Learn the distinction between how we use the passato prossimo tense in written and spoken Italian
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Marco: Marco here. Newbie Series season 1, lesson 28 - Have You Done Your Italian Homework? |
| Cinzia: Buon giorno a tutti! Hi, I’m Cinzia and we’d like to welcome you to the 28th lesson of the Newbie Series in Italianpod101.com. |
| Marco: Benvenuti! |
| Cinzia: We will be guiding you through basic grammar and vocabulary… |
| Marco: And don’t forget that we’re going to discuss different aspects of the language, culture and customs that you’ll find in Italy. So Cinzia, what do we have today? Do we have a big lesson on the menu? |
| Cinzia: Oh, Marco, Marco. Oggi abbiamo passato prossimo. |
| Marco: “Today, we have the passato prossimo”. Hey wait, we had it for our last lessons. |
| Cinzia: Yes, yes, I know but don’t worry. Today’s lesson is just a review. |
| Marco: Oh, so it’s the last lesson with passato prossimo. |
| Cinzia: Yes, it doesn’t mean that our students won’t find the passato prossimo anymore in the lessons, but today we are going to see the usage of passato prossimo in the three conjugations. |
| Marco: Okay, so not only will we have a review of the passato prossimo but more importantly, the usage. |
| Cinzia: Yes, and dear listeners, don’t be surprised because we are going to see today three dialogues. |
| Marco: Three dialogues? |
| Cinzia: Yes. |
| Marco: Our audio editors are going to kill us. |
| Cinzia: Oh come on, it’s such a fun. |
| Marco: Yes. So let’s take a look at the first dialogue in which I will be a child. |
| Cinzia: Yes. |
| Marco: And Cinzia will be? |
| Cinzia: Your mother. |
| Marco: Okay. So mother, take it from there. |
| DIALOGUE 1 |
| Mother: Hai fatto i compiti? |
| Child: Si, li ho fatti. |
| Mother: Davvero? |
| Child: Si guarda! |
| Marco: Let’s hear it slowly now. |
| Mother: Hai fatto i compiti? |
| Child: Si, li ho fatti. |
| Mother: Davvero? |
| Child: Si guarda! |
| Marco: And now, with the translation. |
| Mother: Hai fatto i compiti? |
| Marco: Have you done your homework? |
| Child: Si, li ho fatti. |
| Marco: Yes, I have. |
| Mother: Davvero? |
| Marco: Really? |
| Child: Si guarda! |
| Marco: Yes, look! |
| DIALOGUE 2 |
| Cinzia: And now, let’s take a look at the second dialogue. |
| Marco: In which, I’ll be a male tourist, while Cinzia will be… |
| Cinzia: A female tourist. |
| Marco: Yes, yes. |
| Cinzia: Be careful, tune your ears for the passato prossimo. |
| Marco: Exactly, careful there. |
| --------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Male tourist: I romani hanno costruito molte strade. |
| Female tourist: Si le più famose sono la Via Appia, la Via Aurelia, la Via Emilia, la Via Postumia e molte altre. |
| Male tourist: Hanno anche costruito molti acquedotti. |
| Female tourist: Sì sono usati ancora oggi. |
| Marco: Let’s hear it slowly now. |
| Male tourist: I romani hanno costruito molte strade. |
| Female tourist: Si le più famose sono la Via Appia, la Via Aurelia, la Via Emilia, la Via Postumia e molte altre. |
| Male tourist: Hanno anche costruito molti acquedotti. |
| Female tourist: Sì sono usati ancora oggi. |
| Marco: And now, with the translation. |
| Male tourist: I romani hanno costruito molte strade. |
| Marco: The Romans built many roads. |
| Female tourist: Si le più famose sono la Via Appia, la Via Aurelia, la Via Emilia, la Via Postumia e molte altre. |
| Marco: Yes. The most famous ones are Via Appia, Via Aurelia, Via Emilia, Via Postumia, and many more. |
| Male tourist: Hanno anche costruito molti acquedotti. |
| Marco: They also built many aqueducts. |
| Female tourist: Sì sono usati ancora oggi. |
| Marco: Yes, they are still used today. |
| DIALOGUE 3 |
| Marco: And now, let’s take a look at the final dialogue. |
| Cinzia: In which, I’ll be Laura, and Marco will be... |
| Marco: John. |
| --------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Laura: Ieri sera sono tornata a casa alle cinque. |
| John: Ieri sera? Vuoi dire stamattina! |
| Laura: Si! Come sono stanca! |
| Marco: Let’s hear it slowly now. |
| Laura: Ieri sera sono tornata a casa alle cinque. |
| John: Ieri sera? Vuoi dire stamattina! |
