Learn about pronominal Italian verbs that mean "take" and "employ"
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Consuelo: Ciao a tutti. Buongiorno. |
| Marco: Marco here. Upper intermediate, season 1, Lesson #20. How Long Will It Take You To Learn To Respond in Italian? Hello and welcome to italianpod101.com, the fastest, easiest and most fun way to learn Italian. |
| Consuelo: I am Consuelo and thanks again for being here with us for this upper intermediate, season 1 lesson. |
| Marco: In today’s class, we will focus on pronominal verbs with Ci, volerci and metterci. |
| Consuelo: This conversation takes place at Claudia and Irene’s place |
| Marco: And it’s between Claudia and Irene. |
| Consuelo: They will be speaking informal Italian. |
| Marco: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Irene: Grazie, lavi tu i piatti, che gentile! |
| Claudia: Approfitta di questi miei momenti di gentilezza sorellina. |
| Irene: Bene, allora pulisci anche i fornelli. |
| Claudia: Adesso non esagerare! |
| Irene: Va bene faccio io. Senti, ho deciso di fare una sorpresa a Mirco. |
| Claudia: Cioè? |
| Irene: Oggi vado a vedere la sua partita, ma non gli dico niente. Così sarà una sorpresa, lui sa che non andrei mai a vederlo giocare. |
| Claudia: Ah che bella idea, vengo con te! A che ora comincia la partita? |
| Irene: Fra due ore. |
| Claudia: Ah bene, mi devo preparare. Quanto tempo ci vuole per arrivare al campo da calcio? |
| Irene: Se prendiamo la macchina ci mettiamo venti minuti! |
| Claudia: Bene, abbiamo anche il tempo per un caffè. |
| Marco: Let’s here it slowly now. |
| Irene: Grazie, lavi tu i piatti, che gentile! |
| Claudia: Approfitta di questi miei momenti di gentilezza sorellina. |
| Irene: Bene, allora pulisci anche i fornelli. |
| Claudia: Adesso non esagerare! |
| Irene: Va bene faccio io. Senti, ho deciso di fare una sorpresa a Mirco. |
| Claudia: Cioè? |
| Irene: Oggi vado a vedere la sua partita, ma non gli dico niente. Così sarà una sorpresa, lui sa che non andrei mai a vederlo giocare. |
| Claudia: Ah che bella idea, vengo con te! A che ora comincia la partita? |
| Irene: Fra due ore. |
| Claudia: Ah bene, mi devo preparare. Quanto tempo ci vuole per arrivare al campo da calcio? |
| Irene: Se prendiamo la macchina ci mettiamo venti minuti! |
| Claudia: Bene, abbiamo anche il tempo per un caffè. |
| Marco: And now, with the translation. |
| Irene: Grazie, lavi tu i piatti, che gentile! |
| Irene: Thank you; you're washing dishes, how nice! |
| Claudia: Approfitta di questi miei momenti di gentilezza sorellina. |
| Claudia: Take advantage of these moments of kindness, little sister. |
| Irene: Bene, allora pulisci anche i fornelli. |
| Irene: Well, then clean the stove too. |
| Claudia: Adesso non esagerare! |
| Claudia: Don't exaggerate now! |
| Irene: Va bene faccio io. Senti, ho deciso di fare una sorpresa a Mirco. |
| Irene: Okay, I'll do that. Listen, I've decided to surprise Mirco. |
| Claudia: Cioè? |
| Claudia: And that is? |
| Irene: Oggi vado a vedere la sua partita, ma non gli dico niente. Così sarà una sorpresa, lui sa che non andrei mai a vederlo giocare. |
| Irene: Today I'll go and see his match, but I'm not telling him anything. This way it will be a surprise. He knows that I'd never go to see him play. |
| Claudia: Ah che bella idea, vengo con te! A che ora comincia la partita? |
| Claudia: Oh, what a great idea; I'm coming with you! At what time does the match start? |
| Irene: Fra due ore. |
| Irene: In two hours. |
| Claudia: Ah bene, mi devo preparare. Quanto tempo ci vuole per arrivare al campo da calcio? |
| Claudia: Ah, okay, I have to get ready. How long does it take to get to the soccer field? |
