Learn how to ask how old someone is in Italian using the conjugation of the Italian verb avere
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Cinzia: Buon giorno! Mi chiamo Cinzia. |
| Marco: Marco here. Newbie Series, season 1, lesson 5, Age Restrictions Do Apply! |
| Marco: Buon giorno a tutti! I’m Marco and we’d like to welcome you to the fifth lesson of the Newbie Series in ItalianPod101.com. |
| Cinzia: Benvenuti! Welcome! |
| Marco: Well, it’s already the fifth lesson. |
| Cinzia: Yes time really does fly, it will be spring soon. |
| Marco: Ahh spring! Going jogging while listening to ItalianPod101.com. |
| Cinzia: Why don’t you go jogging in winter? |
| Marco: No, too cold, brrrr! |
| Cinzia: You! A grown man, afraid of the cold? |
| Marco: Well, having been born in Kenya I actually prefer a warmer climate. |
| Cinzia: I agree, Napoli has a rather warm climate too. |
| Marco: Really? For example how many degrees can it be during winter, the lowest it can be? 10? Less? |
| Cinzia: Uhm... |
| Marco: Ok then, the focus of this lesson is learning how to ask the age of a person using the verb avere. |
| Cinzia: These conversations takes place in the street of Italy. |
| Marco: And they are between Laura Rossi and John Smith. |
| Cinzia: The speakers will be speaking both formal and informal Italian. Don’t forget to press the center button on your ipod to see the lesson transcript in your display. |
| Marco: Ok let’s start. I'll be John Smith, while Cinzia will be... |
| Cinzia: Laura Rossi. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Laura: Quanti anni hai? |
| John: Ho venticinque anni. E tu? |
| Laura: Ho ventiquattro anni. |
| Marco: one more time, slowly. |
| Laura: Quanti anni hai? |
| John: Ho venticinque anni. E tu? |
| Laura: Ho ventiquattro anni. |
| Marco: Once again, this time, with the translation. |
| Laura: Quanti anni hai? |
| Laura: How old are you? |
| John: Ho venticinque anni. E tu? |
| John: I am twenty-five years old; and you? |
| Laura: Ho ventiquattro anni. |
| Laura: I am twenty-four years old. |
| Cinzia: See the formal conversation in the bonus track. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Cinzia: So Marco, quanti anni hai? |
| Marco: Years... Well. |
| Cinzia: Tell me the truth. |
| Marco: Well, time is very subjective, so I think I could actually be eighteen. Yes, I could be eighteen. |
| Cinzia: What? |
| Marco: I could! It doesn't mean I am, I just could. |
| Cinzia: Marco, maybe I don't believe you. |
| Marco: Well I'm not eighteen anyway, a little older. |
| Cinzia: Ahaha! |
| Marco: Not too much though. |
| Cinzia: So... quanti anni hai Marco? |
| Marco: Do I have to answer that? |
| Cinzia: Ok, maybe I can guess... |
| Marco: Sure, go ahead. |
| Cinzia: Trentaquattro? Thirty-four? |
| Marco: Nope, not yet, not yet by a long shot. No way. |
| Cinzia: Ahaha! Thirty-eight? |
| Marco: No way. I'd cut that in a half and maybe we're there! |
| Cinzia: Ok. |
| Marco: Listen, if somebody wants to know my age he can check my profile, actually they can check also your profile for your age! |
| Cinzia: Ah well, in that case, maybe I think they will find some lies. |
| Marco: Will they? well they have to check it out first anyway. So you can find our profiles in the Meet The Staff page, by accessing the About Us link on the home page. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Marco: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| Marco: first word |
| Cinzia: quanto [natural native speed] |
| Marco: how much |
| Cinzia: quanto [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: quanto [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word |
| Cinzia: quanti [natural native speed] |
| Marco: how many |
| Cinzia: quanti [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: quanti [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word |
| Cinzia: anno [natural native speed] |
| Marco: year |
| Cinzia: anno [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: anno [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word |
| Cinzia: anni [natural native speed] |
| Marco: years |
| Cinzia: anni [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: anni [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Last verb |
| Cinzia: avere [natural native speed] |
| Marco: to have |
| Cinzia: avere [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: avere [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Today we had a very short vocab list, because we’re going to focus on a bit more on grammar. |
| Cinzia: Oh! Marco. Alway grammar, grammar, grammar. |
| Marco: It’s very short, so we’ll make it painless. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Cinzia: Let’s have a look at the usage for some of the words. The first word we will look at is [quanto]. |