| Laura: Si! Come sono stanca! |
| Marco: And now, with the translation. |
| Laura: Ieri sera sono tornata a casa alle cinque. |
| Marco: Yesterday evening, I came home at five. |
| John: Ieri sera? Vuoi dire stamattina! |
| Marco: Yesterday evening? You mean this morning! |
| Laura: Si! Come sono stanca! |
| Marco: Yes! I am so tired! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Marco: So well, not difficult dialogues. |
| Cinzia: Yes but so many. |
| Marco: We should see in more detail the usage of the passato prossimo in a dialogue in the grammar point. |
| Cinzia: Oh yes, yes of course. |
| Marco: First of all, let’s continue with our usual order, taking a look at the vocabulary and phrases. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Marco: So, today’s first word is... |
| Cinzia: compiti [natural native speed] |
| Marco: homework |
| Cinzia: compiti [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: compiti [natural native speed] |
| Marco: The next word is |
| Cinzia: costruire [natural native speed] |
| Marco: to build |
| Cinzia: costruire [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: costruire [natural native speed] |
| Marco: The next word is |
| Cinzia: strada [natural native speed] |
| Marco: road, street |
| Cinzia: strada [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: strada [natural native speed] |
| Marco: The next word is |
| Cinzia: acquedotto [natural native speed] |
| Marco: aqueduct |
| Cinzia: acquedotto [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: acquedotto [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word |
| Cinzia: ieri [natural native speed] |
| Marco: yesterday |
| Cinzia: ieri [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: ieri [natural native speed] |
| Marco: And last word |
| Cinzia: stamattina [natural native speed] |
| Marco: this morning |
| Cinzia: stamattina [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: stamattina [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Cinzia: And now let’s have a look at the usage for some of the words and expressions. The first word we will look at is compiti. |
| Marco: And the sample sentence is? |
| Cinzia: Non voglio fare i compiti. |
| Marco: "I don't want to do my homework." The next word is? |
| Cinzia: Costruire. |
| Marco: And the sample sentence is? |
| Cinzia: La Fiat ha costruito buone macchine. |
| Marco: "Fiat built good cars." |
| Cinzia: The next word we will look at is strada. |
| Marco: And the sample sentence is? |
| Cinzia: La strada non è illuminata. |
| Marco: "The road is unlit." |
| Cinzia: The next word we will look at is acquedotto. |
| Marco: And the sample sentence is? |
| Cinzia: Il nuovo acquedotto funziona bene. |
| Marco: "The new aqueduct works well." |
| Cinzia: The next word is ieri. |
| Marco: And the sample sentence is? |
| Cinzia: Mi hai chiamato ieri? |
| Marco: "Did you call me yesterday?" |
| Cinzia: And the last word we will look at is stamattina. |
| Marco: The sample sentence is? |
| Cinzia: Stamattina non ho fatto colazione. |
| Marco: "I didn't have breakfast this morning." |
| Cinzia: And now, be ready for the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Marco: First of all, In order to understand how to use the passato prossimo tense, we have to make a distinction between the spoken and written language. |
| Cinzia: Oh yes that’s for sure. |
| Marco: And I am sure that Cinzia will help us in this understanding. |
| Cinzia: Yes of course. Obviously, when we are talking about spoken language, everything depends on where the dialogues take place. For example, the different areas of Italy. |
| Marco: So for example, what about Southern Italy? How would we use the passato prossimo or other alternatives? |
| Cinzia: Oh yes. I actually would say that passato prossimo is not very often used as passato remoto can be. |
| Marco: So in southern and central Italy, Italians don’t use that much passato prossimo, do they? |
| Cinzia: No. |
| Marco: They use like Cinzia was saying, passato remoto. We still have to see that. |
| Cinzia: Anyway, don’t be scared of passato remoto because we will see it in future lessons. Now just please remember that in the south of Italy, you can often hear something different in place of the passato prossimo… |
