Learn the rules for forming Italian plural nouns as well as how gender and number affects the construction of Italian plural nouns
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Marco: Buon giorno! Mi chiamo Marco. |
| Cinzia: Cinzia here! |
| Marco: Marco here. Newbie series season 1, lesson 6 - How Many Cups of Espresso Have You Had? |
| Cinzia: Buon giorno a tutti! |
| Marco: Hello and welcome to Italianpod101.com. My name is Marco and I am joined here by Cinzia. Come stai Cinzia? |
| Cinzia: Who else would it be Marco? |
| Marco: Anna? No, no just joking, she's just a name we invented, so don't worry |
| Cinzia: You know I'm the only one. |
| Marco: Yes... For now, for now... anyway... Come stai Cinzia? |
| Cinzia: Benissimo, grazie. Today we have the sixth lesson of our Newbie Series. |
| Marco: This series focuses on the essentials of Italian for anyone who wants to start learning. |
| Cinzia: So join us for this lesson of Italianpod101.com. |
| Marco: The focus of this lesson is how to ask the age of other persons, we shall also see the gender, and number of Italian nouns. |
| Cinzia: This conversation takes place at an Italian park. |
| Marco: And it is between Laura Rossi and John Smith. |
| Cinzia: And they will be speaking informal Italian. |
| Marco: So Cinzia we are going to ask the age of other people in this lesson, but we still don’t know your age. |
| Cinzia: Marco, didn’t you read the culture insight in the last lesson? |
| Marco: Why? Did it talk about you age? |
| Cinzia: Che dici Marco! It says it is rude to ask a girl her age. |
| Marco: Yes ,you are right, but I was thinking the people out there were wondering what it was. |
| Cinzia: Well, it’s on the page with our profiles. |
| Marco: Yes, find our profiles in the Meet The Staff page by accessing the About Us link on the home page. |
| Cinzia: Well then let’s get going! |
| Marco: Ok then. |
| Cinzia: Take your studies to the next level by stopping by the Learning Center at Italianpod101.com. |
| Marco: Ok let’s start. I will be the usual John Smith, while Cinzia will be… |
| Cinzia: the usual, Laura Rossi. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Laura: Quanti anni ha Mike? |
| John: Mike ha ventisette anni. |
| Laura: Davvero? |
| Marco: one more time, slowly. |
| Laura: Quanti anni ha Mike? |
| John: Mike ha ventisette anni. |
| Laura: Davvero? |
| Marco: Once again, this time, with the translation. |
| Laura: Quanti anni ha Mike? |
| Marco: How old is Mike? |
| John: Mike ha ventisette anni. |
| Marco: Mike is twenty-seven years old. |
| Laura: Davvero? |
| Marco: Really? |
| Marco: In the bonus track, we have a conversation using third person plural hanno, “they have”. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Cinzia: So Marco, this time I’m gonna ask you, what do you think of this conversation? |
| Marco: Well, it seems simple to me. What do you think? |
| Cinzia: I think it's confusing here, because we don't know if Mike is the person who you're talking to or just another Mike. |
| Marco: I see, I see... So it could be me and you talking about a third person Mike, or you talking to me and I am Mike! |
| Cinzia: Yes, and this one is our case, so quanti anni ha Mike? it means that I am asking you how old is another person. |
| Marco: Got it, got it, perfect explanation Cinzia, thank you. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Marco: Now we’ll take a look at a very short vocabulary list for this lesson. |
| Marco: First |
| Cinzia: davvero [natural native speed] |
| Marco: really |
| Cinzia: davvero [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: davvero [natural native speed] |
| Marco: next word |
| Cinzia: giovane / giovani [natural native speed] |
| Marco: young |
| Cinzia: giovane / giovani [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: giovane / giovani [natural native speed] |
| Marco: So Cinzia, why do we have giovane and giovani? I mean, two words that mean “young”. Cinzia: Yes, actually this gets confusing because we have singular and plural for “young”. |
| Marco: So, giovane and giovani will be found in the bonus track and regarding the two cases, giovane (singular) and giovani (plural), we will see it in the following grammar section. |
| 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 [davvero]. |
| Marco: Cinzia, can you give us an example sentence please? |
| Cinzia: Ho davvero fame. |
| Marco: “I am really hungry.” |
| In this example phrase we use davvero adverb, to modify fame, meaning really hungry. The usage is a little bit different from what we had in the dialog. The dialog’s davvero is the really, is it so meaning |
