Italian All-in-One For Dummies (24 page)

Marinella:
Ciao, Teresa, come stai?

chou, teh-
reh
-zah,
koh
-meh stahy?

Hello, Teresa. How are you?

Teresa:
Bene, grazie.

beh
-neh,
grah
-tsyeh.

Well, thank you.

Sono contenta di vederti!

soh
-noh con-
tehn
-tah dee veh-
dehr
-tee!

I'm happy to see you!

Marinella, ti presento mio marito, Giancarlo.

mah-ree-
nehl
-lah, tee preh-
zehn
-toh
mee
-oh mah-
ree
-toh, jahn-
kahr
-loh.

Marinella, I'd like to introduce you to my husband, Giancarlo.

Marinella:
Ciao, Giancarlo.

chou, jahn-
kahr
-loh.

Hello, Giancarlo.

Giancarlo:
Piacere.

pyah-
cheh
-reh.

Nice to meet you.

Marinella:
E questo è Gianni.

eh
kwehs
-toh eh
jahn
-nee.

And this is Gianni.

Gianni:
Piacere.

pyah-
cheh
-reh.

Nice to meet you.

 

Talking about Language, Countries, and Nationalities

Introducing yourself is the first step in getting to know someone. If you get a good feeling about the person and want to speak more, a conversation usually follows the introduction. This section tells you about the different topics you may talk about to get to know each other, including the language you speak and your nationality.

Finding out whether someone speaks Italian

Of course you'll want to practice your Italian anytime you speak with someone whose native language is Italian. You have an opportunity to try out your newly acquired smattering of Italian.

Parla/Parli italiano?
(
pahr
-lah/
pahr
-lee ee-tahl-ee-
ah
-noh?) (
Do you speak Italian?
[formal/informal])

Parla/Parli inglese?
(
pahr
-lah/
pahr
-lee een-
gleh
-seh?) (
Do you speak English?
[formal/informal])

A possible response to these questions is:

Lo parlo un po'.
(loh
pahr
-loh oohn poh.) (
I speak a little bit.
)

Talkin' the Talk

Ilaria and Carmen have recently gotten to know each other. Because Carmen isn't Italian, although she lives in Italy, Ilaria is curious to know how many languages she speaks.

Ilaria:
Quante lingue parli?

kwahn
-teh
leen
-gweh
pahr
-lee?

How many languages do you speak?

Carmen:
Tre: italiano, spagnolo e tedesco.

treh: ee-tah-lee-
ah
-noh, spah-
nyoh
-loh eh teh-
dehs
-koh.

Three: Italian, Spanish, and German.

Ilaria:
E qual è la tua lingua madre?

eh
kwah
-leh lah
tooh
-ah
leen
-gwah
mah
-dreh?

And which is your mother tongue?

Carmen:
Lo spagnolo.

loh spah-
nyoh
-loh.

Spanish.

Ilaria:
Tua madre è spagnola?

tooh
-ah
mah
-dreh eh spah-
nyoh
-lah?

Is your mother Spanish?

Carmen:
Sì. E mio padre è austriaco.

see. eh
mee
-oh
pah
-dreh eh ous-
tree
-ah-koh.

Yes. And my father is Austrian.

 

Talking about where you come from

You know how interesting it can be to meet people from other countries and of different nationalities. When you do, you may be asked where you're from in the following ways:

Da dove vieni?
(dah
doh
-veh
vyeh
-nee?) (
Where are you from?
[informal])

Di dove sei?
(dee
doh
-veh sey?) (
Where are you from?
[informal])

Da dove viene?
(dah
doh
-veh
vyeh
-neh?) (
Where are you from?
) (
Where do you come from?
)
(
Where are you coming from?
) (formal)

Di dov'è?
(dee
doh
-veh?) (
Where are you from?
[formal])

This question can be used to inquire about either your place of birth or your residence. The context will help you decide which information to supply.

If you want to clearly state your residence, you can answer

Vengo da . . .
(
vehn
-goh dah) (
I come from/I'm from . . .
)

If you want to clearly state your place of birth and/or your nationality, you can answer

Sono di . . .
(
soh
-noh dee) (
I'm from . . .
)

So, for example, if George was born in New York but is living in Bruxelles, he'd reply with an answer like this:

Sono di New York e vengo da Bruxelles. Sono arrivato una settimana fa!
(
soh
-noh dee New York eh
vehn
-goh dah Bruxelles.
soh
-noh ahr-ree-
vah
-toh
ooh
-nah seht-tee-
mah
-nah fah!) (
I am from New York and come from Bruxelles. I arrived a week ago!
)

Now you can play with these phrases. You can insert the names of continents, countries, cities, or places.

If you want to talk about provenance, the adjectives denoting nationalities come in handy. As you say in English, “Are you American?” you say the same in Italian:

È americano/a?
(eh ah-meh-ree-
kah
-noh/nah?) (
Are you American?
[masculine/feminine, formal])

Sei americano/a?
(sey ah-meh-ree-
kah
-noh/nah?) (
Are you American?
[masculine/feminine, informal])

In English, you must put the pronoun (
I, you, he, she, we,
and so on) in front of the verb. You may notice that this is not the case in Italian. Because the verb form is different for each pronoun, you can easily leave out the pronoun — you understand who is meant from the verb ending and from the context. You use the pronoun only when the subject isn't clear enough or when you want to emphasize a fact, as in this example:

Loro sono americani, ma io sono italiano.
(
loh
-roh
soh
-noh ah-meh-ree-
kah
-nee, mah
ee
-oh
soh
-noh ee-tahl-
yah
-noh.) (
They are Americans, but I am Italian.
)

Use adjectives ending in
-o
(singular) and
-i
(plural) to refer to males, and adjectives ending in
-a
(singular) and
-e
(plural) to refer to females. Adjectives that end in
-e
in the singular and adjectives that end in
-i
in the plural refer to both males and females.

Some adjectives indicating nationality end with
-e
: This form is both feminine and masculine.
Table 3-1
gives some examples.

Table 3-1 Some Nationalities and Countries