Learn how to say various ethnicities and countries
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Cinzia: buonasera a tutti! Mi chiamo Cinzia. |
| Marco: Marco here. Newbie Series, season 1, lesson #30 - Are You Good at Meeting New People Who Aren't Italian? Hi, my name is Marco and I am joined here by Cinzia. Come va? |
| Cinzia: tutto bene, Marco, grazie. Hello, and welcome to the Newbie Series of ItalianPod101.com. |
| Marco: Thanks for joining us for our 17th lesson of this Newbie Series. |
| Cinzia: Which focuses on the basics for anyone starting to learn the Italian language. |
| Marco: So please join us for this lesson of Italianpod101.com. Before we jump in, take your studies to the next level by stopping by the Learning Center at Italianpod101.com. |
| Cinzia: Oh, I really like today’s lesson Marco. |
| Marco: Why? What’s it’s so special about? |
| Cinzia: It’s about Italian adjectives referring to nationality. |
| Marco: So we are going to be talking about countries and nationalities? |
| Cinzia: Yes. |
| Marco: Let’s jump in. I will be John while Cinzia will be? |
| Cinzia: Laura. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Laura: Ieri ho conosciuto uno spagnolo. |
| John: Io ho molti amici spagnoli. |
| Laura: Vorrei andare in Spagna. |
| John: E in Portogallo? |
| Laura: Hmm, si anche in Portogallo. |
| John: Ho un amico portoghese a Lisbona. |
| Laura: Io non ho mai conosciuto persone portoghesi. |
| Marco: Let’s hear it slowly now. |
| Laura: Ieri ho conosciuto uno spagnolo. |
| John: Io ho molti amici spagnoli. |
| Laura: Vorrei andare in Spagna. |
| John: E in Portogallo? |
| Laura: Hmm, si anche in Portogallo. |
| John: Ho un amico portoghese a Lisbona. |
| Laura: Io non ho mai conosciuto persone portoghesi. |
| Marco: And now, with the translation. |
| Laura: Ieri ho conosciuto uno spagnolo. |
| Marco: Yesterday I met a Spanish person. |
| John: Io ho molti amici spagnoli. |
| Marco: I have many Spanish friends. |
| Laura: Vorrei andare in Spagna. |
| Marco: I'd like to go to Spain. |
| John: E in Portogallo? |
| Marco: What about Portugal? |
| Laura: Hmm, si anche in Portogallo. |
| Marco: Hmm, yes also to Portugal. |
| John: Ho un amico portoghese a Lisbona. |
| Marco: I have a Portuguese friend in Lisbon. |
| Laura: Io non ho mai conosciuto persone portoghesi. |
| Marco: I have never met Portuguese people. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Marco: But really Cinzia, Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, they are all so near, aren’t they? |
| Cinzia: Yes, they are so close to each other. |
| Marco: It really is a pity to go in one country and not visit the other ones, right? |
| Cinzia: I remember a trip to Spain in which I went on the borders of Spain, and then I went to visit Portugal also, it was beautiful. |
| Marco: But what about the language? I mean it is similar to Italian, isn’t it? |
| Cinzia: Yes but in Spain, they have so many different dialects. |
| Marco: Really more than Italy? |
| Cinzia: Yes and actually these dialects are considered official. |
| Marco: Okay, okay but still we are teaching Italian. So sorry about that. Let’s go on with the vocabulary. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Marco: Today’s first word is |
| Cinzia: ieri [natural native speed] |
| Marco: yesterday |
| Cinzia: ieri [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: ieri [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word |
| Cinzia: molti [natural native speed] |
| Marco: many |
| Cinzia: molti [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: molti [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word |
| Cinzia: spagnolo [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Spanish |
| Cinzia: spagnolo [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: spagnolo [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word |
| Cinzia: Spagna [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Spain |
| Cinzia: Spagna [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: Spagna [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word |
| Cinzia: Portogallo [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Portugal |
| Cinzia: Portogallo [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: Portogallo [natural native speed] |
| Marco: And our next word is |
| Cinzia: portoghese [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Portuguese |
| Cinzia: portoghese [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: portoghese [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 ieri. |