| Cinzia: In fact when I am surprised by something I say Davvero? Which is really? Is that so? |
| Marco: What about…the difference between maybe davvero? and davvero?, this difference in intonations changes the meaning, doesn't it? |
| Cinzia: Yes, true Marco, because when you say davvero? you are asking in a certain way a confirmation, but in the other case, if you say davvero! it means that you are confirming something. |
| Marco: So davvero? question is it true, really? |
| Cinzia: Or Davvero. yes it is true, I confirm it. |
| Marco: Ok then, this wraps it up for the vocabulary usage. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Marco: We have a very long grammar topic, so let’s jump right into it. |
| Cinzia: You and your grammar, Marco! But yes, we have to see this topic. |
| Marco: Italian nouns have both gender (feminine and masculine) and number (singular and plural). |
| Cinzia: In the dialog we have seen anni, “years”, and its singular form is anno, “year”. |
| Marco: Because its singular form ends in -o, it is a masculine noun. The following is a short explanation delineating the gender of Italian nouns according to their ending vowel. Please pay attention. |
| Cinzia: Delineating? Marco, we’re just gonna read them. |
| Marco: Ok then, let’s start reading. |
| Marco: In their singular form, when Italian nouns end in -o, the majority of the nouns are masculine. For example, masculine: anno “year”, tavolo “table”, libro “book”. |
| Marco: But sometimes, we have a feminine, mano “hand”. But we don’t have so many, let’s say around 90% male? Any way, it’s a language, so it changes in time, never be too strict on numbers. |
| Marco: Then when Italian nouns end in -a, the majority of the nouns are feminine. Let’s see the feminine: sedia “chair”, giacca “jacket”, tazza “cup”. |
| Marco: But sometimes, we have some masculine nouns that end in -a: tema “theme”. |
| Finally, in their singular form, when Italian nouns end in -e, about half are masculine and half are feminine. In the masculine case: pallone “soccer ball”, dente “tooth”, bicchiere “glass”. |
| And in the feminine case: televisione “television”, voce “voice”, patente “license”. |
| Marco: So this is a little bit tricky isn't it? |
| Cinzia: Yes Marco, but we will help our listeners, won't we? |
| Marco: Yes we will, but they have to listen to this carefully, and now we will start with the plural form. |
| Cinzia: Please, pay attention! |
| Marco: Yes, it's Cinzia teacher here, and she gets very angry if you don't. In their plural form Italian nouns change ending in the following manner. If the singular was -o, the plural would be –i for both genders. |
| Masculine case: anni “years”, tavoli “tables”, libri “books” |
| Feminine case: mani “hands” |
| In the case of nouns that end in -a in the singular form, we have feminine plural, -e. |
| For example: sedie “chairs”, giacche “jackets”, tazze “cups” |
| In this case, masculine nouns with their singular form ending in -a, have their masculine plural in -i. For example, temi “themes”. |
| And now, let’s take a look at nouns that end in -e, in the singular form, the end changes to -i for both genders. So it’s very easy, it’s the easiest case. For example, masculine case: palloni “soccer balls”, denti “teeth”, bicchieri “glasses”. And the feminine case: televisioni “televisions”, voci “voices”, patenti “licenses” |
| Marco: So as you might have seen the plural is actually very easy, isn't it Cinzia? |
| Cinzia: Yes Marco, it's true! In fact the majority of the plural words end in -I, pronounced I in Italian. |
| Marco: So only feminine plurals of nouns that end in -A change to -E, pronounced in Italian E. |
| Cinzia: So Marco, how do Italians know the difference between masculine and feminine nouns? |
| Marco: Well certainly using them every day they know them by heart, but also because the Italian articles help them. |
| Cinzia: We shall see the articles in future lessons. |
| Marco: Yes and to recap a very important aspect remember that because Italian nouns have gender and number also adjectives must have them, this is because they follow nouns. |
| Cinzia: In the dialog we have seen quanti anni, where the adjective quanto changes to its masculine plural form to match anno, in its plural form anni. Uff, che fatica! |
| Marco: That was tough! And it really was! |
Outro |
| Cinzia: That just about does it for today's lesson. |
| Marco: Make sure you check out the Grammar Point in this lesson's PDF, which you can pick up at Italianpod101.com. |
| Cinzia: There's a wealth of student resources there, just waiting for you. |
| Marco: So have a nice day! |
| Cinzia: Buona giornata! |
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