinzia: preferire [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: preferire [natural native speed] |
| Marco: And the next word is |
| Cinzia: narrativa [natural native speed] |
| Marco: prose |
| Cinzia: narrativa [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: narrativa [natural native speed] |
| Marco: The next word is |
| Cinzia: allora [natural native speed] |
| Marco: so, then |
| Cinzia: allora [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: allora [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word |
| Cinzia: consigliare [natural native speed] |
| Marco: to suggest, to advise |
| Cinzia: consigliare [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: consigliare [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word |
| Cinzia: romanzo [natural native speed] |
| Marco: novel |
| Cinzia: romanzo [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: romanzo [natural native speed] |
| Marco: And next word |
| Cinzia: vero [natural native speed] |
| Marco: true |
| Cinzia: vero [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: vero [natural native speed] |
| Marco: And finally |
| Cinzia: nascere [natural native speed] |
| Marco: to be born |
| Cinzia: nascere [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: nascere [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Cinzia: Now let’s have a look at the usage for some of the words and expressions. |
| Marco: What a nice voice today Cinzia! You’re so….I don’t know. Such a gentle voice, what happened? |
| Cinzia: Oh thank you Marco. I don’t know. It’s my voice. |
| Marco: Okay. Let’s have the same voice for the examples then. |
| Cinzia: The first word we will look at is poesia. |
| Marco: And the example sentence is |
| Cinzia: Scrivo una poesia. |
| Marco: I write a poem. |
| Cinzia: The next word is prendere |
| Marco: And the example sentence is |
| Cinzia: Hai preso il pane? |
| Marco: Did you buy the bread? |
| Cinzia: Next word, narrativa. |
| Marco: And the example is |
| Cinzia: Non mi piace la narrativa. |
| Marco: I don’t like prose. |
| Cinzia: I like prose. |
| Marco: Well, with all our famous Italian writers out there, it’s actually difficult not to like Italian prose I think. |
| Cinzia: Actually most of our Italian writers wrote both prose and poetry. |
| Marco: But there is one in particular who wrote poetry in prose. Who are we talking about? |
| Cinzia: Dante |
| Marco: Yes! Dante Alighieri with La Divina Commedia. That was difficult to read. |
| Cinzia: But very, very interesting. |
| Marco: Yes. Every single word he says is actually sought out a 100,000 times I think and most of the time, it’s connected with people, facts of the time when he was writing. Cinzia, do you recommend it for our students? |
| Cinzia: Ahh… |
| Marco: Well in English. |
| Cinzia: Oh of course, of course I do recommend it. |
| Marco: So if you have time, try reading La Divina Commedia. Okay so let’s move on with the next word. |
| Cinzia: Which is allora |
| Marco: And the example sentence is |
| Cinzia: Allora è deciso. |
| Marco: Then it’s settled. Next word. |
| Cinzia: consigliare |
| Marco: And the example sentence is |
| Cinzia: Ti consiglio di guardare quel film. |
| Marco: I suggest you watch that movie. |
| Cinzia: And the next word we will see is romanzo |
| Marco: The example sentence is |
| Cinzia: Ho scritto il mio primo romanzo. |
| Marco: I wrote my first novel. |
| Cinzia: And the last word we will look at is nascere. |
| Marco: And the example sentence is |
| Cinzia: Sono nato sotto una buona stella. |
| Marco: I was born under a lucky star. |
| Cinzia: Oh what a nice sentence! |
| Marco: Yes, yes very nice. |
| Cinzia: But now let’s take a look at the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Cinzia: So Marco, do you think it’s difficult? |
| Marco: What, the passato prossimo? |
| Cinzia: Yes, all the grammar we have today. |
| Marco: Well no, it’s actually altogether I mean we saw in the last lesson the passato prossimo of the first conjugation and today, we are going to take a look at the passato prossimo of the second conjugation. |
| Cinzia: Oh okay. So it’s not that difficult. |
| Marco: No, no, no we are just seeing it again and again because it’s important for our students to remember it. |
| Cinzia: Of course. |
| Marco: Especially because we have three conjugations plus all the regular verbs. |
| Cinzia: Um yes. |
| Marco: But let’s focus on the second conjugation but let’s not forget that the second conjugation follows the same rules as the first conjugation and now let’s take a look at the first example. That is… |
| Cinzia: nascere |
| Marco: "to be born", which has to have the auxiliary essere. |
| Cinzia: "to be”. |
| Cinzia: Io sono nato |
| Marco: "I was born" |
| Cinzia: Tu sei nato |
| Marco: "You were born" |
| Cinzia: Lui è nato |
| Marco: "He was born" |
| Cinzia: Lei è nata |
| Marco: "She was born" |
| Cinzia: Noi siamo nati |
| Marco: "We were born" |
| Cinzia: Voi siete nati |
| Marco: "You were born" |
| Cinzia: Loro sono nati |
| Marco: "They were born" |
| Cinzia: So just as we have seen in the previous lesson, we have the feminine exception. |
| Marco: Yes because as always, if the auxiliary is essere, the past participle has to be matched, has to agree with the gender of the subject which it refers to. For example, if Cinzia says “I was born”, she would say... |
| Cinzia: Io sono nata |
| Marco: While I would say io sono nato. very simple. |
| Cinzia: So very easy, yes, yes, yes. |
| Marco: Yes, yes, yes. |
| Cinzia: Oh Marco! |
| Marco: Now let’s take a look at another example for the second conjugation. That is… |
| Cinzia: leggere |
| Marco: "to read", which need the auxiliary avere. |
| Cinzia: Io ho letto |
| Marco: "I have read"/"I read" |
| Cinzia: Tu hai letto |
| Marco: "You have read"/"You read" |
| Cinzia: Lui/Lei ha letto |
| Marco: "He/She/It has read”/"He/She/It read" |
| Cinzia: Noi abbiamo letto |
| Marco: "We have read"/"We read" |
| Cinzia: Voi avete letto |
| Marco: "You have read"/"You read" |
| Cinzia: Loro hanno letto |
| Marco: "They have read"/"They read" |
Outro |
| Cinzia: Bellissimo. |
| Marco: Very straightforward. |
| Cinzia: E facilisimo. |
| Marco: Yes, yes. So I think we can say goodbye to our students and let them go and study these verbs by heart. |
| Cinzia: Yes, dear listeners, study the passato prossimo and be ready for the next lesson. |
| Marco: And the test. Oh! We didn’t tell them… |
| Cinzia: Oh… |
| Marco: We are going to have tests in the future. No, we are joking, don’t worry. Just study and have fun with us. |
| Cinzia: Yes. The most important thing is that you have fun with us. |
| Marco: And that you write comments. Please write us any comment, anything. Please let us grow with your comments. |
| Cinzia: Oh yes, maybe you could write me a love poem. |
| Marco: Me? |
| Cinzia: No, my listeners. |
| Marco: Okay. If you want to waste time, please do. |
| Cinzia: It’s not a waste of time. |
| Marco: Okay. Time is finished. Bye bye everybody. |
| Cinzia: Ciao! |
| Marco: Ciao ciao! |
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