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Per i viaggiatore. martedì, il ventiquattro giugno. Prima Lezione.

Italian for travellers. Tuesday, June 24, 2008. First Lesson

-Compiti (homework) is at the bottom of this page.

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-Gli argomenti (the topics):
What we did in class, and more.

-Click here for an audio practice page: "Say and Understand"
 
 -How to introduce yourself:
buon giorno – Good morning.
buona sera – Good evening.
Mi chiamo _______ - my name is _________
come si chiama? – What is your name?
piacere – it’s a pleasure
Di dov’è? – where are you from?
Sono di ________ - I’m from __________
 
 -Saying hello:
Buongiorno – hello, or good morning, or good day
Buona sera – good evening
Ciao! – hello
Come sta? – how are you? (formal)
Come stai? – how are you? (familiar)
Sto bene – I’m well.
Benissimo! – very well!
Molto bene – very well
Così così – OK
Come va? – How is it going?
Va bene – it’s going well. (also means “OK””)
 
signore – sir
signora – madam
signorina – miss
examples:
to a woman: “Buongiorno, signora.”
to a young woman: “Buongiorno signorina.”
to a man: “Buongiorno.”
 
-Other words and phrases:
e Lei? – and you? (formal)
e tu? – and you? (familiar)
anche - also
Anch'io sto bene. – I, too, am well.
 
-Words for asking for information:
Scusi. - Excuse me. (asking for something, to get someone's attention, or if you bump someone)
Capisco. – I understand.
Non capisco. – I don’t understand.
Come si dice “lemonade?” – How do you say “lemonade?”
Parlo un po' d'italiano. - I speak a little Italian.
Ripeta, per favore. - Please repeat that.
.
 
 verbi:
 avere – to have
(click on "play triangle" to listen)
ho,  hai,  ha.  abbiamo, avete, hanno.
 
essere – to be
click to listen>
sono, sei, è.  siamo, siete, sono.
 
 
-numeri:
click to listen>
zero
uno
due
tre
quattro
cinque
sei
sette
otto
nove
dieci
undici
dodici
tredici
quattordici
quindici
sedici
diciassette
diciotto
diciannove
venti
 
How to ask the waiter for something:
Scusi... – excuse me...
Per favore... - Please...
un cappuccino, per favore – a cappuccino, please
grazie – thank you
grazie mille – thanks a lot
prego – you’re welcome  (literally, “I pray.”)

-Subject Pronouns.
io_____I
tu_____you (familiar)
lui_____he
lei_____she
Lei_____you (formal)
_
noi_____we
voi_____you (plural)
loro____they
Loro___you (plural, very formal. This is so formal, we won't be practicing it.)

In Italian sentences, you will rarely use subject pronouns! You will simply use the verb, and its conjugation lets you know who is doing the action:
Abbiamo soldi. - We have money.
Sono contenta. - I am happy.
Siete americani. - You are Americans.

 -Parole da ricordare (words that came up in class):
Basta così! - That's enough.
Va bene? - Okay?
Sì, va bene. - Yes, okay.
In bocca al lupo! - Good luck!
Ho bisogno di....- I need ....
Diamoci del tu. - Let's use informal with each other.
Tutto a posto? – Is everything OK?
Tutto a posto – Everything’s OK
euro - euro (singular, or plural)
Ecco.... – Here is ...   (when pointing out something or someone)
questo - this
questa - this (feminine)
in centro - downtown
Qual è il numero dell'albergo? - What's the number of the hotel?
Qual è l'indirizzo dell'albergo? - What's the address of the hotel?
Non so. _ I don't know
Non lo so - I don't know (it)

 -some ways to say good-bye:
arrivederci – good bye
arrivederLa – good-bye (formal)
buona notte – good night
ci vediamo – we’ll see each other
a presto – see you soon
ciao – good-bye (familiar)
A domani – until tomorrow
 
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-Handouts
Here is a list of the handouts you should have from class. All of these are double-sided. They are numbered here so that you can tell which one I'm talking about in the homework listed below.
1. white: "Alfabeto e suoni" (the alphabet and pronunciation) (2-page handout)
2. ivory: "Numeri da uno a cento" (numbers from one to 100)
3. green: "Buongiorno! (How to ask for something)" (four dialogs on the front, "Vita Italiana" on the back)
4. green: Dialogs 5 through 11.
5. green: Homework exercises 1,2,3,4. And on the back, exercises 1,2,3,4,6 and a map.
6. blue: "More basic expressions (How to ask for something) Scusi..."
7. blue: "Dove..." and, on the back, "Places"

-Compiti (homework):

1.  Avere, essere. Practice and memorize the conjugations of avere (to have) and essere (to be).   Write them over and over, and say them out loud while you're writing them.

2. Avere, essere. click here for a homework exercise. Even if you can't translate all the words in the sentence, you can always just look at the subject pronoun given, and write in the correct conjugation of the verb.

3.  Numeri. Memorize the numbers in Italian, 1 through 20.  Write them out. Say them out loud! Count something out.

4.  Dialoghi. Memorize one (any one) of the dialogs, to act out in class next week. Please e-mail me if you would like a small mp3 file to listen to. Read the back of Handout #4 (green handout) (the dialogs we listened to in class). This has some good information.

5. Scusi, c'è....? Excuse, me, is there...? On Handout #5 (green handout). I want you to do exercises 1, 2, and 4 on the first side (the side without the map).

Part 1 starts: "One, and only one, of the words listed..." Try Part 1. Even though we didn't talk about indefinite articles in class. And we didn't talk about nouns ending in "e". Does everybody have an Italian-English dictionary??? You can find out in a dictionary whether a noun is masculine and takes (un, uno) or feminine and takes (una, un') .

The indefinite article ("a", "an" in English) 

 

Masculine noun

Feminine noun

Before a consonant

un gelato

una pizza

Before a vowel

un albergo

un’amica

Before z,  s + consonant

uno studente

una studentessa

 
masculine nouns usually end in –o  or  -e. un amico, un supermercato, un bicchiere, un caffè...
feminine nouns usually end in –a  or  -e. una pasta, un'aranciata, una guida, un'agenzia, una toilette, una farmacia...

Part 2 starts "Can you reorder these sentences to make a conversation..."

Part 3 we will listen to in class next week, and do together.

also do Part 4. There can be more than one right answer.

6. listen to the words from Blue Handout #6 (More basic expressions) click here to listen to this audio version

7. listen to the words from blue Handout #7 (Dove and places)

click here to listen to this audio version of the "Dove" vocabulary.

Click here to listen to the audio version of the "places" vocabulary.