Learn how to form and use the imperfect tense of the irregular Italian verb that means "to be"
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Cinzia: Buon giorno a tutti! Mi chiamo Cinzia. |
| Marco: Marco here. Newbie Series, season 1, lesson 31 - You Really Missed out on an Italian Adventure! Buon giorno a tutti! I’m Marco, and I’d like to welcome you to the 31st lesson of the Newbie series at ItalianPod101.com. |
| Cinzia: Bentornato! |
| Marco: Welcome back! We’ll be guiding you through basic grammar and vocabulary… |
| Cinzia: And don’t forget that we’re going to discuss different aspects of the language, culture and customs that you’ll find in Italy. |
| Marco: With today’s lesson, we are going to be starting a new cycle on verbs, right? |
| Cinzia: On verbs, what do you mean on verbs? |
| Marco: Well, we are going to be taking a look at the imperfect tense. |
| Cinzia: Oh okay so, how many lessons will we have? |
| Marco: Well, a few, a few. The nice thing about the Imperfetto is that it is not that difficult at all. I mean the conjugation is very easy. |
| Cinzia: Yes it is. |
| Marco: Very few regular verbs but the usage is very important here. |
| Cinzia: You mean the corresponding usage in English? |
| Marco: Yes exactly. |
| Cinzia: So let’s jump right in the dialogue. |
| Marco: Dear listeners, don’t forget to press the center button on your iPod to see the lesson transcript in your display. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Laura: Dov’eri ieri? Ti ho chiamato a casa. |
| John: Ero al mare. |
| Laura: Peccato, avevo due biglietti gratis per il cinema. |
| John: Ah si? Per che film erano? |
| Laura: Erano per il nuovo film di Batman. |
| John: Ahh, mi dispiace. |
| Marco: Let’s hear it slowly now. |
| Laura: Dov’eri ieri? Ti ho chiamato a casa. |
| John: Ero al mare. |
| Laura: Peccato, avevo due biglietti gratis per il cinema. |
| John: Ah si? Per che film erano? |
| Laura: Erano per il nuovo film di Batman. |
| John: Ahh, mi dispiace. |
| Marco: And now, with the translation. |
| Laura: Dov’eri ieri? Ti ho chiamato a casa. |
| Marco: Where were you yesterday? I called you at home. |
| John: Ero al mare. |
| Marco: I was at the beach. |
| Laura: Peccato, avevo due biglietti gratis per il cinema. |
| Marco: Too bad, I had two free tickets for the movies. |
| John: Ah si? Per che film erano? |
| Marco: Really? For what movie were they? |
| Laura: Erano per il nuovo film di Batman. |
| Marco: They were for Batman's new movie. |
| John: Ahh, mi dispiace. |
| Marco: Ahh, I am sorry. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Cinzia: Have you seen new Batman’s movie Marco? |
| Marco: No I haven’t. |
| Cinzia: I have. It’s amazing. |
| Marco: Really? |
| Cinzia: Yes it is. |
| Marco: I saw Christian Bale’s previous Batman but I didn’t like it that much. |
| Cinzia: You didn’t? |
| Marco: No. |
| Cinzia: Why? |
| Marco: Well, I don’t know. Maybe I am just… |
| Cinzia: You know what, the second movie is really special and actually pretty different from the first one because it’s not the usual story of a hero… |
| Marco: Okay. |
| Cinzia: Saving people and falling in love with the girl, but this movie is real. |
| Marco: Really dark, really… |
| Cinzia: Yes. In fact it’s called Dark Knight. |
| Marco: How do we say the Dark Knight in Italian? |
| Cinzia: Il Cavaliere Oscuro. |
| Marco: What a nice name! |
| Cinzia: Yes it’s a very catchy name. |
| Marco: Yes indeed. So would you recommend it? |
| Cinzia: Yes definitely. |
| Marco: How do we say… |
| Cinzia: Andare a vederlo. |
| Marco: Perfect. Go see it. |
| Cinzia: I think we should move on to the vocabulary now. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Marco: Today’s first word is |
| Cinzia: dove [natural native speed] |
| Marco: where |
| Cinzia: dove [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: dove [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word |
| Cinzia: ti [natural native speed] |
| Marco: you |
| Cinzia: ti [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: ti [natural native speed] |
| Marco: And the next word is |
| Cinzia: essere [natural native speed] |
| Marco: to be |
| Cinzia: essere [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: essere [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word |
| Cinzia: peccato [natural native speed] |
| Marco: what a pity |
| Cinzia: peccato [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: peccato [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word |
| Cinzia: gratis [natural native speed] |
| Marco: free |
| Cinzia: gratis [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: gratis [natural native speed] |
| Marco: And next word |