| Marco: Exactly. |
| Cinzia: But anyway, Italians understand passato prossimo. So you can use it very easily. |
| Marco: Yes, yes. Anywhere you go, people understand the passato prossimo tense and maybe hear something different coming back at you but don’t worry, you will be understood. |
| Cinzia: Yes and obviously, you would use passato prossimo talking about past actions. |
| Marco: And same as passato remoto. |
| Cinzia: Yes exactly, but now let’s go and see it in particular and in the written language. |
| Marco: To better explain the differences, today we had three dialogues, right? |
| Cinzia: Yes. |
| Marco: So in dialogue #1, the one where I was the child, the usage of the passato prossimo is to express a past action that the writer feels as completed at the present time. |
| Cinzia: Yes, I would do the example again. |
| Marco: Yes, please do. |
| Cinzia: Hai fatto i compiti? |
| Marco: Si, li ho fatti. |
| Cinzia: And how would it be in English, Marco? |
| Marco: Well, the mother would say, ”have you done your homework?" And the child answer “yes, I have”. So what is the equivalent in this case of passato prossimo in the English? |
| Cinzia: Well the equivalent is the present perfect. |
| Marco: So in this case, passato prossimo is equivalent to present perfect. |
| Cinzia: So just to describe finished and completed actions. |
| Marco: Yes. Let’s give our listeners a nice tip. |
| Cinzia: Oh yes. In this case, the passato prossimo tense is often, although not always, associated with adverbs or phrases that express temporal indications referring to the present time. |
| Marco: Such as in questo momento "at this moment", adesso "now", etc. An example, Cinzia? |
| Cinzia: Sono arrivato solo adesso. |
| Marco: "I have arrived just now." |
| Marco: Instead in the second dialogue where both me and Cinzia were tourists. We used passato prossimo to express a past action whose effects continue to the present time. |
| Cinzia: This meaning would be normally conveyed in English using the simple past tense. |
| Marco: So in the dialogue, we have i romani hanno costruito molte strade, that in English is? |
| Cinzia: The Romans built many roads. |
| Marco: Let’s give our listeners one more example of this case. |
| Cinzia: Napoleone è stato il più grande stratega di sempre. |
| Marco: "Napoleon was the greatest strategist ever." |
| Cinzia: Oh this is so true. |
| Marco: Yes it is I think. |
| Cinzia: Just remember that in this second case, we are expressing the meaning of a past action whose effects continue in the present time. |
| Marco: Exactly. |
| Cinzia: And now let’s take a look at the third case referring to the third dialogue in which Marco was John. |
| Marco: And Cinzia was? |
| Cinzia: Laura. |
| Marco: Okay. |
| Cinzia: So in the dialogue, we saw sono tornata and the English translation was |
| Marco: “I came”. |
| Cinzia: Yes, so in this case, we used passato prossimo to express actions whose effects do not persist at the present time but that the writer feels are recent. |
| Marco: Perfect. Our listeners should keep in mind though, this feeling is just a psychological attitude by any means it is an objective evaluation of time. So what happens in this case, is that we are allowed to use the passato prossimo in any action that we do not consider to be part of the distant past. And Cinzia, one last thing, in this case, what would be the English equivalent? |
| Cinzia: The simple past tense. |
| Marco: So let’s give them one last example. |
| Cinzia: Dieci anni fa sono stato in Sardegna. |
| Marco: "I went to Sardinia ten years ago." You did? |
| Cinzia: Ah no, I’ve never been to Sardinia. |
| Marco: Me neither, we should actually go. Let’s have an italianpod101.com trip to Sardinia. Anybody want to sign up? Just joking. |
Outro |
| Marco: Anyway, this is a very rich lesson but I think we are out of time already, aren’t we? |
| Cinzia: Ah yes, yes. |
| Marco: Check today’s PDF because it’s full of other information on today’s topic. |
| Cinzia: They better. |
| Marco: Ok then, ciao ciao! |
| Cinzia: ciao ciao! |
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