Learn how to form the passato remoto ("preterit") tense for first conjugation Italian verbs
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Consuelo: Ciao a tutti. Sono Consuelo. |
| Marco: Marco here. Upper intermediate, season 1, Lesson #1. How Can I Get Over My Fear of Flying in Italy? |
| Consuelo: Hello everyone. I am Consuelo and welcome to italianpod101.com. |
| Marco: With us, you learn to speak Italian with fun and effective lessons. |
| Consuelo: We also provide you with cultural insights |
| Marco: And tips you won’t find in a textbook. In today’s class, we will focus on the passato remoto tense of first conjugation regular verbs. |
| Consuelo: This conversation takes place on a plane. |
| Marco: And it’s between Claudia and a passenger. Flight attendant Claudia is talking to a passenger who apparently is afraid of flying. |
| Consuelo: In this conversation, they will be speaking formal Italian. |
| Marco: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Altoparlanti: Si prega di allacciare le cinture di sicurezza... |
| Passeggero: Signorina! Scusi, signorina! |
| Claudia: Sì, mi dica! |
| Passeggero: Parli un attimo con me per favore. Durante il decollo sono sempre molto nervoso. |
| Claudia: Sì, certo. Allora, prima volta in Africa? |
| Passeggero: Veramente no, nel '63 andai in Kenya a trovare mio fratello che faceva lì il volontario. Mi piace proprio l'Africa! Sa, mi ricordo quella volta quando... |
| (in dissolvenza) |
| -Dopo venti minuti- |
| Passeggero: Poi ho conosciuto quella donna bellissima con quel nome strano... |
| Claudia: Ehm, ehm, mi scusi adesso l'aereo si è stabilizzato, dovrei andare dagli altri passeggeri adesso... |
| Passeggero: Ah, veramente!? Grazie, mi ha aiutato molto. |
| Claudia: Si figuri! |
| Marco: Let’s here it slowly now. |
| Altoparlanti: Si prega di allacciare le cinture di sicurezza... |
| Passeggero: Signorina! Scusi, signorina! |
| Claudia: Sì, mi dica! |
| Passeggero: Parli un attimo con me per favore. Durante il decollo sono sempre molto nervoso. |
| Claudia: Sì, certo. Allora, prima volta in Africa? |
| Passeggero: Veramente no, nel '63 andai in Kenya a trovare mio fratello che faceva lì il volontario. Mi piace proprio l'Africa! Sa, mi ricordo quella volta quando... |
| (in dissolvenza) |
| -Dopo venti minuti- |
| Passeggero: Poi ho conosciuto quella donna bellissima con quel nome strano... |
| Claudia: Ehm, ehm, mi scusi adesso l'aereo si è stabilizzato, dovrei andare dagli altri passeggeri adesso... |
| Passeggero: Ah, veramente!? Grazie, mi ha aiutato molto. |
| Claudia: Si figuri! |
| Marco: And now, with the translation. |
| Altoparlanti: Si prega di allacciare le cinture di sicurezza… |
| Speakers: Please fasten your seat belts... |
| Passeggero: Signorina! Scusi, signorina! |
| Passenger: Miss! Excuse me, Miss! |
| Claudia: Sì, mi dica! |
| Claudia: Yes, may I help you? |
| Passeggero: Parli un attimo con me per favore. Durante il decollo sono sempre molto nervoso. |
| Passenger: Talk with me for a moment, please. During takeoffs I'm always so nervous. |
| Claudia: Sì, certo. Allora, prima volta in Africa? |
| Claudia: Yes, certainly. So, first time in Africa? |
| Passeggero: Veramente no, nel '63 andai in Kenya a trovare mio fratello che faceva lì il volontario. Mi piace proprio l'Africa! Sa, mi ricordo quella volta quando... |
| Passenger: Honestly, no, in '63 I went to Kenya to visit my brother who was a volunteer there. I really like Africa! You know, I remember that time when... |
| (in dissolvenza) |
| (fade-out) |
| -Dopo venti minuti- |
| After twenty minutes... |
| Passeggero: Poi ho conosciuto quella donna bellissima con quel nome strano... |
| Passenger: ...Then I met that woman with that very strange name... |
| Claudia: Ehm, ehm, mi scusi adesso l'aereo si è stabilizzato, dovrei andare dagli altri passeggeri adesso... |
| Claudia: Ahem, ahem. Excuse me, but now the plane has leveled off. I should to go to the other passengers now... |
| Passeggero: Ah, veramente!? Grazie, mi ha aiutato molto. |
| Passenger: Oh, really? Thank you. You helped me a lot... |
| Claudia: Si figuri! |
| Claudia: Don't mention it! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Marco: Hey Consuelo, we started this new series by flying. |
| Consuelo: Right. |
| Marco: Claudia is a flight attendant. How do we say that in Italian? |
| Consuelo: We can simply say hostess, or a longer way is assistente di volo. |
| Marco: Oh I see. And the national airline is? |
| Consuelo: Alitalia, the wings of Italy. |
| Marco: Wings? |
| Consuelo: Yes. Ali means wings. |
| Marco: That’s interesting. So Claudia works for Alitalia. |
| Consuelo: I guess so. We will see her again while she is working on other flights. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Marco: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. The first word we shall see is |
| Consuelo: Cintura. |
| Marco: Belt. |
| Consuelo: Cintura. Cintura. |
| Marco: Next we have |
| Consuelo: Durante. |
| Marco: During, while. |
| Consuelo: Durante. Durante. |
| Marco: And next we have |
| Consuelo: Decollo. |
| Marco: Takeoff |
| Consuelo: Decollo. Decollo. |
| Marco: And the next word is |
| Consuelo: Nervoso. |
| Marco: Nervous, edgy, bad tempered. |
| Consuelo: Nervoso. Nervoso. |
| Marco: And next we have |
| Consuelo: Africa. |
| Marco: Africa. |
| Consuelo: Africa. Africa. |