| Marco: And the sample sentence is? |
| Cinzia: Ieri siamo andati al pub. |
| Marco: Yesterday, we went to the pub. We do use pub also in Italian, don’t we? |
| Cinzia: Oh yes a lot. |
| Marco: But the difference between a pub and a bar in Italian is I think the same as in English. A pub is more evening place to go drink. |
| Cinzia: Not only to drink, even to eat. |
| Marco: Yes, and it’s more British style, right? |
| Cinzia: Exactly. If I say pub, I think about UK style. |
| Marco: So, so British beer, right? |
| Cinzia: Yes British beer, Irish beer. |
| Marco: Oh, Genesee. |
| Cinzia: Yes, yes, but if I say bar, I think about club. |
| Marco: Bar can also be Italian style with not that much beer, maybe a bit more wine, a pool table. |
| Cinzia: Oh yes. In Italy, the bar is the place where you go and buy a beer or cigarettes also or even ice creams or… |
| Marco: Yes, yes usually in the summer time, children want to go to the bar not for drinking beer but for getting ice creams, maybe playing table soccer. |
| Cinzia: Oh yes, calcio grado. |
| Marco: Birradino? We call it calcetto. |
| Cinzia: Birradino. |
| Marco: Okay that’s strange. Well, nice to know. |
| Cinzia: Or you can go even to get a coffee. |
| Marco: Yes but Espresso coffee. |
| Cinzia: Of course. |
| Marco: Or Cappuccino, things like that, right? |
| Cinzia: Yes. |
| Marco: Umm. |
| Cinzia: But let’s take a look at the next word which is molti. |
| Marco: And the example sentence is |
| Cinzia: Ci sono molte persone. |
| Marco: There are many people. Now in this case molti, and not multi, because persone is feminine plural. |
| Cinzia: Yes, you are right Marco. |
| Marco: So molte persone instead many… |
| Cinzia: Friends? |
| Marco: Exactly. How would we say that? |
| Cinzia: molti amici. |
| Marco: So because amici is a masculine plural noun. |
| Cinzia: And I just want to remind you that in place of molti, you can also say tanti. |
| Marco: Yes, tanti, and in this phrase, it would be, ci sono tante persone. |
| Cinzia: Yes, or many friends, tanti amici. |
| Marco: Very simple. So come on, next word is |
| Cinzia: spagnolo |
| Marco: And example sentence is, |
| Cinzia: Lara è spagnola. |
| Marco: Laura is Spanish. |
| Cinzia: The next word we will look at is Spagna |
| Marco: And example sentence is, |
| Cinzia: La Spagna è un paese splendido. |
| Marco: Spain is an amazing country. |
| Cinzia: Next word is Portogallo |
| Marco: And example sentence is, |
| Cinzia: Il Portogallo confina con la Spagna. |
| Marco: Portugal border Spain. |
| Cinzia: And the last word we will look at is portoghese |
| Marco: And example sentence is |
| Cinzia: Mi piace la cucina portoghese. |
| Marco: I like Portuguese cuisine. |
| Cinzia: Do you? |
| Marco: I think I’d like it but never tried it. |
| Cinzia: Oh such a shame! |
| Marco: Have you tried it? |
| Cinzia: Yes. |
| Marco: Good? |
| Cinzia: Yes, of course. |
| Marco: Spicy? |
| Cinzia: Some things. |
| Marco: Okay, I should try it then. |
| Cinzia: Yeah, yeah, yeah. |
| Marco: Any Portuguese listeners out there, let us know your favorite food. And now, let’s take a look at the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Marco: A couple of easy, really easy things before we jump into a little bit more complex grammar, but not at all that complex, is that Italian terms referring to national origins or belongings fall in the adjective category. And secondly, contrary to English, they are always written in lowercase letters. |
| Cinzia: Yes, and since they are always attached to nouns, they agree to the number and gender with the noun they refer to. Be careful, because they behave as normal adjectives, but they can be divided into two categories. |
| Marco: Oh certainly. And the first comprises adjectives whose ending vowels are identical to the nouns they refer to. For instance... |
| Cinzia: La ragazza americana è molto affascinante. |
| Marco: "The American girl is very fascinating." |
| Cinzia: Yes, so we have ragazza ending with A and americana ending with A also. Very straightforward. Why don’t we see the masculine? |
| Marco: Certainly. I ragazzi greci sono molto intelligenti. |
| Cinzia: Greek guys are really clever. |
| Marco: In this case, we had ragazzi, masculine plural and greci, also masculine plural, both ending with I, very simple. |
| Cinzia: And now let’s take a look at the second category. |
| Marco: In this category, adjectives that change their ending vowel according only to the number of the noun they refer to. So no masculine or feminine included. |