| Marco: [Cinzia], can you give us an example sentence please? |
| Cinzia: [Quanto costa?] |
| Marco: [How much does it cost?] |
| Cinzia: Please be careful because [quanto] masculine singular can have other forms. |
| Marco: Yes, let us show them all |
| Cinzia: Quanto |
| Marco: masculine singular |
| Cinzia: Quanti |
| Marco: masculine plural |
| Cinzia: Quanta |
| Marco: feminine singular |
| Cinzia: Quante |
| Marco: feminine plural |
| Cinzia: They all mean [how much, how many], but change to match the gender and number of the noun they refer to. |
| Marco: We shall see in more detail nouns, gender and number in the next newbie lesson. On with the next word |
| Cinzia: [anno, anni] |
| Marco: [Quanti anni hai?] |
| Cinzia: Hey Marco, what's that? Why are you taking my lines? |
| Marco: Oh! I just got crooked eyed, so I couldn't see where the line was ending. Sorry! |
| Cinzia: Please be careful, and pay attention. |
| Marco: I will, I will. |
| Cinzia: Ok, thank you. |
| Marco: Come on come on, on with the show! |
| Cinzia: So... Quanti anni hai? |
| Marco: [How old are you?] |
| Cinzia: Anno is year. |
| Marco: While anni is years |
| Cinzia: OK. The next vocabulary word is [avere]. |
| Marco: [Cinzia], would you give us an example with "avere", please? |
| Cinzia: [Ho fame] |
| Marco: [I am hungry]. And I guess you are... |
| Cinzia: As always Marco. |
| Marco: It's lunch time, isn't it? |
| Cinzia: Yes, almost. |
| Marco: Come on come on, let's finish quickly you can go and eat pasta. |
| Cinzia: Ok. |
| Marco: The interesting thing about this phrase, that is Ho fame, is that it actually means |
| Cinzia: I have hunger. |
| Marco: Exactly, it is interesting because in English we would have I am hungry the verb to be, while in Italian we have the verb to have, we are actually maybe keeping hunger in ourselves |
| Cinzia: That is an interesting way to think about it |
| Marco: Well it came to mind because if I am not mistaken in some regions some people say tengo fame. |
| Cinzia: Which means? |
| Marco: I keep hunger, tengo is the verb tenere. |
| Cinzia: Tengo is something really close to possess. |
| Marco: Exactly, it is actually grammatically wrong to use tengo fame, but maybe this can help you understand why in Italian we use “to have hunger” and also “to keep hunger”, while in English we have “to be hungry”. |
| Cinzia: So we will have ho fame. |
| Marco: That means... |
| Cinzia: I am hungry. |
| Marco: Ok then, this wraps it up for the vocabulary usage. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Marco: If we break down quanti anni hai? we obtain “how many years do you have?”. |
| Cinzia: While in English the verb to be is used when indicating age, in Italian “to have”, avere, is used. |
| Marco: Let us see its conjugation and please pay attention as for it has many irregularities. |
| Take it from here, Cinzia. |
| 1st person singular - Io ho “I have” |
| 2nd person singular - Tu hai “You have” |
| 3rd person singular - Lui/lei ha “He/she has” |
| 1st person plural - Noi abbiamo “We have” |
| 2nd person plural - Voi avete “You have” |
| 3rd person plural - Loro hanno “They have” |
| Marco: Talking about nice nice grammar, what we can see here, and especially people who downloaded the pdf can see better, is that ho hai ha and hanno last person plural, that is third person plural, start with an H, but it's a silent H, it doesn't have any sound, it is just to diversify it from other words that sounds like HO HAI HA and HANNO that we find in the Italian language. For example, today we found anno/anni that would be just the same of the verb... |
| Cinzia: Hanno, and in fact you will never hear Io HO... but always Io ho... |
| Marco: Not even in Florence? |
| Cinzia: I don't think so Marco! |
| Marco: Yeah, anyway we will have a lesson on Florence and Florence's way of speaking, it's very very funny. |
| Cinzia: Ahah! So we will have a look at it next time. |
| Marco: Perfect, perfect. Let's take another look at the dialog. This time let's take a look at the literal translation. |
| Laura: Quanti anni hai? |
| John: Ho venticinque anni. E tu? |
| Laura: Ho ventiquattro anni. |
| Laura: How many years do you have? |
| John: I have twenty-five years. And you? |
| Laura: I have twenty-four years. |
| Marco: Please remember this when using age. We use the verb “to have”. |
Outro |
| Cinzia: That's it for today's lesson. |
| Marco: Don't forget to check out the lesson transcripts in the PDF at ItalianPod101.com. |
| Cinzia: Also, feel free to use our forum for your questions. |
| Marco: and if you'd like to leave a comment, we'll be happy to respond. |
| Cinzia: And drop by! Vieni a trovarci!. |
| Marco: Come visit! Ciao! |
| Cinzia: Ciao! |
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