Learn how to form and use the past progressive tense
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Cinzia: Buongiorno a tutti! |
| Marco: Marco here. Newbie Series, season 1, lesson#48 - You Were Assuming Incorrectly in Italian! Hello, and welcome back to the ItalianPod101.com , the fastest, easiest and most fun way to learn Italian! I'm joined in the studio by… who else but our lovely... |
| Cinzia: Hello everyone. Cinzia here. |
| Marco: In this lesson you will learn how use the passato progressivo. |
| Cinzia: This conversation takes place on the streets of Italy. |
| Marco: The conversation is between Laura and Martina. |
| Cinzia: The speakers are friends, therefore they will be speaking informal Italian. |
| Marco: Attention listeners, comment, |
| Cinzia: comment, |
| Marco: and comment some more! |
| Cinzia: It's easy, |
| Marco: and asking questions really helps improve progress. |
| Marco: Let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Laura: Pronto, Martina! |
| Martina: Ciao Laura! |
| Laura: Steve stava guardando degli anelli con una ragazza! |
| Martina: Davvero! |
| Laura: Sì! La ragazza stava provando le misure! |
| Martina: Aspetta. La ragazza aveva gli occhiali? |
| Laura: Sì, come fai a saperlo? |
| Martina: È la sorella di Steve! |
| Marco: Let’s hear it slowly now. |
| Laura: Pronto, Martina! |
| Martina: Ciao Laura! |
| Laura: Steve stava guardando degli anelli con una ragazza! |
| Martina: Davvero! |
| Laura: Sì! La ragazza stava provando le misure! |
| Martina: Aspetta. La ragazza aveva gli occhiali? |
| Laura: Sì, come fai a saperlo? |
| Martina: È la sorella di Steve! |
| Marco: And now, with the translation. |
| Laura: Pronto, Martina! |
| Marco: Hello, Martina! |
| Martina: Ciao Laura! |
| Marco: Hi, Laura! |
| Laura: Steve stava guardando degli anelli con una ragazza! |
| Marco: Steve was looking at some rings with a girl! |
| Martina: Davvero! |
| Marco: Really! |
| Laura: Sì! La ragazza stava provando le misure! |
| Marco: Yes! The girl was trying the sizes! |
| Martina: Aspetta. La ragazza aveva gli occhiali? |
| Marco: Wait. The girl had glasses? |
| Laura: Sì, come fai a saperlo? |
| Marco: Yes, how did you know? |
| Martina: È la sorella di Steve! |
| Marco: She's Steve's sister! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Marco: Wow, that was a surprise! |
| Cinzia: Yes it was. Mai giudicare qualcuno in fretta. Never rush to judge someone. |
| Marco: Well said Cinzia. It was an interesting story don’t you think? |
| Cinzia: Yes, it was fun! |
| Marco: But there is something even more fun waiting for us. |
| Cinzia: What’s that? |
| Marco: The vocabulary! |
| Cinzia: Oh. Ok. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Marco: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. The first word is |
| Cinzia: guardare [natural native speed] |
| Marco: to look, to watch |
| Cinzia: guardare [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: guardare [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word |
| Cinzia: ragazza [natural native speed] |
| Marco: girl |
| Cinzia: ragazza [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: ragazza [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word |
| Cinzia: provare [natural native speed] |
| Marco: to try, try on, try out |
| Cinzia: provare [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: provare [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word |
| Cinzia: aspettare [natural native speed] |
| Marco: to wait |
| Cinzia: aspettare [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: aspettare [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word |
| Cinzia: occhiali [natural native speed] |
| Marco: glasses |
| Cinzia: occhiali [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: occhiali [natural native speed] |
| Marco: And today’s last word is |
| Cinzia: sorella [natural native speed] |
| Marco: sister |
| Cinzia: sorella [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: sorella [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Marco: Let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Cinzia: The first word we will look at is guardare. |