| Cinzia: So they don’t agree with the gender, just with the number. |
| Marco: Yes, well, they do agree with the gender, but they don’t change themselves to agree with the gender. |
| Cinzia: Of course. Okay so let’s see some examples. |
| Marco: Certainly. The first one is, Cinzia? |
| Cinzia: Le donne francesi amano viaggiare. |
| Marco: French women love traveling. Here we have donne ending with an E, and francesi ending with an I. |
| Cinzia: So if we wanted to say, gli uomini francesi amano viaggiare. |
| Marco: French men love traveling. We have uomini, masculine plural ending in I, and francesi still ending in I. |
| Cinzia: Yes. So we have francese, singular, and francesi, plural. Never change to match the gender. |
| Marco: The best ways maybe to compare these two groups. Let’s use American for the first group and French for the second group. So first of all, masculine singular. |
| Cinzia: Americano |
| Marco: Feminine singular |
| Cinzia: Americana |
| Marco: Masculine plural |
| Cinzia: Americani |
| Marco: Feminine plural |
| Cinzia: Americane |
| Marco: We have four cases, right? |
| Cinzia: Yes. |
| Marco: So it has to match with all the four cases of the normal adjectives. Instead second group, French, masculine singular |
| Cinzia: Francese |
| Marco: Feminine singular. |
| Cinzia: Francese |
| Marco: Masculine plural. |
| Cinzia: Francesi |
| Marco: Feminine plural. |
| Cinzia: Francesi |
| Marco: So it only changes from singular to plural. |
| Cinzia: Yes so in the first category, you have four cases. In the second one, you have two. |
| Marco: You better hope that your nationality is the second category. |
| Cinzia: Oh yes. So for example, how would you say Japanese? |
| Marco: Giapponese |
| Cinzia: And which category is it? |
| Marco: Second category because in the singular form masculine or feminine, it ends in E. |
| Cinzia: Yes, bravo, Marco. How do you say Brazilian? |
| Marco: Brasiliano. In this case, it’s the first category with four different endings. |
| Cinzia: Yes exactly. So to say Maria is Brazilian. |
| Marco: Maria è brasiliana. And what about Luca is Brazilian? |
| Cinzia: Luca è brasiliano. |
| Marco: So it’s changing, and now we are going to take a look at some common nationality adjectives. For the most particular with special rules, please check the PDF. |
| Cinzia: And please remember that we are giving you the masculine. |
| Marco: What about “Australian”? |
| Cinzia: australiano |
| Marco: “Canadian” |
| Cinzia: Canadese |
| Marco: “Chinese” |
| Cinzia: Cinese |
| Marco: “Egyptian” |
| Cinzia: Egiziano |
| Marco: “British” |
| Cinzia: Inglese |
| Marco: “German” |
| Cinzia: Tedesco. Oh wait, wait Marco. British and German change so much. |
| Marco: Inglese is closer to “English person”. |
| Cinzia: Yes but it’s not very similar to British… |
| Marco: At all but German is so different. |
| Cinzia: Yes, tedesco. |
| Marco: Then what about “Indian”? |
| Cinzia: Indiano |
| Marco: "Irish" |
| Cinzia: Irlandese |
| Marco: "Korea" |
| Cinzia: Coreano |
| Marco: "Mexican" |
| Cinzia: Messicano |
| Marco: "Russian" |
| Cinzia: Russo |
| Marco: "Swiss" |
| Cinzia: Svizzero. Instead talking about nouns for nations, they just follow the standard rules, except that their first letter is always capital. |
| Marco: They are after all proper nouns. I mean they are special nouns. |
| Cinzia: Yes of course. So they have to be written with capital letters. |
| Marco: You only have one Spagna one Spain but you have many |
| Cinzia: spagnoli. |
| Marco: Exactly. Spanish people. |
| Cinzia: So why don’t we make a list of some countries? |
| Marco: Okay then. So let’s start with |
| Cinzia: "Belgium" |
| Marco: Belgio |
| Cinzia: "China" |
| Marco: Cina |
| Cinzia: “Greece” |
| Marco: Grecia |
| Cinzia: "Hungary" |
| Marco: Ungheria |
| Cinzia: "Japan" |
| Marco: Giappone |
| Cinzia: "Italy" |
| Marco: Italia |
| Cinzia: "Morocco" |
| Marco: Marocco |
| Cinzia: "Netherlands" |
| Marco: Olanda |
| Cinzia: “USA” |
| Marco: Stati Uniti |
| Cinzia: And "Romania" |
| Marco: Romania |
| Cinzia: "Poland" |
| Marco: Polonia |
| Cinzia: "Vietnam" |
| Marco: Vietnam. Hey, it doesn’t change. |
| Cinzia: No, the first one. |
Outro |
| Marco: Okay. So I think we can end with Vietnam right? |
| Cinzia: Okay, okay. So is that all for today? |
| Marco: Yes that’s all, I think. |
| Cinzia: Thank you very much dear listeners. See you next time. Ciao! |
| Marco: Bye bye! |
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