| Irene: Se prendiamo la macchina ci mettiamo venti minuti! |
| Irene: If we take the car, it will take twenty minutes! |
| Claudia: Bene, abbiamo anche il tempo per un caffè. |
| Claudia: Cool, we also have time for a coffee. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Marco: I like surprises. |
| Consuelo: Yes, me too. Mi piacciono le sorprese. |
| Marco: Consuelo, I have a question. I noticed a girl saying lavi tu and si faccio io. Why is the subject positioned after the verb here? |
| Consuelo: Oh, nice catch! This is a very good question. We put the subject after the verb when we want to emphasize who is completing the action. |
| Marco: Ah okay. That’s why sometimes I heard pago io. |
| Consuelo: Yes, I pay. When saying pago io we want to point out that we are inviting someone. |
| Marco: If I am not wrong, we can also use tu after the verb in a question. |
| Consuelo: Yep, like: cucini tu? |
| Marco: Is it you who is cooking? |
| Consuelo: Marco, why don’t we have an Espresso? |
| Marco: Okay why not. |
| Consuelo: Paghi tu? |
| Marco: No. |
| Consuelo: Hahaha. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Marco: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. The first word we should see is. |
| Consuelo: Gentilezza. |
| Marco: Kindness. |
| Consuelo: Gentilezza. Gentilezza |
| Marco: And next we have |
| Consuelo: Fornello. |
| Marco: Stove. |
| Consuelo: Fornello. Fornello |
| Marco: And the next word is |
| Consuelo: Esagerare. |
| Marco: To exaggerate, overdo. |
| Consuelo: Esagerare. Esagerare |
| Marco: And next we have |
| Consuelo: Sorpresa. |
| Marco: Surprise. |
| Consuelo: Sorpresa. Sorpresa. |
| Marco: And next we have |
| Consuelo: Cioè. |
| Marco: That is, namely. |
| Consuelo: Cioè. Cioè. |
| Marco: And next we have |
| Consuelo: Campo da calcio. |
| Marco: Football field. |
| Consuelo: Campo da calcio. Campo da calcio. |
| Marco: And the next word is |
| Consuelo: Prendere. |
| Marco: To take, get. |
| Consuelo: Prendere. Prendere. |
| Marco: And today’s last word is |
| Consuelo: Caffè. |
| Marco: Coffee. |
| Consuelo: Caffè. Caffè. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Marco: So Consuelo, what word are we studying today? |
| Consuelo: Today we are studying the word “cioè”. |
| Marco: Cioè stands for that is or namely. |
| Consuelo: We use this word a lot during conversations in Italian. It is a very frequent expression. |
| Marco: Probably we can see it as a sort of stop phrase or pet phrase. |
| Consuelo: Exactly. We use cioè before starting an explanation. |
| Marco: For example. |
| Consuelo: Mi piace molto cucinare. Cioè, mi piace cucinare per le altre persone, non per me stessa. |
| Marco: Ah you like cooking but for other people and not for yourself. How nice Consuelo! |
| Consuelo: I know, I know. You see, I use cioè when I explain why I like cooking. |
| Marco: But in the dialogue, cioè is used in another way. It is used as a one word question. |
| Consuelo: True. That’s another usage. In this case, it can replace a question like: what are you saying or what do you mean? |
| Marco: For example: |
| Consuelo: If I say: oggi cucino spaghetti alla Consuelo per i miei amici. Today I cook Consuela Spaghetti for my friends. |
| Marco: I can now ask Cioè? since I have no idea what Consuelo Spaghetti is. |
| Consuelo: Spaghetti con panna, funghi, prosciutto, mais e pepe. Spaghetti with cream, mushrooms, ham, corn and pepper. |
| Marco: Umm sounds good. Even if corn in a plate of Spaghetti is not so Italian. |
| Consuelo: That’s so true, but it is my own and now not so secret recipe. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Consuelo: Let’s take a look at today’s grammar point. |