| Marco: And the sample sentence is? |
| Cinzia: Non guardare! |
| Marco: Don’t look! |
| Cinzia: The next word is ragazza. |
| Marco: And the sample sentence is? |
| Cinzia: Marina è una ragazza carina. |
| Marco: Marina is a cute girl. |
| Cinzia: The next word we will look at is provare. |
| Marco: And the sample sentence is? |
| Cinzia: Proviamo quel nuovo ristorante? |
| Marco: Shall we try the new restaurant? |
| Cinzia: The next word we will look at is aspettare. |
| Marco: And the sample sentence is? |
| Cinzia: Aspetta un attimo! |
| Marco: Wait a moment! |
| Cinzia: Next, occhiali. |
| Marco: And the sample sentence is? |
| Cinzia: I tuoi occhiali sono molto belli. |
| Marco: Your glasses are very nice. |
| Cinzia: And today’s last word is sorella. |
| Marco: So the last sample sentence is? |
| Cinzia: Mia sorella si sposa. |
| Marco: My sister is getting married. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Marco: Similarly to the imperfetto (imperfect), the passato progressivo (past progressive) is used in Italian to express past ongoing actions, stressing their progressive nature over the temporal aspect. For example |
| Cinzia: A. I miei amici stavano giocando a scacchi. |
| Marco: My friends were playing chess. |
| Cinzia: B. I miei amici giocavano a scacchi. |
| Marco: My friends were playing chess. |
| Cinzia: Both sentences A and B express the ongoing nature of a past action. |
| Marco: The passato progressivo never stands alone; it is almost always used in secondary clauses that describe what was occurring when something else happened. |
| Marco: The main clause verb is normally conjugated in passato prossimo or passato remoto tense. For example, |
| Cinzia: Stavo tornando a casa quando ho visto Pino. |
| Marco: I was going back home when I saw Pino. |
| Cinzia: Stavo ascoltando la radio quando appresi la notizia. |
| Marco: I was listening to the radio when I heard the news. |
| Cinzia: The passato progressivo is also employed in the narrative style. |
| Marco: We normally use the imperfetto tense to depict the landscape, and generally speaking, the “frame”, while we should employ the passato progressivo mainly for describing characters’ actions. For example, |
| Cinzia: Era una giornata tranquilla. Il sole splendeva alto nel cielo e gli uccelli cantavano. Stavo camminando sulla sponda del fiume quando vidi Luca avvicinarsi. |
| Marco: It was a quiet day. The sun was shining sky-high and birds were singing. I was walking on the riverside when I saw John coming closer. |
| Cinzia: So in these sentences we have the imperfetto tense "era", "splendeva" and then "cantavano". |
| Marco: While we saw passato progressivo, stavo camminando, and finally the passato remoto "vidi". So the imperfetto tense was used to describe the story’s frame, while the passato progressivo and passato remoto are conveying the character’s actions. |
| Cinzia: The passato progressivo is realized by conjugating the imperfetto form of the auxiliary stare |
| Marco: “to be” |
| Cinzia: according to the subject it refers to, followed by the gerundio presente of the main verb. Marco: Let’s now take a look at the verb... |
| Cinzia: correre |
| Marco: “to run” |
| Cinzia: Io stavo correndo |
| Marco: I was running |
| Cinzia: Tu stavi correndo |
| Marco: You were running |
| Cinzia: Lui/lei stava correndo |
| Marco: He/she/it was running |
| Cinzia: Noi stavamo correndo |
| Marco: We were running |
| Cinzia: Voi stavate correndo |
| Marco: You were running |
| Cinzia: Loro stavano correndo |
| Marco: They were running |
Outro |
| Marco: That just about does it for today. |
| Cinzia: Ready to test what you just learned? |
| Marco: Make this lesson's vocabulary stick by using lesson specific flashcards in the learning center. |
| Cinzia: There is a reason everyone uses flashcards... |
| Marco: They work... |
| Cinzia: They really do help memorization. |
| Marco: You can get the flashcards for this lesson at |
| Cinzia: ItalianPod101.com. |
| Marco: Okay! Arrivederci! |
| Cinzia: Ciao a tutti! |
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