| Cinzia: nuovo [natural native speed] |
| Marco: new |
| Cinzia: nuovo [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: nuovo [natural native speed] |
| Marco: And today’s last word is |
| Cinzia: dispiacersi [natural native speed] |
| Marco: to be sorry |
| Cinzia: dispiacersi [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: dispiacersi [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 dove. |
| Marco: And the first sample sentence is |
| Cinzia: Dove sei stato? |
| Marco: Where have you been? |
| Cinzia: The second word we will look at is ti. |
| Marco: And the sample sentence is |
| Cinzia:Ti ho spedito una lettera. |
| Marco: I sent you a letter. |
| Cinzia: Next word is essere. |
| Marco: And the sample sentence is |
| Cinzia: Era una bella giornata. |
| Marco: It was a beautiful day. |
| Cinzia: Next, we have an adjective gratis. |
| Marco: And the sample sentence is |
| Cinzia: Se compri due birre, la terza è gratis. |
| Marco: If you buy two beers, the third is free. |
| Cinzia: Next word is nuovo |
| Marco: And the sample sentence is, |
| Cinzia: Hai visto la nuova puntata di "Friends"? |
| Marco: Have you watched the new episode of Friends? And today’s last word is |
| Cinzia: dispiacersi |
| Marco: The sample sentence is |
| Cinzia: Mi dispiace. |
| Marco: I am sorry. |
| Cinzia: So this is a reflexive verb, isn’t it? |
| Marco: Yes because dispiacerSI, and then we have conjugated as mi dispiace, “I am sorry”. |
| Cinzia: How do you say, he is sorry? |
| Marco: Gli dispiace. |
| Cinzia: We are sorry. |
| Marco: Ci dispiace. |
| Cinzia: So, ci dispiace, but now we have to take a look at the grammar. |
| Marco: Yes, ci dispiace molto. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Cinzia: So as we said before, in today’s grammar, we are going to analyze the imperfetto tense, which is one of the most frequently used Italian tenses. |
| Marco: Yes and helpfully, there are no significant differences between spoken and written language. We are lucky this time. |
| Cinzia: Yes we are. |
| Marco: And what can it refer to? |
| Cinzia: It can refer to both distant and recent past occurrences. |
| Marco: Simple occurrences? |
| Cinzia: Yes. For example describing characteristics, frequency, or repetition of situations or beings. |
| Marco: Well, as you’ve seen in the past lessons, completed actions are expressed using the passato prossimo or the passato remoto tense that we shall see in the future. |
| Cinzia: Yes. It’s pretty straightforward. Don’t be scared dear listeners. You have just to remember that with passato prossimo, we describe completed actions. |
| Marco: Exactly. |
| Cinzia: Actions that have finished while with the imperfetto, if we are not talking about habits in the past, we are talking about actions that were still occurring. |
| Marco: For example, in today’s lesson, we saw the imperfetto with the value of expressing traits of environment, situations or beings in a narration. In a dialogue we had, in fact, dov’eri ieri? where were you yesterday. |
| Cinzia: And John answers, ero al mare. |
| Marco: Yes. So in this section, we are actually umm… |
| Cinzia: Narrating? |
| Marco: Yes but now let’s take a look at the conjugation. |
| Cinzia: Before that, I just want to say and remind our listeners that the imperfetto tense is realized by dropping the stem for the infinitive and adding the appropriate endings according to the person we wish to use. |
| Marco: But don’t be scared. The imperfetto tense is one of the most stable Italian tenses. This means that many regular verbs, actually the majority, follow the normal inflections. |
| Cinzia: You have just to remember verbs like essere, fare, bere, and dire ,which keep their Latin inflections. |
| Marco: We shall see those in more detail in future lessons. |
| Cinzia: Now let’s see the conjugations. |
| Marco: Today’s first verb is |
| Cinzia: essere |
| Marco: “to be” |
| Io er-o “I was” |
| Tu er-i “You were” |
| Lui/lei er-a “He/she/it was” |
| Noi er-avamo “We were” |
| Voi er-avate “You were” |
| Loro er-ano “They were” |
| Cinzia: And now let’s take a look at the conjugation of the verb avere. |
| Marco: “to have”. |
| Io av-evo “I had” |
| Tu av-evi “You had” |
| Lui/lei av-eva “He/she/it had” |
| Noi av-evamo “We had” |
| Voi av-evate “You had” |
| Loro av-evano “They had” |
| Cinzia: So please note that the verb avere fully agrees to endings of the second conjugation verbs. |
| Marco: Yes. So it’s even easier this time. |
Outro |
| Cinzia: Is that all Marco for today? |
| Marco: Well I think it’s enough for today, isn’t it? |
| Cinzia: Thank you listeners and see you next time. Bye bye! |
| Marco: Ciao! |
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