| Marco: In today’s lesson, we will focus on the pronominal verbs with a particle Ci. |
| Consuelo: Such as volerci |
| Marco: To take or to need, |
| Consuelo: And metterci |
| Marco: To take or to employ. |
| Consuelo: There are some verbs in Italian called pronominal verbs. |
| Marco: These are combined with particles Ci, La, Le, Ne, Cela, Cene, Cisi, Sela and Sene. |
| Consuelo: This lesson is about those using the particle Ci. Volerci and metterci are used in Italian to express the amount of time it takes to complete an action. |
| Marco: Let’s start with metterci. |
| Consuelo: The verb metterci changes in the plural to agree with the number of objects or persons that are taking the time and doing the action and not to the amount of time taken. |
| Marco: Metterci can be conjugated in all persons and tenses. |
| Consuelo: Please remember that in compound tenses, it takes avere, meaning to have. |
| Marco: Consuelo, can we hear some examples? |
| Consuelo: Sure. Ci metto 20 minuti per pranzare. |
| Marco: It takes me 20 minutes to have lunch. |
| Consuelo: Quanto ci metti per andare a scuola? |
| Marco: How long does it take you to go to school? |
| Consuelo: Il treno per Roma ci mette un’ora e mezza. |
| Marco: The train for Rome takes one-hour and a half. |
| Consuelo: At the past tense: ci abbiamo messo 3 mesi per finire questo progetto. |
| Marco: It took us 3 months to finish this project. |
| Consuelo: Future tense: ci metterete un mese a traslocare. |
| Marco: It will take you a month to move. |
| Consuelo: Ci hanno messo due giorni per preparare la festa. |
| Marco: It took them two days to prepare the party. |
| Consuelo: On the other hand, the subject of volerci is the amount of time in question. |
| Marco: This verb can be conjugated only in third person forms but in all tenses. |
| Consuelo: In this case, the auxiliary verb is essere, meaning to be. |
| Marco: Let’s listen to some examples. |
| Consuelo: Ci vuole un’ora di macchina per arrivare a Siena. |
| Marco: It takes an hour by car to go to Siena. |
| Consuelo: C’è voluto un anno per imparare lo spagnolo. |
| Marco: It took a year to learn Spanish. |
| Consuelo: Ci vorranno 3 settimane per guarire. |
| Marco: It will take 3 weeks to recover. |
| Consuelo: Furthermore, the verb volerci can also be employed in another way. |
| Marco: Yes. Volerci can also agree with the object or the person that is needed in terms of number, that is singular or plural. |
| Consuelo: For example: ci vuole l’aereo per andare in Australia. |
| Marco: You need an airplane to go to Australia. |
| Consuelo: Ci vogliono quattro bambini per giocare a questo gioco. |
| Marco: Four kids are needed to play this game. |
| Consuelo: Ci vorranno tre persone per spostare la macchina. |
| Marco: Three people will be needed to move the car. |
| Consuelo: Ci sono volute due arance per fare questa aranciata. |
| Marco: Two oranges were needed to make the orange juice. |
| Consuelo: It’s easy! Che ci vuole? |
Outro |
| Marco: That just about does it for today. |
| Consuelo: Listeners! Looking for a cheat sheet to memorizing Italian vocabulary? Have you checked out our video vocab series? |
| Marco: These keen video lessons combine visual cues with the voices of native speakers. |
| Consuelo: Just another effective method of learning and retaining thousands of vocabulary words. |
| Marco: Go to italianpod101.com |
| Consuelo: Click on the video lesson tab |
| Marco: And hit play. |
| Consuelo: It’s that easy. |
| Marco: But don’t take our word for it. |
| Consuelo: Try it yourself at italianpod101.com |
| Marco: Arrivederci. |
| Consuelo: Ciao. |
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