| Marco: And next we have |
| Consuelo: Volontario. |
| Marco: Volunteer. |
| Consuelo: Volontario. Volontario. |
| Marco: The next word is |
| Consuelo: Stabilizzarsi. |
| Marco: To level off, to stabilize. |
| Consuelo: Stabilizzarsi. Stabilizzarsi. |
| Marco: And today’s last word is |
| Consuelo: Passeggero. |
| Marco: Passenger. |
| Consuelo: Passeggero. Passeggero. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Marco: Consuelo, what expression are we studying today? |
| Consuelo: The Italian expression “Mi dica”. |
| Marco: You can be told mi dica in many places in Italy such as at a restaurant. |
| Consuelo: In a shop. |
| Marco: In an office. |
| Consuelo: In a bank and so on because it is the expression Italians use for saying, May I help you. |
| Marco: But literally dica is the verb dire meaning to say or to tell. Am I right? |
| Consuelo: You are right. Mi dica literally means please tell me. It is conjugated at the imperative tense for the courtesy form Lei. |
| Marco: I see. So we can hear mi dica or simply dica right? |
| Consuelo: Exactly. Let’s take a look at today’s grammar point. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Marco: In today’s lesson, we focus on the passato remoto tense. |
| Consuelo: The passato remoto is equivalent to the English preterit and it is a past tense used to report actions completed in the distant past. |
| Marco: As we mentioned in previous lessons, in Northern Italy, the passato remoto is mostly limited to literature while in Southern Italy, it is more widely used in speech than the passato prossimo. |
| Consuelo: That’s true. In the region where I live for example, in Toscana, we use it a lot but I think Neapolitans and Sicilian people use it too much. |
| Marco: All around Italy, passato remoto is known as the historical or narrator’s past tense and it is frequently used also in TV news and newspapers. |
| Consuelo: It’s the one you read in history textbooks. |
| Marco: However a few verbs in the passato remoto such as dissi |
| Consuelo: From dire, meaning to say, |
| Marco: Or andai |
| Consuelo: From andare, meaning to go, |
| Marco: Are frequently used in spoken standard Italian. |
| Consuelo: You probably can hear them all around Italy. |
| Marco: Let’s now take a look at how to form the passato remoto. |
| Consuelo: The passato remoto of first conjugation regular verbs ending in -are is formed by dropping the infinitive suffix and adding the appropriate endings. |
| Marco: What endings? |
| Consuelo: For io: -ai, tu: -asti, lui/lei: -ò, noi: -ammo, voi: - aste, loro: -arono. |
| Marco: And now let’s conjugate the verb for our listeners. Let’s use the verb we listened to in a dialogue. |
| Consuelo: That is the regular verb andare, meaning to go. Try to repeat with us. |
| Marco: Go ahead. |
| Consuelo: Io andai. |
| Marco: I went. |
| Consuelo: Tu andasti. |
| Marco: You went. |
| Consuelo: Lui/lei andò. |
| Marco: He/she/it went. |
| Consuelo: Noi andammo. |
| Marco: We went. |
| Consuelo: Voi andaste. |
| Marco: You went. |
| Consuelo: Loro andarono. |
| Marco: They went. |
Outro |
| Consuelo: Okay this does it for today. For more information, please take a look at our PDF lesson notes. |
| Marco: That just about does it for today. Before we go, we want to tell you about a way to improve your pronunciation drastically. |
| Consuelo: The voice recording tool. |
| Marco: Yes the voice recording tool. |
| Consuelo: Record your voice with a click of a button. |
| Marco: And then play it back just as easily. |
| Consuelo: Record and listen. Then… |
| Marco: Compare it to the native speakers |
| Consuelo: And adjust your pronunciation. |
| Marco: This will help you improve your pronunciation fast. |
| Consuelo: Ciao a tutti, buona serata. |
| Marco: Ciao. |
Comments
HideWelcome to this new series.
Ciao Sergio Garcia,
Se sei un socio Premium, dovresti riuscire a vedere il pulsante di registrazione (un icona a forma di microfono) nella sezione "Dialogue" e "Vocabulary".
If you are a Premium member, you should be able to see the recording button (a microphone icon) in the "Dialogue" and in the "Vocabulary" section.
Please let us know, if you have more questions,
Ofelia
Team ItalianPod101.com
Non posso trovare il pulsante di registrazione. Dov’è?
Ciao Sergio Garcia,
Benvenuto su ItalianPod101.com!
Le tua frase è perfetta ?
Puoi praticare la pronunncia con il "Voice Recorder" o predere in considerazione MyTeacher.
You can practice speaking and pronunciation with the Voice Recorder tool or consider to use MyTeahcer, a guided learning system.
A presto!
Se hai domande, lascia un commento.
Ofelia
Team ItalianPod101.com
Mi dispiace ho fatto un errore con la parola studente.
Io sono un nuovo studiate e mi piace molto italianpod. Mi piacerebbe trovare qualcuno che può parlare italiano. Ho bisogno di praticare.
Hello chuck,
thank you for your comment! Stay tuned as we post new lessons every week!
Hi Ed,
these are sample clips handled by our audio editing team, so I am not very sure what the song is, however by the lyrics "o figli miei" and later "col tuo perdono", it could be Verdi's "Ah, la paterna mano" from Mackbeth :wink:
Cheers,
Stefania/ItalianPod101.com
Does anyone know the song that is played at the beginning of the recording?
Qualcuno sa il nome della canzone suonata all'inizio delle lezioni?
Mille grazie per le nouve lezioni!